by Keya Jay
Chapter twenty-three: Ryder Ferris
Ryder sat in his car outside of Skylar’s house not yet wanting to go in. He was sure he looked a mess and she would immediately be able to tell that something was wrong. He sat there until sitting there just caused him to think more about his mother and what he knew would be his next move concerning her.
Instead Ryder parked his car outside of Skylar’s house, got out of the car and took his steps cautiously as if he was trying not to step on a crack before mounting Skylar’s porch stairs, then proceeded inside to see Skylar sitting at her kitchen table with a bowl of cereal. He walked right past her living room to join her in the kitchen. He sat down but she didn’t bother to speak or acknowledge his presence. His eyes roamed all over her as she continued to ignore him.
“Are you hungry, because you look like you want to eat me,” she said as she continued to not look at him while she ate her cereal and he continued to watch her silently.
“Only if you’re offering,” he said as he watched every spoonful of cereal disappear behind her full lips.
“Sorry I’m not open,” she said causing Ryder to smile. Only she would dare say something like that and Ryder didn’t fully know how much he relied on their straight-forward conversations.
“So when exactly do I get to take a trip or two to the treasure you hide between your legs?”
Ryder watched amused as Skylar chocked on her cereal, holding her hands on her stomach and one on her throat as she tried to cough up the cereal that she had unknowingly swallowed whole.
“Excuse me? I’m not entirely sure I heard you correctly. Care to repeat?” she said once she was done with her coughing fit.
“I said when will you let me fu—“
“What makes you think I’d let you?” she said cutting him off.
“Well that is the next step right? I take you out a few times, butter you up and then we fu—“
“You forgot the part where I cut off all access with you and then you fuck off,” she interrupted.
“No, that comes after my dear, and I was indeed getting there.”
“Sorry to disappoint,” she said as she got up to put her bowl in the sink. “If that was your reason for coming here than what a waste it was but I don’t have time for you right now,” she said as she disappeared down the hall.
“I get this strange feeling, and I may be wrong here but you seem angry,” Ryder said as he followed behind her.
“You never told me you were psychic,” she said sarcastically as she stopped in front of a dark room but made no attempts to go inside as she turned to face him. “I said it once before but maybe if I repeat myself you’ll listen, I don’t have time for you right now.”
“I’m sorry,” he said as he looked around himself, “but are you trying to kick me out?” he asked as if he didn’t believe it and needed some confirming.
Skylar rolled her eyes and placed her hands on her hips.
“Fine,” Ryder said not all happy. “No more games,” he said as if it were his final offer.
“But you won’t leave,” she said saying what he had left unsaid.
“Maybe you’re the psychic one,” he said with a wink.
Skylar sighed before turning around and entering the dark room without turning on any lights. Ryder followed her inside not knowing what exactly she planned to do here in the dark but before he could ask the room was soon bathed in blue light that seemed to have been coming from the words that were written on the walls. Ryder could not suppress his smile.
Only you, were all he could think as he stared at the wall in awe.
“Please close your mouth,” she said as she turned toward the wall. “And try not to be a distraction.”
Ryder smiled at the back of her head but said nothing as he leaned against the only wall that had yet to be filled with any writing. He watched as she paced around the small room and mumbled things he couldn’t hear.
“You look confused sweetheart would you like some assistance?” he asked no longer being able to withhold his words.
In response Skylar ran her fingers through her hair and looked skyward seeming at a loss of sorts. Ryder walked toward her and wrapped his arms around her waist and placed his chin on her shoulder.
“Obviously you need some help so what is it you’re trying to figure out?” he whispered. Skylar dropped her hands to her side in a huff.
“I don’t get it,” she said looking back at the wall.
“What don’t you get?”
She walked away from him making his arms fall limp at his side as she ran her hands down her face and around her neck.
“Sidney came by last night,” she said before turning around to face him, her face engulfed in blue light.
“Ok and?” he asked not seeing the importance in her admission. Skylar rolled her eyes and turned away from him to face the wall again not willing to say anything else.
“Ok, ok I’m sorry continue,” he said as he approached her and wrapped his arms around her once again. He felt her sigh against his chest before continuing.
“She has this book, it used to belong to her father—Aaron,” she quickly changed instead. “It was some book of secrets and it had a lot of information about a lot of people, but anyways that’s not the point, the point is Hank—or whoever he is wants it—for what we’re not sure of yet.”
“Why’d you say or whoever he is when referring to Hank, is he not who he says he is?”
“I broke into Hanks office yesterday and found out that the real Hank Paul Henderson died May 9th of last year, therefore whoever this man is pretending to be Hank must have deeper motives than just wanting to…whatever it is he’s trying to do. Which is just more confusing because we don’t know what that is, we have no clue what he’s up to!” she said as she laid her head back against Ryder who was now trying to support her instead of comfort her.
“And now Sidney’s upset because we just realized that Aaron isn’t her father and the man Hank Paul Henderson, who no doubt died at the hands of fake Hank, was her real father,” she said on a whispered breath.
Ryder was just as shocked as Skylar was and probably more so because growing up Aaron was always there for Sidney and there was never once a doubt about whether or not he was her real father.
“Is that all?” he asked bracing himself for any more bad news.
“We also found out that Sidney isn’t at all human but she’s an Espy, whatever the hell that is.”
Now that wasn’t at all surprising, Ryder had already knew this but promised Aaron that he wouldn’t say anything to her until Aaron gave him the go ahead.
“Yea, I know,” he said to Skylar. “Aaron and Ciana weren’t at all sure if she would be but now that they were sure they wanted to start her training as soon as possible which obviously didn’t happen because of Aaron’s passing.”
“So now what?” she asked.
“I don’t know, but I promised Aaron that I wouldn’t get involved unless he asked me to.”
“Well seeing as though he can’t ask you to what are you going to do?” she asked.
“I still don’t know,” was his response.
“Well I know what I’m gonna do,” she said standing on her own two feet and moving away from Ryder.
“Oh yea, and what’s that?” he asked crossing his arms against his chest.
“Ethan offered to help me and I feel as though that’s the only way I’m gonna get somewhere, I can’t do it by myself,” she said as if her mind was set.
“You always have me,” Ryder reminded her.
“Always is a long time Ryder,” she said leaving the room.
“Who is Ethan?” Ryder asked deciding against commenting on her last statement.
“Ethan is an investigator, he also happens to be my boss and on top of that he’s my Uncle,” she said as she turned toward the stairs and took them two at a time. “So there for he’ll help and we’ll get this done a whole lot faster.”
“Ok and what do you
suppose I do?” he asked as he followed her up the stairs.
“I don’t know, whatever it is you do best I guess,” she said as she entered a room.
“Funny, but I’m serious,” he said as he realized that it was her room that they had stopped at.
“And so was I,” she said as she collected a few items from her drawer and disappeared behind a door.
Ryder wanted to solve this as much as she did; besides it was his wisps that were going missing and being killed.
Ryder walked farther into her room after he heard the bath water running.
Her walls were covered in orange and red paint which was unusual for a girl Ryder thought, he was so used to seeing blue or pink walls, even green but not orange. Her room was also clean, like OCD clean not a thing out of place, not a spec of dirt on the floors it was just clean. Her bed was covered with all various sized and shaped pillows; they weren’t stuffed animals like you see in most girls’ rooms they were just pillows with different shapes and sizes that sat on top of a tangerine bed spread.
There was a poster sized photo of what Ryder was guessing was a 5 year old Skylar with her mother and Father that hung above her bed and smaller pictures of the three through various ages that decorated the tops of her desk and dressers. One picture in particular caught Ryder’s eye though. It was a picture of Skylar in a baggy outfit of sweat pants and an off the shoulder top paired with sneakers standing next to a geeked out version of Brooke with pig tails and glasses and beside that picture was another picture of Skylar in her baggy outfit next to a boy wearing football gear with his arms around Skylar but strangely enough his face was scratched out.
“I’d appreciate it if you put that down,” Skylar said as she walked farther into the room hair still wet from her shower.
“Who was this, an unlucky ex?” Ryder asked referring to the jock in the picture.
“It would appear so,” she said as she sat down at her vanity chair, blow dryer in hand.
“Let me guess this picture was taken on Halloween,” he said as he moved behind her chair as she began to blow dry her hair.
“Why do you suggest that?” she asked meeting his eyes in the mirror.
“Well for one Brooke looks all geeky and though it wouldn’t seem all that much out of place if I hadn’t met her, the problem is I did meet her and she looks nothing like this it would seem to me as nothing more than a costume. And the boy with his arm around you looks like a limp noddle who only wished to be a jock. And quite frankly I’ve never seen you in anything remotely this figure unfaltering.”
“For your information I was a dancer and I wasn’t about to wear pants that I could possibly rip. And to answer your question—that really wasn’t a question at all—no this picture was not taken on Halloween, Brooke was really a dork, and that guy was really a jock.”
“So let me guess—“
“Maybe you should stop guessing,” she cut in.
“You were the girl that everyone liked, you were nice to everyone including the outcast and everyone was nice to you in turn,” he continued as if she hadn’t said anything.
“That assumption would be correct,” she said as she laid down her blow dryer. “And let me guess,” she said leaning back in her chair as if she were done. Another thing about Skylar that isn’t at all like most girls is that she doesn’t own an ounce of makeup, Ryder thought as he ran his fingers through her hair waiting for her to continue.
“You were the guy that though everyone liked you, you only got far on fear. You didn’t have true friends at all just people who feared you or avoided you like the plague,” she concluded. Ryder smiled at her assumption though it wasn’t at all true.
“Sorry sweetheart but you are far from right.”
“Ok so enlighten me.”
“Well,” he said as he raked his fingers through her hair and met her cloudy grey eyes in the mirror. “I was that one guy in the front of the classroom who answered the teacher’s question’s once he realized no one else would, I was the guy who got excited when he got home just so he could tell his mother all about his day leaving out the parts that he knew would make her angry not at him but at herself for not being there for her son when he was being bullied, and I was the guy who in the end rebelled when things stopped looking up for him,” he finished as he watched Skylar’s reactions through the glass.
“Who would have known that Ryder Ferris wasn’t always a hard ass,” she commented.
“Well my dear there’s a lot you don’t know about Ryder Ferris.”
“What’s with the endearments?” she asked as she pulled away from him making his hands fall out of her hair.
“I’m sorry love I didn’t know they bothered you.”
“Ryder you’re too much sometimes,” she said rolling her eyes and getting up from her seat to leave the room.
“Where are you going?” he asked as he watched her grab a set of keys and head for the door.
“To work,” she answered without giving him a backwards glance.
“So you’re just going to leave me in your house all by myself.”
“You’ll leave once you realize that there’s nothing here to entertain you,” she said as she left.