by Keya Jay
Chapter thirty-one: Ryder Ferris
As Ryder’s car rounded that corner and stopped in front of the gates he began to get more and more nervous if possible. He couldn’t get his voice to work as he pressed the speaker button. Skylar reached across the space between them and grabbed his hand but she remained quiet, which he was grateful for.
“Loretta it’s me, buzz me in,” Ryder said as he waited for the gates to open. Slowly the gates began to open and Ryder proceeded forward. He parked his car and got out to open Skylar’s door, she took her time getting out but Ryder didn’t complain. As she stood there in front of him for the third time today he realized how truly, incredibly, breathe taking she was. He took a chance and grabbed her hand and was relieved when she didn’t pull away. They walked that short distance to the door and Loretta was already there waiting for them. Skylar trailed behind Ryder as they entered the house.
“She’s awake Ryder,” Loretta informed. Ryder nodded his head slightly in acknowledgement. “Oh I’m sorry I didn’t see you there,” Loretta said as she caught sight of Skylar. Ryder could tell that Loretta was shocked that he had brought someone here to see his mother but she didn’t voice or clearly show it as she took Skylar’s other hand that Ryder wasn’t holding and shook it lightly. “It’s nice to meet you; I’m Loretta the care taker.” Skylar smiled faintly as she took Loretta’s hand.
“It’s nice to meet you too; I’m Skylar.” Loretta’s smile was bright as she beamed it at the two of them, she seemed genuinely happy about this.
“Ok well let me get out of your way and let you get to it then, if you need anything Ryder, or Skylar,” she added, “then I’ll be in the kitchen,” she said giving them one more smile before turning away.
“Are you ready?” Ryder asked as he stood outside of his mother’s door knowing got damn well that he wasn’t.
“Yup,” she said as she stared at the closed door and watched as Ryder pushed it open slowly. Instead of seeing his mother in bed like he expected Ryder instead saw that she was up and in her wheel chair, Ryder’s mother knew that he would be angry but obviously she didn’t care.
“Hey Robby!” she said obviously happy. “I expected you hours ago—more like 24 hours ago—but I’m glad you made time. Who’s your friend?” she asked as if she could have possibly forgotten.
“I’m Skylar,” Skylar said as she walked forward and took his mother’s hand.
“It’s nice to meet you dear, I’m Ryder’s mother but you can call me Rebecca—no Ms. Ferris I aint that old now,” she said causing Skylar to laugh.
“I know the feeling, I’m only 20 and my own Uncle calls me Ms. Royce,” she said causing Ryder’s mother to laugh in turn. Ryder noticed that Skylar no longer looked nervous as she moved toward the end of the bed his mother should have been lying on and sat down.
“Sit down Robby,” his mother said as she turned her wheel chair to face Skylar. Ryder moved toward Skylar and sat down beside her so that he was facing his mother.
“So Skylar tell me what it is you do?”
“Umm well I am one of many investigators for D.E.A.N Inc. it’s a family business.”
“Oh really and so how did you meet my son? I hope he wasn’t in any trouble that I didn’t know about,” she said looking at Ryder giving him a mother’s look.
“No he wasn’t, actually it wasn’t business related at all we kind of just…sort of bumped into each other I guess,” she said obviously not wanting to tell his mother that she had been fighting and he happened to see and broke it up. Ryder’s mother looked as if she knew that there was a lot Skylar was leaving out but she didn’t comment on that.
“Oh, well my Robby has a thing for being at the right place at the right time.” Ryder was used to his mother saying that he was known for being at the wrong place at the wrong time not the right, but he let the compliment pass knowing that it was meant more for Skylar’s sake rather than his own. “So how long have yall known each other?”
“I don’t know. Not long just about—”
“A month and a half,” Ryder said cutting her off.
“Hey sorry to interrupt but it’s time to go out Becca,” Loretta said as she poked her head into the room.
“Go out?” Ryder questioned.
“Yes, the doctors think that it would be a good idea to try to get her outside at least once a day instead of trapped up in this stuffy heat,” Loretta answered as she moved behind his mother to grab the handles of her wheel chair. Ryder trailed behind his mother and Skylar trailed behind him as they followed Loretta and Ryder’s mother outside. The back of the house was large, there was cushioned benches and a beautiful garden with flowers there was even a small pond filled with little fishes, surrounded by a bird bath that water falls into the pond, Ryder knew it was gorgeous he created it all with his mother in mind. Loretta parked his mother’s wheel chair next to the bench facing the pond, and Ryder and Skylar sat next to her on the benches.
“This is beautiful,” Skylar commented.
“I know isn’t it, it was a surprise from my son, he snuck around at night and did while I was sleeping and surprised me that mother’s day morning. He knew I liked to sit by the window and so he made sure that I would be able to see it.” Ryder was glad that his mother didn’t say anymore, Ryder wasn’t sneaking around because he wanted it to be a surprise; he was sneaking around because he didn’t want his mother to see him.
“I didn’t know you were a handy man, I would have gotten you to fix my backyard,” Skylar joked. “My mother loves our backyard and I meant to fix it up for her but I never got around to doing it.”
“Oh well I’m sure Robby wouldn’t mind if you’d just ask him,” his mother said as she looked at the two of them.
“I don’t know I don’t really like messing around with the things back there.”
“And why not?”
“Well that’s where my mother puts most have her mementos’, it’s weird really because she just hangs them on the giant oak tree in our backyard and that’s where she wants all of her things to go when she dies, and I don’t know I guess I don’t really like to think of it really.”
“Oh, well I can understand that, but what about your father can’t he do it, you know can’t he help you out?”
“My father passed away a while ago, its most of his things that hang on the tree.”
“Oh I’m sorry dear I didn’t know.”
“It’s fine really,” Skylar assured. Ryder reached over and took Skylar’s hand, that’s how it always was between them, things just revealed themselves about each other but they never once had to ask. Skylar looked over at him and gave him a faint smile and just shrugged her shoulder as if it was no big deal but he knew it was.,
“You know I want to be a grandmother before I die—”
“Mom—”
“I want to feel as though I lived my life to the fullest like I experienced everything there is to experience,” she continued as if Ryder didn’t interrupt her.
“You sound kind of like my mother, she would have said the same thing,” Skylar said as she took Rebecca’s hand and gave it a gentle little squeeze.
“Your mother sounds like she was a smart woman,” Rebecca said with a small smile. Ryder didn’t like it when his mother spoke like that, it just made him think about her situation; his situation; there situation all together. “Robert always told me that if I never put a foot down then I’d forever be unbalanced, I’d never get what I want, and I’ll be dependent my whole life.”
“Robert was a controlling bastard anything he’s ever said does not qualify as good advice,” Ryder growled not at all liking the way that his mother was referencing her husband in any way.
“I know,” his mother said softly, “but he said something smart without even knowing it.”
Ryder, Skylar and Rebecca spent the rest of the day talking and eating the fruit salad that Loretta had brought them. By the time they had brought Rebecca back into the house and
tucked her into the bed instead of the wheel chair—which Ryder was grateful for—it was dark and Skylar and Ryder were getting ready to leave.
“Thank you for this visit the both of you, it meant the world to me,” Rebecca said as she fought to keep her eyes open.
“You’re very welcome,” Skylar whispered. Ryder noticed about half way through the day that Skylar was a bit distant and she looked a little sad, he didn’t know what caused it but she refused to acknowledge it when he asked her what was wrong.
“Ok I think we should give Becca some time to rest , she was up way past what she usually is and she looks tired, I know it would mean a lot to her if yall visited again though,” Loretta said as she came to help Ryder’s mother get settled.
“We’ll try,” Ryder said as he followed Loretta out of his mother’s room with Skylar close behind.
“I have to agree with Becca the fact that the both of you came means the world to me as well, I love seeing Becca that happy; it’s been a while.” Ryder knew that that last part of what she said was meant to be toward him, that it was his fault, but he refused to admit the truth of that.
“Thank you Loretta, for everything you’ve been doing for her I truly do appreciate every second of what you’ve done,” Ryder said. Loretta began to get all teary eyed; Ryder knew that it was unfair of him to just now be thanking her after 11 years of the hard work and dedication Loretta has put in.
“You are so very welcome, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat,” she said through her tears. “Now get out of here the both of you, I’d hate for you to see me bawl like a little baby,” she said as she tried to laugh.
“Thank you Ms. Loretta,” Skylar said as she went to leave the house.
“It’s just Loretta to you sweetie, you remember that the next time you come to see me,” she said before closing the door. Skylar said nothing else as she hoped into the car and waited for Ryder to do the same. Ryder knew that something had to be bothering her but she wouldn’t tell him what it was. Ryder buckled up and drove in silence he could hear Skylar sniffle and he knew she was crying but he refused to ask her if she was ok because he knew she’d either ignore him or lie and say that she was.
When Ryder parked the car in front of her house she didn’t even bother to wait for him to get out of the car and open her door she did it herself and didn’t look back as she walked away. Ryder didn’t know whether to follow her or stay in the car, but he got out of the car anyways not caring if she wanted him to follow her or not. At first Ryder couldn’t tell where Skylar was, she wasn’t in the living room or in the kitchen. He checked her room and she wasn’t there, the light in her mother’s room wasn’t on from what he could tell so he knew she wasn’t there either. He took a chance and went to what he classified as her office. He didn’t expect to see any lights because there weren’t any unless you counted the lights that came from the words on the wall. Instead of seeing the walls all lit up with lights he instead saw only one wall all lit up with lights and it was the one wall he thought she hadn’t written on yet. There were words everywhere from the top to the bottom, it looked nothing like the notes she took for the case she’s been working on, it looked instead like an extra-long story. Skylar was on her knees in front of the wall and she was writing on the floor. Ryder walked a little farther into the room so that he could see what she had been writing.
The first one Ryder came to was short and it was dated a year ago the only thing separating it from the rest was one word the stuck out on the top-center which looked to Ryder to be a tittle.
Indifference
If I knew now what I suspected then, I'd like to think I would've done things differently.
If I knew then what I know now then I would have known there's no difference between indifferently
There were a lot of poems on this wall, but Ryder didn’t know why this wall was so different from the others and why it was here in the first place. Ryder looked down to the earliest one that was dated today, but it had to have been from this morning because he was with her all day.
You're everything I never knew I wanted
I closed my mouth, opened my mind, and let my heart speak for a chance.
I've come to regret everything I ever wanted in exchange for everything I had.
Our love isn't a fact but we have faith in it. Our love isn't as true as we believe it is but there's truth to it.
When I let my mind run it goes to you instead of keep runnin,
But that's because you're everything I never knew I wanted.
Skylar got up and left without a word spoken. Ryder looked on after her to see where exactly she thought she was going but it didn’t seem as though she had gone far so Ryder moved down to the one she had just written
Deceit
You've concealed the meaning of truth;
Misinterpreting the meaning of you,
Refuses the sky's not blue,
Rebooting the outlook on youth.
You've refused the chance to review,
The world in a different room,
The chance to come to,
The door of your break through.
You've managed to turn old into new.
To deceive the ones closest to you and now you've refused to subdue;
To defeat and vanquish all that is true.
In the name of...?
Whatever it is you do.
Ryder went to go find Skylar but he didn’t have to go far. Skylar was standing in front of her mother’s door and for the first time in all that he’s been here it wasn’t locked. The smells that were coming from inside that room turned Ryder’s stomach inside out; it was worse then what he was used to. Ryder walked over to Skylar, she had her head against her mother’s door and she was openly crying. Ryder peered into the room almost lost the will to stand at the sight of her mother. “Oh God Skylar,” he said as he tried to move toward her, but she didn’t let him, she turned her back to him but only a little so that she was still looking inside her mother’s room.
“You know, I really like your mom,” she said out of nowhere as tears still took their plunge off of her face. Ryder didn’t know where she was going with that but he didn’t even pretend to care, her mom was what mattered at the moment.
“Skylar—”
“As a matter of fact I think she likes me too,” she kept going.
“Skylar! I don’t CARE! Why the hell didn’t you tell me about your mom?”
“We’re really not about to start pointing fingers, now are we Ryder? Because in all honesty there’s a lot I haven’t told you, just like there’s a helluva lot more you haven’t told me.”
“Skylar you’re treating this as some kind of joke when I’m being dead ass serious, your mother is sitting there—”
“I KNOW what the hell my mother is and what she isn’t doing I DON’T need YOU to tell me goddamn it!” Ryder was getting frustrated he knew that there was no way in hell she could have been taking care of her mother like she claimed she was.
“So what do you plan on doing about it?” he asked trying to lower his voice so as not to upset her even more.
“Did I tell you that that wasn’t all that Brooke had told me?” she said changing the subject. “She warned me about you plenty of times but I never once listened, but any way’s she told me that there was something you were hiding from me that she thought I should know.”
“WHY are you telling me THIS?! I am TRYING to get you to understand something for me and if I need to spell it out for you I will. Your—”
“She has pictures too, just in case you were to deny it,” she cut in.
Ryder sighed knowing that if he were her he wouldn’t want to hear what he was about to say either. “Pictures of what? What the hell is so important that you keep cutting me off for?” Ryder hadn’t noticed the manila folder tucked beneath Skylar’s arms until now. She took the folder out and handed it to him. Ryder opened the folder and took out the pictures but he didn’t look at them. “What
is this?” he asked.
“I use to wander why it was you never told me where you lived; it bothered the hell out of me. I used to wander why you gave me absolutely no way of contacting you but then I saw those,” she said gesturing to the pictures, “and now I think I get it.” Ryder looked down at the pictures expecting to see some pictures of him with another woman or something similar to that, but what he wasn’t expecting was what he saw.
“Who took these?” he asked.
“Does it even matter?” she asked finally turning to face him. “Honestly why the hell does it matter?! You more than lied to me Ryder, those pictures there are of you with Every. Single. Whisperer. That has gone missing and ended up dead. You knew Every. Single. Last. One and never told me about it?!”
“Skylar what the hell are you getting at?!” he asked beyond angry at her obvious assertion.
“So this was what you didn’t want me to know, it makes sense, it really does,” she said as she cried angry tears.
“Skylar,” Ryder growled.
“No Ryder! I trusted you! I more than fuckin trusted you and you’ve been LYING to me this WHOLE TIME!”
“Skylar you need to calm the fuck down and listen to me.”
“NO! I’m sick and tired of calming down and the LAST thing I want to do is listen to YOU!” she said before storming off.
“SKYLAR?!” he yelled but she didn’t stop. “Damn it,” he muttered just as she closed the door, leaving him alone with this mess to clean up. “Shit!” he said before entering her mother’s room. Ryder was pissed, he was so damn pissed it hurt; it hurt like a mother fucker. Ryder took a quick look at what was left of Skylar’s mother before cringing and backing up a step or two. He couldn’t help picturing his very own mother in the same very position and it made him mad. How the hell could she be so irresponsible? He thought as he saw the dog hovering in the corner obviously not wanting to be with her mother’s corpse anymore. “Go ahead, get out of here,’ he told the dog. Ryder looked back over toward Skylar’s mother’s body and refused his eyes the will to look away. He needed to do this, he didn’t know why but he just did. This could possibly what his mother looked like soon and he would hate it if someone saw her like that and decided to do nothing.
The decomposing tissues of her mothers’ body released green substances and gas, which made the skin a greenish-blue and it blistered—badly all over the abdomen. The front of her body swelled, the tongue had protruded, and fluids from the lungs oozed out of her mouth and nostrils; it was a sickening site.
Since there were no animals to destroy the body, the hair, nails and teeth became detached within—possibly—a few weeks, and probably after a month or however long it had stayed in this condition the tissue had become liquefied and the main body cavities had burst open. In other words the mattress she was lying on was soiled and probably nothing would help fix that problem so all Ryder could do once he moved the body was throw it away. He called a few professionals who knew more about this then he did to give him some pointers on what to do with the body. After the body was removed and the entire bedding—bed included—was sent to a dump site Ryder began to clean the room to get rid of the foul odor. He had been at it for quite some time, but once he was done he closed the door and went after the dog, knowing the smells of the room had to have stuck to his fur somehow; Ryder had to give him a bath the dog was none too happy about that.
After everything was all said and done Ryder didn’t want to stay here another minute so he got into his car and drove off toward Banquet St.
“Hey Loretta can you let me in?” Ryder said as he stood outside of the gates. There was a slight hesitation before the gates opened and Ryder knew that Loretta was probably as confused as he was; it was going on 10 O’clock and Ryder never came around that time.
“Hey Ryder did you forget something?” she asked as he walked into the house.
“No. Is she woke?” he asked.
“Umm yea, though she really shouldn’t be,” she responded.
“I’ll only be a minute,” he assured.
“Take your time, I’m sure if she could she’d kick my behind if I rushed you,” Loretta said before going back to her room.
Ryder peeked into his mother’s room and she was facing the door but her eyes were closed. Ryder snuck in and sat on the visitors’ chair—though he was the only visitor.
“Don’t let my eyes being closed fool you I know you’re there; don’t tryta sneak with me boy it didn’t work when you were little and had smaller feet and it aint gonna work now I tell you that much right now,” she said as her eyes remained closed.
“If I planned on sneakin then I would have never came,” Ryder said meaning it as a joke but not at all feeling in the mood to laugh.
“Speaking of its late so your reasoning for being here has to be important,” she said. Ryder sighed not knowing how to go about this. “So…what did she do or what do you think she did?” All Ryder could do was stare in awe at his mother, she was always able to detect his moods and what might be causing them.
“Well for one I just spent the last hour and a half cleaning up after her mother, who by the way was dead the whole time in that room,” he said, and with every word his anger came back. “She left her mother like that knowing…knowing—”
“Robby calm down there had to have been a reason she didn’t seem like the kind of person who would do something like that without one.”
“I don’t care what the hell the reason could have been there is no such thing as a good reason for that!”
“Robby,” his mother said in a warning tone, “like I said there had to have been some reason and it may not be a good enough one for you but it was certainly a good enough one for her.”
“I just couldn’t deal with her right now,” Ryder said as he ran his fingers through his hair.
“Where is she at, do you even know?”
“No, I don’t know.”
“Is that a good thing that you don’t know or a bad thing?” his mother asked somehow already knowing that it was a bad thing—a very, very bad thing, but still Ryder couldn’t bring himself to care.
“I don’t know why I should care or why I even cared in the first place she obviously doesn’t trust me.”
“Robby trust me when I tell you that it’s probably your fault. I mean that in the nicest way. I know you and you usually push people away before they can get too close.”
“But I didn’t push her away, she pushed me away.”
“And how did she do that?”
“She accused me of kidnapping and killing those whisperers,” he growled.
“So she just came out and said that you did it without any reason or cause?” his mother asked doubtfully.
“No she had pictures but she doesn’t even know that they were my responsibility, I take care of them why would I go out of my way to kill them?!”
“Does she know that? I guarantee she doesn’t and that’s where you went wrong, maybe if you would have told her that then she wouldn’t have jumped the gun and accused you.”
“But she didn’t even ask.”
“Why should she have to? If it was important enough to you then she probably thought that you would just come out and tell her. So what do you plan on doing now?”
“I don’t know,” he said.
“Well I suggest you go back.”
“Why?”
“She obviously means a lot to you or you wouldn’t have come to me for help so you should go there and clear things up with her like you just did for me, and if she doesn’t listen then you tried and there isn’t anything else for you to do, but trust me when I say she’ll come around.”
“What makes you so sure?” he asked skeptically.
“Because she trusts you. She may not think of you every second of the day but she has given you something that she knows you can break and that's all that matters. We all go through things and lash out at the wrong person it happens to the best of us b
ut we get over it and she will too.”
Ryder got back into his car with a small piece of paper clutched into his fist, he wasn’t really ready to see Skylar at the moment she hurt him more than he was willing to admit but he knew that he had this coming he should have told her earlier but he didn’t and he couldn’t blame anyone but himself.
Ryder parked in front of Skylar’s house and none of the lights were on—but that didn’t mean she wasn’t home. He got out of the car but didn’t bother knocking on the front door this time. The house was fairly empty which meant that Skylar hasn’t been back yet which was no doubt a bad thing with her addiction still going strong. He had to tell himself repeatedly that he didn’t care until he almost—almost—began to believe it. Ryder still had the piece of paper clutched in his hands he thought about just placing it on her coffee table and leaving but he saw movement in the corner of his eye and figured it was Skylar.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he asked as he realized that it wasn’t her.
“Well, well, well you don’t seem at all surprised to see me,” she said as she sat on the edge of her couch.
“Do you plan on staying here when Skylar come’s back?” he asked as he ignored her comment.
“Funny I was just about to ask you the same question? I hear you two’s little fight but who am I to take sides?” she said with a crooked smile. “This is my house so if I decide to show up in it or not is really none of your concern but what’s your excuse?” Skylar’s mother said as she cocked her head in question.
“I’m only here to drop this off,” he said holding up the crumpled piece of paper—he might have or might not have held it too tight.
“And then you’re leaving again, correct?” Ryder chose not to respond to her. She began to make tisk, tisk sounds at him before saying, “You’re here to drop off a note like a little school girl and then you’re just going to leave?” she began shaking her head like a disappointed mother. “Men will be men,” she whispered loud enough for Ryder to hear her. “How does it feel to know that you’re becoming just like your bastard of a father?” Ryder immediately went to charge at her but she quickly moved as if she saw it coming. “Isn’t that what your father always did? When he didn’t like something he hit your mother for it, didn’t that always make you cry?”
“You don’t know shit about my family!” Ryder said with an abundance of hostility in his voice.
“I know just as much as you don’t,” she responded as she moved back to the arm of the couch, now sitting directly in front of him—which happened to be a very bold move.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” he asked.
“It means that there is still a helluva lot you don’t know yourself, like the fact that you weren’t conceived out of love my dear, not even close it was more like rape—as a matter of fact it was rape.
“SHUT THE HELL UP!” he yelled. “That’s not true,” he said menacingly.
“Of course it’s not just like you refuse to acknowledge the fact that you have your mother’s disease.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, it won’t affect me; I’m a full whisperer my mother was not.”
“Is that what you honestly believe, that because your mother wasn’t a full whisperer she was able to get sick and could possibly die? Awe honey that’s not at all true, I was a full powerful whisperer and look at me—I’m dead. How do you explain that?”
“We’re not like humans and you know it. Though we all die our souls are different, which is why you were able to appear right in front of me like you’re doing. Like they say your souls cage is able to die but your soul itself is immortal and goes on to live forever—”
“I wouldn’t say forever,” she cut in.
“What the hell do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said, there is a way to kill the soul no one just knows how.” Skylar’s mother paused for a minute, “You know I feel bad for you,” she said almost sounding sincere. “Your father was one mean bastard but he didn’t grow up that way and I honestly think it was unfair of him, what he did to your family.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Ryder asked his anger turning—only slightly—into confusion.
“Let me tell you something I’m sure your parents didn’t bother to tell you.” Ryder almost said what made her think he wanted to hear anything she had to say, she could have been lying for all he knew but he was curious about what she had to say so for the first time since he had seen her sitting there he didn’t question her. “When Robert, your father, came into this world he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth while he sat on a golden high chair,” she continued taking his sudden silence as a go-ahead. “He got everything he has ever wanted. His parents were happily married and rarely ever argued. His mother took care of—what people refer to as—domestic needs you know cooking, cleaning and things of that nature, while Robert’s father made the money and brought food into the house onto the tables.”
“Well as Robert got older he started seeing things that weren’t there. He saw his father as the word of the household, the man of the house, the dominant one, the more powerful and authoritative one where as he saw himself and his mother as the submissive ones, the passive ones ready to jump at his father’s command, the ones that never dared step out of line but like I said he was seeing things that weren’t at all there. So any who with that thought in mind Robert realized that when he grew up he wanted to be just like his father.”
“I wasn’t lying when I said that your father had raped Rebecca, your mother, they were dating for quite a while and there seemed to be no signs of problems but Rebecca wasn’t yet ready for a child, she didn’t think her hear could take it—literary, but when he raped her those were his intentions, he wanted a child; he wanted everything that his father had, had which is why he chose Rebecca specifically not at all knowing about her medical condition. Robert’s father Raymond and his mother Riley named Robert, Robert because it was to prove to Robert that he belonged and that he couldn’t ever leave or else he wouldn’t fit in anywhere else—So Robert thought, when really they named him Robert after Raymond’s grandfather. But—Robert thought that if he had a kid whose name started with an ‘R’ and a wife whose name started with an ‘R’ then he’d be one step closer to being just like his father.”
“When Rebecca gave birth to you so always thought of you as her miracle child; no one thought she’d be able to give birth but she proved them all wrong just like when they said that she wouldn’t live past 25. Your mother named you Ryder out of defiance and to this day your father never knew.”
“When your mother was little her mother used to read her this story about a Prince named Robby; it wasn’t an abbreviation, it wasn’t short for anything it was just Robby. He didn’t ride a horse like most Prince’s, he rode a motorcycle bike. There was another man in the story—”
“Robert,” Ryder said remembering when his mother used to read him the same story when he was little.
Skylar’s mom nodded her head with a faint smile on her face before she continued, “Yes, coincidentally his name was Robert and he used to be king until the people of his town realized that he was not fit to be king; he didn’t care about the people so they had a re-election—if you will—and Prince Robby became King Robby. Your mother never wanted to name you Robby or your father would have thought that it was some kind of tribute to him so she named you Ryder with a ‘Y’ on purpose. Your mother wasn’t at all like most, she enjoyed the fact that there were no princesses or queens in the story because she enjoyed the idea of being able to watch the rest of the story play out through you,” she said pointing at Ryder. “You were not mean to walk in your father’s footsteps but that is exactly what you have been doing until my Sky-Blue had come around. I’m not sure if I pointed this out to you or not but it was no one’s fault but your own.”
“Your daughter has issues, serious, serious issues,” was all Ryder had to say.
“Yes
, I agree with you there but they are issues that you,” she said putting the emphasis on the word you, “chose to involve yourself in. Just like you told your friend Sidney that it was her fault that Nathaniel was dead because she had no business involving him into her mess? Well my Sky-Blue purposely didn’t involve you, you involved yourself. You chose to engage her that first night after she told you repeatedly to leave her alone, you unknowingly enjoyed the way she talked to you though because you saw it as a quest that you just had to concur, then you made it seem as though you had left her alone those next three nights when all the while you were having her followed until you couldn’t take it anymore and you decided that you’d follow her your damn self and made sure that she saw that you were doing it. But,” she said extra loudly, “even though you tried your damnedest to be your father by commanding her to do as you’d like, demanding that she show you respect it didn’t work, of course she did none of those things. Trust me when I tell you that she’s not one to be taking orders from anyone, not even herself, I’m sure you’re well aware of her addiction. I will admit this though, when you weren’t being your father all of those little things that you did for her the things that your father would have NEVER done, she respected you for those.”
“Are you sure? Because she told me on many, many occasion’s that she did not respect me.”
“And that hurt your feelings did it not? It was all for a purpose though so don’t take it to heart. My daughter has become…two completely different people; two people you have met, one being herself and the other being—what you both classify her as, and what I am in a total disagreement over—the monster. It’s hard for her to remember things, or even think straight for that matter when she’s the “monster” because she starts to think like an animal; worried only about her survival—which she believes involves the power she collects.”
“Now back to the sole purpose I am here, you can NOT turn your back on her; believe it or not she doesn’t know how to fight this addiction on her own. I don’t understand how you unwittingly made it so that she relies on you for almost everything but she does and like it or not you can’t turn your back on her—”
“Like she turned her’s on me?”
“She’s scared what the hell do you expect?! She’s going to start questioning a lot of things because that’s all she can do at the moment but in the end she’ll figure it all out but not as long as that fuckin addiction is around and you’re not. You make her forget, you make her forget all about the addiction and you leaving will just result in her getting sucked right back in again.” Before Ryder could say anything the front door flew open, the ricochet of the impact of how hard the door and slammed into the back wall had left a crack. Skylar stood in the door way, Ryder was shocked that she had looked right past her mother and stared right at him. “She can’t see me unless I make it so that she can.” Ryder wanted to yell at her mother but he refused to look crazy in the process. Ryder could see the clouds swarming in Skylar’s eyes from where he stood—which wasn’t at all a good thing.
“Why the hell are you coming back this got damn late?!” he asked her.
“Why do you care?” she shot back. “It’s my house I can come back to it whenever the hell I want to.”
“Remember don’t let her get to you,” her mother warned. Ryder almost literally had to bite his tongue from saying his next words.
“Fine you’re right,” he agreed. “It’s not my house, I shouldn’t even be here,” he said as he moved toward the door.
“Did I not just tell you to NEVER leave her alone?!” her mother yelled from behind her.
“She’s your responsibility, why don’t you watch her? You have nothing better to do,” he said as he moved past Skylar and out the door. Skylar looked confused but mostly shocked as she just stood there and watched him go, he didn’t even put up a fight.