In the dark of his room, Ryan lay on his bed, eyes wide open, gazing at the ceiling.The rotating sound of the ceiling fan made his thoughts swirl around in circles.
Her name was a constant thought. He held the strand of white hair in his hand, but there was no record of the girl anywhere in school. No one knew who she was; to them, she was another of Ryan's hallucinations.
Ryan had tried finding out the whereabouts of the girl, but everyone just stared at him with those loathed, pitiful eyes, like he was vulnerable. Do I need help? Ryan thought to himself. Are they right?
But no, they couldn't be, he said to himself, tightening his hand around the white strand of hair he had found lying where he had politely asked her to stay.
The first rays of the sun made their way through the shutters of Ryan's room.The birds harboring in the trees beside Ryan's house made their annoying voices known, as did the cock he had meant to convince his mother to slaughter. Lastly came the popular cry of his number one enemy: the alarm clock. Then came the familiar sound of his mother's footsteps ascending the stairs with so much energy, like stampeding rhinos. There was a sharp knock on the door and her authoritative voice boomed across the hallway.
"Ryan! Wake up!"
"And you—Malcolm, Daisy, Pearl—you have to be in school in five minutes! I want you downstairs in two!" she ordered.
Loyce's cry across the hall saved them from being dragged out of their rooms. She was their new younger sister, much loved by the family not only because of her chubby cheeks but mostly because of her timing in such perilous moments.
Ryan sighed silently as he dragged his body out of bed. He didn't know how sleep had stolen upon him, nor how he ended up at the very edge of his bed.The screeching and banging of the window startled him out of his stupor. A sudden gust of wind rushed in, hurling with it a few leaves.
"Damn, did I forget to close the window? It's weird... that window doesn't open." Must have been the wind, Ryan said to himself as he moved to close it.
Instead, he stood frozen. At a distance, he saw a girl of the same height as Alison, the girl from the library. She was close enough for him to make out the strands of white hair. His heartbeat rose faster and faster as he saw her come closer. She stopped and gazed at him intensely. Then, she whirled around and ran into the forest at the edge of Ryan's house, chuckling sweetly as she disappeared into the trees.
"Alison, wait!"
The impulse to follow her was so great that Ryan didn't think of the height. He scrambled onto the ledge, ready to drop.
"Ryan, what in the heavens do you think you are doing?"
His mother entered just as Ryan was about to leap. But Ryan paid no attention to her; he launched himself forward.
"No!" his mother shouted at the top of her voice.
She leaped forward just in time, her hands wrapping around her son's waist, hauling him back into the room before he could fall. Ryan tried to push himself from his mother's strong arms, crying and screaming.
It was not until Melissa slapped the boy hard across the cheek that Ryan came back to his senses.
"What has got into you, boy? Want to kill yourself?" Melissa said, tears flowing. Her arms crashed around Ryan protectively.
Ryan burst into tears, realizing that a few minutes ago, he could have been dead. His mother shushed him, cleaning his tears with the cloth she had tied around her waist.
"Mom? Is Ryan alright?" Malcolm asked from the doorway together with his sisters.
"Yes, your brother is alright," Melissa said. "Now everyone downstairs. You need to eat something before we journey to school."
Melissa stood in her son's room, her hands on her waist, asking herself what had come over him.
She looked around and spotted the picture of her husband lying on Ryan's reading table.
Death at the hands of... it had claimed him quite recently. He was a strong, formidable figure in his son's life. Tears dripped on the picture. How could death have been so cruel? she asked herself.
She looked at her reflection in the mirror standing next to her son's cabinet. She looked young—and she was—a beauty who had been swept off her feet at a young age by a stubborn young man.
She brushed a finger across her cheeks and wiped away her tears. It was a decision she had taken, one she would not regret.
Quickly, she shut the window and locked it properly. Keen as she was, she didn't notice the girl with the dark hair and white strands standing at the edge of the woods, watching from afar.