Stranger Danger

Part 10

It was 4:30 when Tyler decided he had had enough and needed to go see Cassidy as he was now positive that she was avoiding him. He felt the need to put the past behind them since they both needed each other in that moment. He was sitting on one of the living room couches, watching the Beiler family play charades and laughing along with them, while thinking of an excuse to go upstairs. "Um," he finally said, getting up. "I think I'm gonna go take a shower."

Glinda's head snapped up. "Oh? Now?"

"Yeah. I have a little headache and I think maybe a shower will help."

The whole family looked at each other. Glinda spoke. "Uh, sure. Go ahead."

Tyler ignored their weirdness and quickly headed upstairs, where he slowly made his way to Cassidy's room. Once he was a few feet away, a voice startled him by saying, "Everything okay?"

Tyler spun around to find Aaron staring at him. "Um, yeah." He scratched his head. "Just gonna take a shower."

Aaron nodded. "Okay. Well, if you need an aspirin or something, come see my mom and she'll give you some."

"Okay." Both teens stood facing each other awkwardly. Tyler broke the weirdness. "Well, thanks." He turned and headed to his room. Once he closed the door behind him, he thought of a plan. He headed to the bathroom and turned on the shower, then waited a little while before slowly opening the bedroom door and stepping out into the lit hallway.

Right away, he jumped back as a figure emerged from a room. Aaron. "Oh. You're not in the shower yet?"

"Uh, no," Tyler answered awkwardly. "I think I'll, uh, I'll have that aspirin."

Aaron nodded. "Cool. Why don't you take your shower and I'll come back up with some in ten minutes."

Tyler nodded as well. "Uh, sure."

"Great."

"Thanks." Tyler slowly retreated back in his room. He sat on the bed and blankly stared into space, feeling confused. The Beiler family was acting very strange. How come Aaron kept unexpectedly popping up out of nowhere? It was like he was secretly spying on Tyler. But why? So Tyler wouldn't go into Cassidy's room? What were they keeping from him? What were they trying to hide? *

That night, after everybody went to bed, Tyler stayed up. He knew he was risking a chance of getting caught if he snuck out of his room to go see Cassidy. But what could anyone say? He was just a concerned friend trying to check on somebody he cared about. Well, somewhat. He decided to wait a couple of hours before being sure he could put his plan into action. The tough part was that he had no way of telling the time. But he knew he had to try his best to improvise. *

Cassidy winced. "Ugh," she moaned. She opened her eyes and squinted as bright light filled her vision. She took a minute to focus before finally finding herself staring at a wooden ceiling with a light bulb that had a little string hanging from it. She vaguely remembered pulling on the string to open the light. Despite feeling pain in her back, she began to shift position but paused. What was all that clacking noise that came with her movement? She blinked up at the wooden ceiling, only now realizing how low it was. Reaching up, the tip of her middle finger grazed it. She felt herself panicking. Where was she?

She bolted up in a sitting position, causing more stress to her back. The top of her head was throbbing and her eyes bulged as she looked around, memories from what had happened starting to piece together in her mind. She was surrounded by and sitting on top of bones. Human bones. She began to hyperventilate. "Oh my God," she whispered. "Oh my God." She closed her eyes. Breathe. Breathe. She reopened her eyes and managed to keep her composure as she slowly began to move some bones out of her way, putting up with the clacking noise, until she was able to make a clearing and see the floor.