Ryan stumbled awake as his alarm suddenly when off. He let out a tired groan as he turned the alarm clock off entirely. He stretched his body and let out a yawn. He sat up on the bed and looked around. He was currently in his... bedroom?
Ryan immediately snapped into realization. How in the world did he get back home? Better yet, how the hell did he get back into bed? He was even in the sweat pants he wears to sleep everyday.
He got off the bed and started to rack his brain, trying to remember what happened. He remembered that he was reading a book when two detectives came to question him. They left but came back and arrested him, saying he had killed somebody? He couldn't really remember it well.
The next thing he remembered was the two boys playing in the woods. Ryan found it really weird. He didn't know either of the boys so why were they in his memory.
Ryan's eyes fell on the book lying on the bed. His eyebrows wrinkled together in worry as he picked the book up. This was the same book he was reading yesterday before he fell asleep.
"So that's what happened", Ryan said as he came to a conclusion.
He was reading the book yesterday because he was bored, so he fell asleep which should be why he couldn't exactly remember what happened next. Everything that happened next must have been a dream then, right? A very realistic dream. Almost too realistic. He thought to himself yet he couldn't exactly believe it.
He sighed and put everything in the back of his mind. This was not the time to think about something like this. Right now, he had to get ready for his morning shift at the coffee shop. He walked into the bathroom sink, turned it on and splashed some water on his face.
He picked his toothbrush and put some paste on it. He brought the paste to his mouth but suddenly stopped when he thought of something. He turned around and looked at the bed once again.
Wasn't he reading the book on the couch? The couch was downstairs in the living room so how did he get here? And it was in the afternoon yesterday that he was reading the book so why is it suddenly morning?
Did I sleep throughout the afternoon and through the night? He asked himself. Then I must have come up here myself. He concluded. Ryan shrugged and went back to brushing his teeth. He took a shower after and got ready to go to work.
He walked down the stairs to go to the kitchen to get something to eat when he heard the sound of a commercial on the TV. He walked to the TV, thinking that he had left it on yesterday.
"Ryan?", a familiar female voice said, startling Ryan.
He looked in the direction where the voice came from and saw a girl in a Doctor Strange pajamas and a really disheveled ginger hair. It was his sister.
"Hayden? What–", Ryan tried to say but Hayden suddenly run up to him and pulled him into a hug.
"Where have you been? The police have been looking for you everywhere? They said you killed some people, is that true? It can't be true, right? You would never kill someone, right?–", Hayden starting talking fast, not leaving any space to breath or for Ryan to understand what she was saying.
"Woah, woah, woah, slow down", Ryan cut her off. "What are you even saying? You're not making any sense. And what are you even doing home?", He asked.
Hayden let go of Ryan and glared at him, suddenly getting mad. "What am I doing home? Ryan, I should be asking you that. What are you doing home? You're wanted by the police. They said that you killed four people and that you're–. Why did you even run away in the first place?", She asked.
"Run away where? And why am I wanted, I didn't kill anybody?", Ryan tried to understand what Hayden was saying but he was only getting more confused.
Hayden took in a really deep breath and closed her eyes to calm herself down. She held her breath for a while before breathing out and opening her eyes. She looked right into his eyes and asked -no, more like begged, "Ryan, please tell me that you didn't kill those people".
"I already told you, I didn't kill anybody. How can you even ask something like–", Ryan denied but then he suddenly remembered his dream.
In his dream, after he was arrested, he was put in a room for questioning where they showed him a video of himself, fighting against the four men.
No wonder his dream felt so realistic. It turns out it wasn't a dream but reality. The police were really after him and if that video was real, then he really did kill those people.
"Oh, no. What have I done?". In that moment, Ryan's heart skipped a beat and his legs started wobbling. He had to sit down to not fall to the floor. Whether it was self defense or not, he killed those four people with his own hands. He started panicking as he was overwhelmed by guilt even though he didn't remember doing the killing.
"I... l killed them. I killed those men", he said, his voice breaking as he looked down at his hands. He covered his face and started silently sobbing.
Hayden hung her head down, tears forming under her eyes.
"No–", she put her hand on Ryan's shoulder to calm him down and comfort him but Ryan jerked away from her touch and suddenly stood up, scaring Hayden and making her stumble back on her feet.
"Leave me alone", Ryan said with a sniffle, his eyes already red. "Please", he turned around and run to his room. All he wanted right now was to be alone.
Hayden could only watch as Ryan went upstairs. She didn't know what to do and she was barely keeping herself from freaking out. She took out her phone from the pocket of her pajamas and immediately dialed a number. She didn't know what to do about Ryan so she called someone who might know what to do.
*****
Ryan was lying on his bed, just staring at the ceiling. He had stopped sobbing and was lying on the bed, limply as if he was paralyzed, barely even blinking.
He didn't even react when he heard three separate footsteps coming towards his room. His bedroom door burst open and distressed Lenny and Iris rushing into the room with Hayden right behind them.
"Ryan", Iris and Lennox paused for a second when they saw Ryan lying on his bed, before rushing to his side on the bed, hugging him like there was no tommorow.
"Oh my God, I'm so glad you're okay. Where have you been? We thought something had happened to you", Iris said, sounding relieved.
"Yeah, man. You had us worried there", Lenny said as he gave Ryan a playful punch on the shoulder.
Ryan however didn't react. Even to Iris's hug or to Lenny's playful punch. He kept staring at the ceil without even blinking. Of course, both Lenny and Iris noticed this, making them frown in worry.
"You okay, man?", Lennox asked, the worry in his voice more evident.
Ryan slowly shook his head, making both his friends and sister more worried.
"What is today's date?", Ryan asked, his voice breaking and sounding like he was trying his best to not cry.
Lenny fumbled through his pockets, searching for his phone. He took it out and the screen lit up. "Uh, it's Monday, March 17th", Lenny answered after confirming. It was the year 2025.
Neither of them knew why but tears started to form under Ryan's eyes, even with all his effort to hold them back.
"Hey, what's wrong?", Iris asked, getting alarmed.
"Everything", Ryan said. "Everything is wrong. I tried to call the cops to turn myself in but then...", he said. Iris looked at Ryan's phone that was lying beside him. Surely, he did dial 911 but didn't call. "I can't remember", Ryan said.
Lennox and Iris shared a look of concern before Iris asked, "What can't you remember?".
Ryan looked at Iris and as if her question was a trigger, the tears he had been holding started streaming down his face like a river. "I don't remember anything. It's supposed to be the 9th today but it's the 16th", Ryan cried.
"What are you saying?", Lennox asked, confused.
Ryan turned his head to Lenny, more tears streaming down his face. "I'm saying that it's been a week since I was arrested but I don't remember anything that happened after", he explained as he burst out, crying in hysteria.
Ryan had tried to call the cops to turn himself in but he couldn't bring himself to do it. That was when he noticed the date on his phone. At first he thought it was wrong but that was the same date on his alarm clock. A thought struck him light lightning. He couldn't remember the night he killed those four people, so what did that mean for the week that he couldn't remember. He feared that might have done something he would really regret.
He had tried to keep himself composed but now that he was around his two best friends, he just couldn't keep it up and he broke down.
Lenny didn't really understand what was going on but seeing Ryan like that, saddened him a lot. Lennox pulled Ryan closer and wrapped his arms around his best friend to comfort him. He shared a lot of worry with Iris put a hand on Ryan's shoulder.
Just then, Hayden who was standing by the door, watching everything and trying to hold herself together, heard the sound of the doorbell going off. Not in the mood for any visitors, she ignored it, expecting the person to go away.
The person at the door rang the doorbell again and again and again and again and again until it was just getting annoying. Hayden wiped the tears forming under her eyes and marched downstairs to answer the door.
The ringing stopped when Hayden got downstairs but she still went to the door. She look through peephole to see who was behind the door, but there was nobody there. She turned around to go back upstairs, thinking that the person had already left.
Just then, she heard a really loud thumping sound as something or someone hit the door with full force, trying to break the door down. Hayden didn't even get the chance to react when she heard the thumping sound again, and the door blew off its hinges, flew right into her, knocking her out instantly.
Now that there was no door, a woman with platinum blonde hair, wearing an overcoat walked in. She stopped beside Hayden's unconscious body and looked around the house.
Lennox, Iris and Ryan, who had heard the disturbance from upstairs, rushed down to see what was going on. The first thing they saw was Hayden's unconscious body on the floor and then a woman who Ryan recognized as Detective Carlos, standing beside her.
The detective raised her gun at the trio and shot it, hitting Iris in the shoulder. She fell to the ground in pain and started bleed out.
"IRIS!", Lennox screamed as he knelt beside Iris, his eyes growing wide in shook when he saw the blood. He immediately put his hand on the wound, trying to stop the bleeding with the pressure.
Detective Carlos aimed her gun at Ryan who was stunned in place and shook at him. Ryan raised his hand in a desperate attempt to shield himself, expecting to feel the incredible pain that never came. He opened his eyes only to see a mix of some kind of black and red mist like energy in his palm, and a similar energy, keeping the bullet suspended three feet away from him in the air.
Ryan didn't even get the chance to observe what was happening when detective Carlos shot at him again and again. Ryan shut his eyes and braced himself. He didn't know what was happening but he didn't dare move, fearing he would get hit.
Seeing that the gun was ineffective, detective Carlos threw the gun away and rushed at Ryan, jumping on him like a crazy person, making both of them fall to the ground with the detective's hands around Ryan's neck.