fic - out of my hands
Yay! I'm so glad some of you are enjoying this! It really is a crack!fic, but I hope that you guys will continue to enjoy!
Chapter One is Here.
The master bedroom was directly across from Ryan’s room, across the round space where the stairs were.
She hadn’t been able to sleep after putting him to bed.
She needed Sandy with her.
She would forgive anything to have him here with her. She knew that the boys wouldn’t believe that anything was okay unless he was here and she was starting to feel the same way.
He’d lost his way and she hadn’t been there to help him. And now he was alone in Newport and she was here with kids who’d been through more that she could even imagine.
Finally, after tossing and turning, she flipped on the lamp beside the bed and got up.
She wasn’t going to be able to sleep tonight, her adrenaline was still too high from Ryan’s accident.
She pulled on her robe and tiptoed out into the hallway.
The door to Ryan’s room was open and she glanced over and saw that Seth’s was open too.
But that’s not the last thing she noticed.
A baby was crying.
She started to ignore it and go to check on her boys, but it really sounded like a child crying.
Like it was in pain.
She hurried around the loop to the stairs and stopped when she heard Seth call her name. “Mom?”
The baby choked before letting out an even louder wail. “Do you hear that?” she asked.
“Hear what?” Seth asked, his face wrinkled in confusion.
She started to tell him, but the sound was gone. She held up her finger to keep him quiet, listening hard, but there was no baby.
“Mom, can you come in here? Ryan’s, kind of, bugging out,” Seth said quietly, coming to her side.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know if it’s the drugs they gave him, or the pain, but he’s…something’s wrong with him, he’s not normal,” Seth said.
She didn’t need to hear anything else, she took Seth’s hand and walked with him into Ryan’s room.
She could see immediately that something was wrong. Ryan was sitting upright in bed, draining a bottle of water and his face was as white as the snow piled on the sill outside his window.
His face was drawn but she was most concerned with the panicked speed of his breathing.
“I don’t know what to do,” Seth said.
Kirsten hurried over and wrapped her arms around him, feeling the cold chill of his skin against hers when she put her cheek against his forehead as she rubbed his arms. “What’s wrong?”
He didn’t say anything, instead he shivered and buried his face against her shoulder, curling into her embrace.
She was stricken, this was very out-of-character for Ryan. She glanced at Seth and saw her worry reflected on his face.
She turned on the lamp and nodded for Seth to follow suit with the overhead light. “You’re so cold, let’s get a fire going downstairs and some hot chocolate, how about that?” She held his face in her hands until he managed to train his gaze on hers. “Did you have a bad dream?”
After a long moment, he shuddered but nodded. “Yeah…bad dream,” he murmured.
Seth seemed to accept it and walked over with a thick blanket and draped it around his foster brother’s shoulders, rubbing his back. “Come on, dude.”
Ryan got to his feet finally and let Seth guide him out of the room.
Kirsten glanced behind her as she followed them out.
His room was colder than any other room in the house. She’d have to see if there was a problem with the heating system in there.
She’d also have to ask the rental agency about any stray cats or animals that might mimic a baby’s cry in the area.
* ** *** ** * ** *** ** * ** *** ** * ** *** ** * ** *** ** * ** *** ** *
Ryan felt like a huge asshole.
Kirsten and Seth were both babysitting him in the living room of the house, a huge fire blazing to try to warm him up as they sat around him on the couch.
They were watching some old episode of South Park and Kirsten was acting offended while Seth attempted to explain that it was all in good satire.
He was just trying to process the people that had started to talk to him.
Was he going insane?
Was the Atwood curse finding a new way to ruin his life? Sending Sandy to jail wasn’t enough and now he had to be crazy, too?
Caleb and Johnny. Oliver Trask, who at last check, had not been dead. So it couldn’t be ghosts.
He was going nuts.
Was it his penance for abandoning Sandy? His mother, Marissa? Was he being punished?
“Dude, do you want to talk about it?” Seth asked.
Ryan realized that they were both looking at him with the same concern. He pulled the comforter around him more tightly.
“He doesn’t have to,” Kirsten said.
“I feel better now,” he lied, holding the mug out for her to put on the table.
“Dude. You’re still shaking like a leaf. Don’t stress, I’m totally not sleepy either,” Seth said.
Ryan relaxed slightly.
“You’re still freezing,” Kirsten remarked, taking his hand and rubbing his icy fingers in her warm palms.
“What’s on the agenda tomorrow?” Seth asked, flipping the channels on the big screen.
“I’m not cooking,” Ryan said weakly, feeling better when they smiled at him.
“We’ll give Ryan a couple of days before we go on the slopes. I thought maybe we’d just hang out around the house. Considering the circumstances,” she said.
There was a heavy silence.
“Can we call Dad?” Seth asked.
“At ten o’clock, his lawyer’s going to make sure he can take the call,” Kirsten replied.
Ryan let his eyes fall closed as Seth started explaining to her the intimacies of Aqua Teen Hunger Force on the screen.
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Ryan and his mom had fallen asleep on the couch but Seth woke up with a cramp in his foot from sleeping on the cushion and decided to do something new and make breakfast for his fair-haired family members.
He glared at the stove and went to the fridge to see what he had that didn’t require cooking with heat.
Seth wasn’t sure what was going on, but he knew that whatever had Ryan spooked was more than just a nightmare.
Ryan hated when people watched him when he was trying to sleep so the fact that he’d only fallen asleep when they’d stayed with him downstairs was a huge sign that something was up.
He was going to put some serious Seth-Ryan times on the books today. Ryan had to talk to him. He couldn’t handle flying blind.
He put the bagels out and the slicer and found a box of frozen waffles that were meant to go into the toaster.
But before all of that, he started the coffee.
He’d learned from a young age that coffee was a part of a daily balanced breakfast.
When he turned back, the box of waffles was lying on the floor, opened and scattered around the kitchen.
“I know I didn’t do that,” he said aloud.
Before he could process what was happening, the package of cream cheese flew off the counter and smacked into the side of his head, stunning him.
“Seth? What are you doing?” Kirsten called, standing in the doorway.
“Mom, something wonky’s going on,” he said, wiping a chunk of white cheese off his ear.
“What are you talking about?” she asked.
The toaster popped up then, sending a shower of sparks and knocking the appliance off the counter, popping and crackling.
“What was in that?” she demanded, pulling him close.
“Nothing, it wasn’t even plugged in,” Seth replied honestly.
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Someone was blowing in his ear.
Ryan swatted at the pest, hoping to find his deep sleep again.
“You can’t hide from us,” Caleb hissed and his eyes flew open and he sat up, glancing around.
“Dude? I said it’s time for breakfast,” Seth said, walking over to him with a box of cereal.
“Okay,” Ryan said, accepting the box in his good hand. He glanced at Seth when he didn’t say anything. “What’s wrong with you?”
“The kitchen just went…berserker,” Seth replied. “Like, out of control. The toaster exploded and the cream cheese attacked me, like, I was a bagel and it was kamikaze cheese,” he added.
“Really?” Ryan asked, confused.
“What happened to you last night?” Seth asked.
“What do you mean?” Ryan replied, ducking his head as he grabbed a fistful of crunchy cereal. He couldn’t talk if his mouth was full.
“Dude, if something weird is going on, we should talk about it so we don’t get…possessed or something. Are you possessed?” Seth asked seriously.
“I don’ t think anyone’s possessed,” Kirsten said, walking in with three cups of coffee. “The electrician is on his way, it has to be something with the wiring,” she said.
“Thank you,” Ryan said, grateful for the offering of caffeine. But he’d heard Seth’s words.
What if he wasn’t going crazy? What if something was after them? In the house?
“I think we need to get out of here a while. The weather’s not looking too good for the weekend and I thought we’d go into town and pick up some stuff for being snowed in. I want a couple of books and magazines and you guys probably need comics and video games…” Kirsten started.
“And snacks that don’t require any preparation,” Seth interrupted. “Mom, something weird is going on!”
“Seth, it’s nothing. I promise, the electrician will take care of it. Okay?” She recovered her composure after a moment and folded her hands around her mug. “After we call Sandy, we’ll head into town, so start thinking about what you need. Ryan’s arm should be better by the middle of next week so we can maybe head up to the ski lodge or the slopes.”
“Okay, Mom,” Seth sighed.
Ryan didn’t want to stay here but he could see that Kirsten was ready to dig her heels in.
He’d have to handle it.
Ghosts or hallucinations, they couldn’t hurt him. He’d just have to ignore them.
They weren’t real.
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“Sounds like you need to find a new house, Kirsten, I’m not sure I like the thought of you guys staying in a house with faulty wiring, what if there’s a fire? Where’s the closest fire department to your house?” Sandy asked.
She curled her fingers in the cord of the old phone. “I already paid for this place a month and they’re going to make sure it’s safe…”
“Honey…I miss you.”
“I miss you, too. I have a feeling that the house knows you’re not here. That we’re missing one of our core,” she said quietly.
“I’m going to be there as soon as I can…”
“Sandy…are you going to go to jail?” she asked, forcing herself to take a breath.
“I’m…I’m going to take the deal. Turn state’s evidence. I’ll lose the company, maybe even be disbarred…but I’ll avoid jail and at least my conscience will be a little bit cleaner for owning up to my mistakes,” he said, his voice husky with emotion.
She closed her eyes, weight lifting off her shoulders. “I’m proud of you, honey. And we are all here for you…”
“That’s what I’m holding onto, Kirsten…”
Seth and Ryan walked in, dressed warmly in sweaters and thick parkas.
“Here are the boys,” she said, holding the phone out to Seth.
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Ryan felt like he could breathe again once they were away from the house.
He’d left Seth in the entertainment section of the store and he was browsing in the book section.
He’d heard Kirsten mention wanting some books and it had set off an image of him sitting in front of the fireplace reading a nice engrossing novel.
Where he could turn his brain off a while.
But his gaze fell on a small display with all kinds of Bibles and accessories.
He picked up the small rosary and absently began counting them with his fingers, remembering the way Teresa’s mother had clung to the talisman for strength.
He’d never been a believer in anything, really, but he’d respected her faith.
It wasn’t that expensive and the cross on the end was reassuring to him in a small way. He placed it in his shopping basket on top of crossword puzzles Kirsten had insisted he buy.
He didn’t even care if Seth made fun of his impulse buy, but he placed a copy of the New Yorker on top of it to disguise it anyway.
He was going to have to go back in that house and he wanted to have something besides the taunting spirits to focus on.
“Hey. Can we talk?” Seth asked. Ryan glimpsed his basket that was full of horror movies and games.
“What the hell?”
“Research,” Seth replied.
“I am not doing research that is only going to result in creeping me out even more,” Ryan replied.
“So, you are creeped out? Did the furniture in your room attack you? Did your bed spin around? Did some creepy twins talk to you?”
Ryan felt himself flush and Seth immediately saw it, too. “Dude, did you see something?”
He turned his back on Seth, trying to focus on the titles on the shelves.
“Ryan, tell me.”
He picked up the latest Dan Brown novel. “I saw Oliver. And Caleb. Johnny. They talked to me,” he said unevenly.
“What did they say?” Seth asked quietly. Ryan glanced at him. He could tell that Seth believed him.
“You don’t think I’m crazy?”
“Even if you are crazy, I don’t doubt that you really heard them and saw them,” Seth replied after a beat. “And I’m along for the ride either way, so tell me.”
* ** *** ** * ** *** ** * ** *** ** * ** *** ** * ** *** ** * ** *** ** *
The wind was gusting and pounding them with snow when they reached the house that afternoon.
Kirsten had nearly panicked driving on the ice and finally let Ryan drive, his cool head beating them out even with his injury.
She was glad to be somewhere that they could bunker down.
“That’s the last of the spoils,” Seth said, stomping the snow off his boots as he put down the bags.
“Thank you both, that storm snuck up on me,” she admitted.
“We’re all Californians here, not used to the snow,” Ryan said, hanging up his coat.
“Should make for good skiing next week, though,” Seth said.
“I’m going to put some coffee on,” Ryan said.
“I’ll start the fire,” Seth immediately volunteered.
“What are you up to?” Kirsten asked, suspicious.
Seth looked at her innocently. “We just want to watch some TV and get warm,” he said.
“All right. I’ll be in shortly,” she said.
She gathered up the bags and carried them up the stairs, leaving them on the table at the top.
Then she heard it.
The baby. Crying.
She wasn’t imagining it.
It could be just the wind, but the wind hadn’t been blowing the night before.
She walked toward the sound, holding to the wood railing as she passed her room and on to the last room.
The door was half opened.
The electricians must have left it open. Surely they would have heard the crying if it was some kind of animal.
But it sounded like a baby.
She pushed open the door and the light from the hallway illuminated the room and she saw a crib by the window and two tiny hands reaching up, clutched in desperation as he wailed.
“Oh my god,” she whispered, hurrying into the room.
The door slammed behind her.
She swung around, startled by the darkness that came with the closed door.
The baby wailed and she remembered her purpose, turning back and hurrying over to the crib.
The baby was screaming, dressed in a white, flowing sheet, his lips blue from exertion and his skin pale in the light from the outside.
She shivered from the cold and when she reached down to comfort the baby, his eyes opened, blue and crystal and when her fingers grazed him, he started screaming louder and she saw bruises from the slight contact.
His skin blackened and swelled before her eyes, the intensity of his screams rising until she had to cover her ears.
The room was filled with wind suddenly, whipping her hair into her face and swirling the curtains above the crib.
“Mom?” The door swung open and Seth was standing there. “What are you doing?”
She glanced around the room at the playroom’s furniture and all the undisturbed covers over them. The crib was dusty and her hands are gripped around a small stuffed bear’s neck.
“Nothing,” she whispered, dropping the toy and hurrying out of the room.
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Chapter Three