Chap.13

Ryan fell asleep almost immediately, but his mind had been cast into a state of consciousness, and he dreamt.

From what Ryan could see, he was alone, surrounded by large buildings. Ryan was running, but he couldn’t tell what he was fleeing from, and he heard it crashing forward on the ground behind him. He ran urgently towards the silhouette of one of the buildings.

As he ran, the building got taller and wider and instead of a black shadow, it was starting to take on a gray color. In the middle of the front side was a dark hole, and Ryan ran into it, hoping that what ever was behind him wouldn’t be able to fit through the door.

Inside of the building, right in front of the dark portal he had run through, Ryan saw through the dim light stairs. He started running up them, taking the steps three at a time. Every movement he made, the stairs seemed to shift under him, filling Ryan with images of the structure collapsing, making him fall twelve feet to the ground, but he continued to run. He soon came to a landing, with a door that had rotted off of its hinges.

He rushed through it, hearing footsteps coming up the stairs behind him, very quickly. Ryan rushed into the room, and found a dead end. No windows, no other doors, no place to run. He turned quickly; ready to defend himself against his stalker. A few seconds later, Marisa ran into the dark room, a terrified look on her face. As she saw Ryan, she ran behind him and put her back against the wall.

The footsteps were still moving quickly up the stairs; the attacker would soon be in the room. A dark shadow covered the doorway, and Ryan heard a deep creaking noise. Whatever was out there was big, bigger than anything Ryan had ever fought before.

The creaking turned to a noise that sounded like splintering, and Ryan figured out that it was coming from below him, but it was too late. The floor collapsed, sending Marisa and Ryan down, into the darkness below.

Ryan awoke, his skin covered in a light dew that was made up of sweat, and he was panting heavily. The house was still bathed in darkness, and on the floor above, Ryan faintly heard the snoring of Mr. Rodriguez, and outside he heard Duke giving a light growl in his sleep.

The dog is never happy, asleep or awake… Ryan thought to himself. Outside, a swift wind was blowing through the town, bringing the smell of the ocean, a smell that didn’t make it into the house.

The sleeping family, in their dark, quiet house, made Ryan think of one thing: It’s always calm before a storm… Then he fell back to sleep.

As he awoke in the morning, Ryan instantly noticed a change in the house. Besides the light filling in through the window, the air in the house had changed. The night before, when Ryan had awoken, even though Marisa’s parents had had a fight, the air was calm; there was an absence of hostility. Now, the air was full of tension. Even Duke seemed to feel it, and was silent.

Besides the difference in the feeling of the house, Ryan noticed something else. He didn’t feel any of the pain he normally felt when he woke up in the morning. He jumped to his feet, and pulled his shirt up, eyeing where the werewolf bite had been. There was nothing left but a little slit, looking more like a shallow scratch than anything else. The gunshot wound on his ankle was completely healed, too.

Ryan laughed out loud. It was a laugh of pure joy. Ryan hadn’t felt so rejuvenated since he had found the addresses on the Internet, though that joy was extremely short lived. I’ll have to get back to the library before I go, so that I can get that address again. Ryan walked out of the room and into the kitchen, expecting to see the family sitting at the table. Instead, he found the room empty, but Ryan did find a note, written by Marisa:

Ryan,

My Parents had to go to work, and I had to go to school. Since you’ll be alone with Duke, you can put him out in the yard if he makes you uncomfortable. My parents don’t want you to go outside, but I think that would cause more problems than it would solve. My Mom will be back around two, so try to stay out of trouble until then.

Marisa

P.S. Mom checked your wounds this morning. She thinks you’ll be able to leave soon.

“Great…” Ryan muttered to himself, though it didn’t stop the joy bubbling up in his stomach. Ryan walked over to the fridge, and opened the door. He had eaten the previous night, after the trip to the hospital, but that hadn’t done anything to quench the ravenous feeling in his stomach.

It looked like Mrs. Rodriguez had known how Ryan would feel. On a plate stood a sandwich. It wasn’t a homemade sandwich with white bread surrounding turkey; it was the classic fast food sandwich. It had three tiers of meat patties, each topped with cheese. Ryan’s mouth watered just looking at it, but what put his stomach doing back flips in happiness was a sticky note put on the plate that said, “Ryan-This is for you, have fun.”

It only took a minute for Ryan to devour the sandwich, but it served its purpose. Ryan put the empty plate in the sink, and threw the note away. He was just beginning to wonder when Mrs. Rodriguez would have had time to get the burger, when an acidic taste fell over his tongue, and the colors of the kitchen began to blend together.

“What’s going on?” He muttered, starting to sway where he stood. From somewhere to his right he heard Duke barking, though it was slower and of a lower pitch than what the sound usually was. Ryan was even certain that the noise made waves in his vision. Even his voice seemed to sound lower.

“I’ve given you a small dose of tranquilizer. You are going to make me rich, and those two cackling magpies will never know.” Mr. Rodriguez said to the side of Ryan. His words seemed to come out agonizingly slow.

Ryan tried to turn his head, but the effort seemed to take a lot out of him.

“So your motor skills are already shutting down, that’s almost ten times faster than the package said.” Ryan heard the sound of the man walking forward, and than felt something scraping against his neck, and he knew that Mr. Rodriguez was putting the collar on him.

“You’ll learn to follow orders sooner or later, so I won’t have to use the tranquilizers. Don’t worry, I used a low dosage, you’ll be fine soon.”

Ryan was already beginning to feel the effects going away, “Great. I got away from the sick people, but I ran right into the twisted person.” Ryan said slowly, each word making him light headed.

“Nice joke. How funny is this?” the man pushed the button on the box he was holding, turning it on. Ryan twitched, pretending to feel something. He kept pushing the button, and each time Ryan twitched, he counted. On then off. On and off. On.

Ryan looked up, and stopped twitching, “It’s really funny, but the joke’s on you!” Ryan almost yelled, smacking the switch on the box around his neck.

At first nothing happened, making Ryan think that he had counted wrong, and the man would realize that he had made a switch. Mr. Rodriguez took a step forward, reaching out to grab the collar with the hand that wasn’t holding the shock box, when he stopped with his eyes wide, his mouth starting to curve into an arc, and his nostrils flared, and his eye started to twitch.

“Yeah, it’s funny isn’t it? Maybe I should start a side show for you!” Ryan said, jamming on the button. He pressed the button once more, than tore the collar from around his neck, as Mr. Rodriguez threw down the shock box. Ryan noticed that he had burnt a square into the man’s palm.

“Amazing, isn’t it, how the world works?” Ryan asked with a snide tone, “Remember, do unto others as they would do unto you.” Ryan quoted. He didn’t know where the words came from, but it sounded right, so he went with it.

“Ryan, the great philosopher. Ryan, the soon-to-be sideshow…” Mr. Rodriguez said, coming towards the boy, while reaching into his side pocket, “You might not believe this, but the pharmacy sells tranquilizers in bottles that hold dozens, if not hundreds of pills.” He pulled out the container, though he held it in his left hand, his right hand being the one that had been burned. Diligently the wounded man reached in a pulled out a single pill. He slammed the bottle onto the table, making a salt dispenser fall over, spilling its contents.

“What does that matter?” Ryan said, backing away, “If your plan is to attack me, you really need to take a few seconds to think. I’ve killed genetic misfits that were designed to be murderers, meaning you don’t have a chance.” Ryan finished, finding his back was against the wall.

“Marisa told me all about how you defeated the monsters. You killed the thing with claws by using a gun. There’s no gun here. You beat the first werewolf by flying up and doing a dive and breaking its neck. Not enough room for you to do that here. You didn’t even kill Bob or the second werewolf. Meaning you’ve only killed two things, only one with your bare hands.”

“That’s what you think.” Ryan said, remembering Scorpio, though there wasn’t any liquid nitrogen here.

“Either way, you don’t have any way to kill me in here.” Glancing to the side of Mr. Rodriguez, Ryan started to doubt that. Close to Ryan’s left side, on the counter, was a block of wood with knives. To his right was a fire extinguisher. Behind Mr. Rodriguez’s shoulder, Ryan saw a clock. It was around one thirty, which meant that Mrs. Rodriguez would be home in half an hour.

Mr. Rodriguez noticed his gaze, “She won’t be here soon enough to save you. I can tell her that you decided to leave!” He dived forward, but Ryan slid to the right, and grabbed the fire extinguisher and ran to the other end of the room, and stood right next to the door. He pulled the pin out from under the handle, and pointed the nozzle towards Mr. Rodriguez. From what he could tell with a quick glance at the label, Ryan figured that the extinguisher shot out foam.

“Don’t move.” Ryan ordered while making sure that his eyes didn’t leave the man.

“What are you going to do? Spray me? It won’t do much good.” The man took a step forward.

“No, just make it very hard for you to get out.” Ryan pointed the nozzle at the floor, a little way between him and Mr. Rodriguez. He grabbed the handle, and squeezed. The force of the white foam cascading out of the hose almost made Ryan drop the fire extinguisher, but he held on with all of his strength, not letting go until the floor was covered.

Mr. Rodriguez smiled, “I think you need to work on your aim.” He said, taking a step forward. The minute he put weight on the foot, it slid out, making the man slam into the floor.

“You might want to think about that for awhile.” Ryan ran out of the door, closing it behind him. He turned around, and slammed the fire extinguisher into the knob, making sure that it could not be turned, than he ran across the hall and grabbed a chair, wedging it under the knob. From inside the room He heard a slam, followed by a string of curses.

Ryan looked around, ignoring the noises that came out of the room.

Do I stay, or should I leave? Ryan thought to himself, ignoring a pounding on the door behind him. Ryan glanced at the clock in the hallway; half an hour is a long time. He could get out of that room, then what would happen?

Ryan didn’t have to wait long to find out; at that moment the door to the kitchen burst open with a shower of splinters, and the knob on the front door started to jiggle.