by Kaitlyn Hoyt
I AM DREAMING ABOUT THE man in the woods again; the man that grabs me and drags me into the forest, surrounding me with darkness. I try screaming, but nothing comes out. I can hear my name being called, but I can’t call back, because the man is covering my mouth, preventing me from making any noise. Though muffled, I can hear my name reverberating through the darkness. Ryanne. Ryanne. Ryanne.
“RYANNE!” I open my eyes, and slam them shut once light hits me. Disoriented, I open them slower this time, and see Colton standing over me, shaking me, trying to wake me up.
“What happened?”
“You fell asleep,” Colton says. “You started mumbling something, and then you started screaming. What were you dreaming about?” I sit up and recount the whole dream, not leaving out any details.
“Why didn’t you tell us this before?”
“I only had the dream once before, and didn’t think anything of it. I thought it was just a nightmare, you know?” I pause, and then go on. “I noticed something this time though. I think the man that dragged me away was the same guy that attacked us today.”
Colton looks at David. “We have to tell Claire.”
“She’s at the shop. We’ll have to wait until she closes.”
With a defeated groan, Colton runs his hand through his hair. “Fine. Have you had any other dreams that may be visions?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Okay, then. Just tell us if something happens again.” I nod, not trusting myself to say anything. An uncomfortable silence descends on the room. I can feel their eyes boring into me as I look at the carpet.
The fairy tale book is lying on the floor. I must have kicked it off the couch during the dream. Reaching down, I pick it up, and push myself off the couch. Walking over to the shelf, I place the book back where it belongs. When I walk back toward the couch, both guys are standing up, talking quietly again. When I stop in front of them, they quit whispering and turn toward me. “Are you hungry?” David asks. “We can order pizza.”
Without waiting for a response, David takes out his cell phone, and starts walking down the hallway, ordering a pizza at the same time.
I look to Colton. “He has the pizza place on speed dial?” I meant it as a question, but it came out as a statement.
“Food is very important to him.”
We follow David down the hallway, and back into the living room. Passing through the doorway, I hear the faint sounds of my phone ringing. Rushing past Colton, I grab my bag and pull out my phone, checking the caller I.D. It’s Jane. I answer the phone, and glance around the room, looking for somewhere to go for some privacy. Colton points toward the kitchen. I silently thank him and walk away.
“What’s up, Jane?”
“Hey, Ryanne. Nothing. Just wondering how you were doing?”
“I’m doing fine. How are you? Are you still at Ross’s?”
“I’m great, Ry. Thanks for asking. Yes, I’m still at Ross’s house.” She pauses. I can practically hear the excitement on the other end. “I think he is going to propose to me soon! I can feel it. Oh, are you okay by yourself? Do you need me to come home?”
“No, no I’m fine, Jane. I’m an adult now. I can be on my own. Stay with Ross. I’m really happy for you! That’s so exciting.” I am a little disappointed, but grateful at the same time. This will allow me to spend more time at Claire’s, and train a little. We talk for a little while longer, and then say our goodbyes.
I walk back into the living right as the doorbell rings. I sit down next to David on the couch. He reaches out, and put his arms around me. He is definitely flirty, but in a friendly way. I’m at ease around him. I lean into his side, relaxing. Colton pushes himself off of the couch, and walks to the front door, grabbing cash off the table in the process. I hear the sound of a door opening, and Colton talking to the deliveryman.
“Sup, Colton? How’s summer going?” I tense when I recognize the voice. Adam is at the door. David glances down at me, wondering what is wrong.
“Pretty good so far. We’ve only been out of school for a day, man. Not much has happened yet.”
“True.” Adam gives the pizzas over to Colton and continues. “I heard this rumor that you were seen leaving the school with that freaky girl, Ryan.”
“Don’t call her that, and her name is Ryanne.”
“So, it’s true. Seriously, dude? You remember what I said about her, right? If you want a hook-up, I know some girls. You don’t need all that baggage. She’s not even that good looking.
I hear the sound of a punch being thrown, and someone grunting in pain. David jumps off the couch, and rushes toward the front door. I follow shortly after. Standing in the doorway, I can see Colton and Adam swinging punches at each other, trying to get a hit in. Adam has blood dripping from his nose, while Colton appears uninjured.
David runs up, grabs Colton from behind, and pushes him behind him. Pointing at Adam, he says, “You need to leave.” David turns around, and starts pushing Colton toward the door. Both boys stare at Adam as they walk away.
Adam lingers in the driveway. Slowly, his eyes travel over their heads to the doorway, widening a little in surprise when he sees me standing there. His eyes run down the length of my body, before returning to my face. With a scowl, he says, “She’s not even worth it.” Colton tries to walk back to him again, but David puts his arm out stopping him.
“Don’t.” It’s David that makes a move this time. He deftly walks up to Adam, and punches him square in the jaw. Adam spins around before falling to the ground, where he remains writhing in pain. David turns around, leaving him there, and walks into the house, grabbing my upper arm, and pulling me after him. Colton follows suit, and loudly slams the front door. Once in the living room, David lets go of me and starts pacing. “You just attract trouble, don’t you?” He tries joking, but his anger is still visible.
Colton walks up to me and says, “I’m so sorry, Ryanne. Don’t listen to anything he said.”
I wave him off. “I’ve heard worse.”
“What’s his problem with you anyway?” I pale at his question. Seeing my response, he asks softly, “Ryanne, what did he do to you?”
I lean against the doorframe, and look across the room at the window. It is starting to rain. “I’ve never told anyone this before, but I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors,” I pause, collecting my thoughts. “It happened right after school ended last year. I was walking home from the park, when I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around, and he was right there. I just continued walking, trying to ignore him. He’d never been nice to me—always had some sort of cruel or derogatory comment to say. He ran in front of me and then suddenly stopped, causing me to run into him. I apologized and tried to walk around him, but he moved to block my step.
“I looked up at him, and asked him to move, but he said no. Then, he pushed me back into a large tree, and pressed his body against mine, telling me that if I screamed, he would hit me until I shut up. He stepped on both of my feet, so that I couldn’t try to run away.” I start blinking rapidly, trying to keep the tears at bay.
“I tried pushing against him, but he didn’t budge. I wasn’t strong enough. I yelled for help once, but he slapped me across the face. He hit me so hard that my vision blacked out momentarily. I wanted to cry, but I didn’t want him to see me cry. He put both his hands on my waist; one went up under my shirt, and the other crept up my shorts.”
David stops me. “You don’t have to continue, Ryanne.”
“Yes, I do. I need to get this out. I didn’t know what to do, so I tried yelling out again, but he punched me in my stomach. I couldn’t breathe. Then he tried to kiss me. Long story short, I bit his lip, drawing blood. He jumped backwards. I kicked him in the balls, and then ran away. He told everyone at school that I came onto him, and Lily made it her long-term goal to humiliate me from then on. I went from being the school loner to the school freak.” I stop talking. I can feel tears falling down my face. Embarrassed, I try to turn away, and wipe them
off my cheeks.
David exhales crossly. “I should have punched him harder.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Colton get up from the couch and walk toward me. He pauses in front of me and looks down, his eyes searching my face. His strong arms envelope me in a fierce hug. I tense for a moment, but then relax, leaning into him. I can’t help myself. I wrap my arms around his waist, put my head onto his chest, and begin to sob into his shirt. Within minutes, his shirt is soaked.
When I am finally able to calm myself, I take a small step back, rubbing under my eyes with my sleeves. I’m sure I look like a raccoon. I catch a glimpse of his shirt and grimace. I ruined his shirt. The front is soaking wet with mascara stains on it. His arms are still around me. I drag my eyes from his shirt, and open my mouth to apologize, when he starts vigorously shaking his head.
“Don’t you dare apologize to me, Ryanne. You didn’t do anything wrong.” He stops talking and looks toward David. “If only I knew. I could have done…something… anything. He shouldn’t have gotten away with that.”
“No one would have believed me if I said anything. It would have been my word against his,” I whisper. “He was the quarterback. The jock. One of the popular guys, and I was the class freak, remember?”
“You weren’t a freak, and it doesn’t matter. He still shouldn’t have gotten away with that.”
“It happened a while ago,” I say. “I’ve moved on from it.”
He looks down at me, and can tell that I don’t want to talk about it anymore, so he lets go of me.
“Are you hungry?” David gets up from the couch, grabs the boxes of pizza, and heads into the kitchen. Colton walks over to a cupboard, and takes out a couple of plates.
“Could either of you tell me where a bathroom is?”
David points toward the door. “Go out this door and take a left. It’s the second door on the right.”
“Thank you.” I walk out of the kitchen, and go to the bathroom. I stand at the bathroom sink, and look at my pale reflection. My eyes are bloodshot, and my face is puffy from crying. I splash some cold water on my face, trying to get some color to return to my already pale complexion. I grab some Kleenex and dab under my eyes, trying to get rid of the mascara stains. When I finally feel presentable again, I walk out of the bathroom and back toward the kitchen. The closer I get, the more I am able to hear the whispers going on.
“I heard those rumors, David. I was with Adam when he told everyone. I couldn’t believe it. This shy, quiet girl that I had a crush on for over a year threw herself at the school jerk? I couldn’t wrap my head around it, but I got mad at her. I didn’t spread any of the rumors or anything, but I didn’t stop them either. It’s partially my fault.” I listen to the whole thing, but can only think about one thing: Colton had a crush on me? How is that possible? I had never met him until a couple weeks ago.
“Don’t blame yourself, Colton. There…”
I put on a blank face, and decide to enter back into the room. “Why is Colton blaming himself?”
“Colton broke one of Claire’s favorite plates,” David says quickly, while pushing the pizza box toward me. “Here, have some pizza.”
I grab one piece and eat it slowly. I’ve lost my appetite. The guys inhale a whole pizza by themselves.
When I finish eating the piece, I wipe my hands off with my crumpled napkin, and turn toward Colton. “Can you teach me how to fight when you are done eating?”
“Yeah, just wait a little bit, so our food can settle.”
I nod and walk back into the living room, grabbing my notebook to start a new drawing: Liam. I’d never been very good at drawing people, so I don’t know why I feel compelled to draw him. My hands start moving on their own accord. I draw his crooked nose, his full lips, the way his eyes seem to look at you and see all your secrets, the faded scar above his eyebrow, and the way his hair falls across his face. I don’t know how I did it, but I drew a perfect likeness of him.
David walks over and sits beside me. “Is that Liam?”
I look intently at my notebook, nodding.
“He looks familiar, like I’ve seen him somewhere,” he pauses, his eyes remaining fixated on the drawing. He blinks rapidly, and touches my upper arm. “Are you ready to train?” When I nod, he continues. “I’ll walk you back to your room, so you can get changed, and then we’ll walk up there together, considering you still don’t know where the room is.” He smiles. “We wouldn’t want you to get lost again.” I can tell that he isn’t going to let that go anytime soon.
We walk to my room, well the guest bedroom, quietly chatting on the way. It is easy to talk to David. He is funny, witty, and doesn’t say anything that makes me second guess their meanings. He is straight forward and to the point. We stop at my door and I walk in, confused. New outfits are scattered across the bed.
Claire.
She knew I would need more clothing. I know that I didn’t grab anything that would work today. I was more focused on getting out of the house quickly than finding matching outfits.
I walk over and sort through the workout clothes. Everything is way more form fitting than I would have grabbed for myself. I know that I am not fat, but I don’t necessarily have the confidence to wear something like this. I grab an outfit and walk to the bathroom, trying not to think about how ridiculous I’ll look in this. After changing, I walk over the sink, and search the drawers underneath, until I find a small container with a bunch of hair ties in it. I grab one, put it on my wrist, and leave the room.
I open the bedroom door and find David standing on the other side, hand outstretched, ready to knock. His eyes widen as he takes in my appearance.
I cross my arms self-consciously, and look at the floor. “I know I look stupid. There wasn’t anything else to change into.” I grab the bottom of the shirt, and pull it away from my body, trying to stretch it out, but it only sinks back into the previous shape.
“You’re not reading my mind right now, are you?” he asks.
“No, I decided I’m going to try and not use that unless it is absolutely necessary. I feel like it is an invasion of privacy.”
David exhales in relief, shakes his head, and rolls his eyes. Before I am able to ask what that was about, he grabs onto my wrist, and starts walking down the hallway.
“I’m going to have to talk to Claire when she gets home.”
“Why?”
He turns toward me with a look that screams, seriously? “Never mind.”
“This house has three floors?” I ask, as we head up another set of stairs.
“The third floor is the training room. It used to be an attic, but we converted it when we moved in.”
Colton is already in the room, setting up the mats when we walk in. This is the biggest attic I’ve ever seen. The room is in the shape of a square, with large red mats outlining the bottom half of the walls. A long rope hangs from the ceiling in the far corner. Looking up, my eyes stop at the high ceiling. Wooden beams overlap each other in an interesting cross work pattern. I drag my eyes from the ceiling, and turn toward Colton, who is staring at me with eyes the size of saucers, mouth slightly open. My eyebrows rise in confusion. When he catches me looking at him, he coughs and diverts his gaze.
“Are you okay?” I walk toward him.
“Fine.” He looks past me at David.
“Yeah, I know,” David agrees. I look between the two brothers, wondering what they are talking about.
“You know I could just read your minds, right?” That knocks them back into their senses.
“Okay, Ryanne, we’re going to just teach you some basic self-defense moves, and how to defend yourself if you are ever attacked without a weapon,” says Colton.
“Will I get to learn how to fight with a weapon too?” The thought of fighting someone in general scares me, but I want to know what to do if I’m in the situation. I know it will probably show up again.
He smiles at my eagerness. “One step at a time.”
Nodding, I listen to what he is telling me: how to block my body if someone comes toward me from the front, how to deflect punches from the side, what to do if someone grabs me from behind, etc. After about ten minutes, I put my hair into a high ponytail, because it keeps falling into my face, blocking my vision.
“You’re pretty small, so your opponents will almost always be larger than you. You have to look for their weaknesses. Anything that will give you an advantage on them.” I listen intently to everything that he is telling me. Colton pretends to attack me, slowly, to see if I can deflect his advances. After each move, he would stop, tell me what I did right, and what needed to change. David would come up and correct my stances if I was off. This is harder than I thought it would be. They teach me how to use my arms and legs to incapacitate someone, and ways to knock someone unconscious.
“From now on, if you can, you’ll probably want to tie your hair into a bun, or something close to your head. You have long hair, and anyone can come up behind you and pull your hair, knocking you down.” To demonstrate, Colton steps closer and reaches behind me. Grabbing the end of my ponytail, he wraps it around his hand, and gently pulls it down. I arch my head back and stare up at him. I can feel his breath against my face as he looks down at me—his green eyes staring into mine. My heart starts racing, and I can feel a blush creeping up into my cheeks. Seeing it, Colton clears his throat and releases my hair, continuing on with the training session.
Two hours later, I am lying with my back on the mat, sweating and trying to catch my breath. “Why didn’t I get a power where I could just think of what I wanted someone to do and they would do it? Fall down. Run off that cliff. Punch yourself. Do the hokey pokey. That would be convenient in a fight,” I say breathily. Both guys are sitting beside me, barely winded.
“I think that is enough for today. You did well, Ryanne,” says David.
I attempt to laugh and sit up, but both prove to be too much work. I am more comfortable where I am. After a couple minutes, my breathing returns to normal, but the ache remains in my muscles. I’m definitely going to be sore tomorrow.
“How long have you guys been training?” I ask.
“Since we were five. Uncle Tom…,” I laugh. Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Oh gosh, I’m delirious. This is why I don’t exercise anymore. David stops talking and glances at me, silently asking if I am okay.
“Sorry, continue.”
“He would come over every weekend and teach us random moves, usually martial arts. We didn’t know then that he was training us. It worked out though; now we are always ready in case something should happen.”
“Do you still talk to your Uncle Tom?”
Colton answers. “Yeah, he comes over occasionally. He’s stopped training us a while ago, but still helps train other mages. I bet you’d like him.”
I look toward him, smiling. We drop off into a comfortable silence. When my muscles finally stop aching, I sit up into a seated position. David and Colton both get up and stand around me. Colton extends his hand, offering to help me up. I gladly accept it, and let him exert himself trying to get me up.
I feel a hand fall on my shoulder, and unfamiliar deep voice says, “Who’s this?”
Startled, I scream, jump around, and end up bumping into Colton. He reaches out and steadies me; all three guys start laughing at me. I bend down and grab my heart, trying to slow down the frantic beating. My heart is beating against my ribcage like a steady drum.
I straighten up as David turns toward me. “What a coincidence. Ryanne, this is our Uncle Tom. Tom, this is Ryanne Arden.” Tom smiles and extends his hand. I reach out and take it. Still holding his hand, I look at him, and have to stifle the giggle that almost escapes my lips. Is it possible for anyone in this family to not be good looking?
Standing at over six feet, Tom has a stocky build, similar to David. He has dirty blonde hair, falling around his face with subtle waves touching the slight stubble that appears on his jawline. His warm eyes are surrounded by soft wrinkles. Full lips pull back into a smile, revealing a perfectly straight set of teeth. Despite being in his forties, this man is obviously fit. He looks very…Brad Pitt-esque – similar to how Pitt looked in Troy.
“Nice to meet you,” I say lightly.
“It’s very nice to meet you too.”
So this is the infamous, Ryanne. Claire’s description doesn’t give her credit. She’s beautiful. I’m sure she already has these boys wrapped around her finger. I giggle and close my eyes, concentrating on pushing his thoughts back into the locked box with the others.
“She’s trying to lock your thoughts away. She feels it’s an invasion of privacy to hear other people’s thoughts,” David explains to Tom, trying to imitate my voice.
“That’s understandable,” he replies sincerely. “It’s kind of a blessing in disguise. Burdening, yet helpful.”
When I get them pushed back, I open my eyes, and see Colton walk up to his uncle and give him a manly hug, patting him on the back. “What brings you here?”
“I don’t know. Claire called and told me that I may be needed here.”
“You’re about two hours too late,” David replies, chuckling. “We were showing Ryanne some self-defense.”
“That’s fine. I’m staying here for a couple of days. I can help.”
“Great, it’ll probably take me that long to learn the simple steps. I need all the help I can get,” I say. “They were telling me how you used to train them when they were younger. You trained them very well. With all three of you helping, I’m sure I can learn something.”
He beams at me, and I find myself swallowed in a tight hug. “I like this girl already.”
He pulls back, and I step out of his embrace. “Now, if you don’t mind, I would like to take a shower. I feel gross.”
“Sure, go ahead,” says Colton.
“Do you know how to get back to your room?” David asks.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure I remember.” Turning around, I start walking away. I call over my shoulder, “I’ll see you guys in a little bit.” I make it back to my room with no problems, and jump into the shower, wiping off all the sweat from my body. I smile to myself, knowing that now I will at least have some knowledge on how to fight back if needed. It feels empowering knowing that I’m not going to always be the damsel in distress anymore.