Tyler opened up his eyes for the first time in a while. He was still laid up on Kaiya’s lap and she was still brushing his hair trying to relax him. He looked up at her and he couldn’t help but feel a little bit of a weird feeling. He didn’t know what that weird feeling was, but he couldn’t deny it. He still felt a little iffy about her and was still questioning why she ended bothered to help him in his quest to find his sister. But now, that he remembered some more important details, he decided to change the objective goal of who he wanted to save from not just his sister, but to his mother as well. He had felt that by actually sitting back and trying to piece together what the events were that lead up to them having to live with their aunt, that he had actually changed history just a little bit. Hopefully, that wasn’t just his imagination because he had a lot of regrets, but that something good actually happened in that flashback.

“So, you made some good headway Tyler,” Kaiya said smiling. “I’m proud of you. How do you feel?”

“I feel alright I guess, I still have a lot to talk about, but I feel like I got some of my thoughts together. Elise… something was very off about her. I just couldn’t figure out what it was. And I still don’t know why I can’t.”

“Maybe, it could be because she was just an abnormal girl?”

“No, it couldn’t be that simple. She was the one that wrote me that note that night, she was the one who came and talked to me that night. She literally infiltrated my thoughts without any difficulty whatsoever. That was a big problem that stuck with me for the longest time; I could never figure out an answer as to why she was the way that she was.”

Kaiya pondered to herself what that Elise girl was like and why she was so mysterious to Tyler and his family. There was no reason in particular that she would have needed to act so out of character. What was the purpose of writing that letter to Tyler? She thought about that question long and hard as soon as Tyler mentioned that part in his backstory of his stepfather’s family. She had her suspicions of his family, but at the same time; she had just met Tyler a few days prior, so she didn’t know what to think of him. But she knew that she saw something in him that most people had refused to look at. He was innocent in her eyes, maybe it was potentially because she had some kind of feelings toward him, but that would have been hard to judge because of her lack of knowledge of Tyler. But she knew that she could trust him, she didn’t know why she could, but she knew that she could.

“What about Elise made you feel uncomfortable about her?” Kaiya asked.

There was a slight pause after that question was asked. Tyler had a multitude of answers, but he didn’t know how to comprise them into one full-fledged sentence without sounding like an idiot or paranoid. He felt that he was more leaning towards the ladder rather than the former. But as Tyler thought about that question; Kaiya had some more questions about his initial story. Like for example, how did Andrea know about the money that Tyler’s mother was going to get? Unless there was something that his stepfather did prior to him passing away; there would have been no way that she could have known about that money. Secondly, what was Andrea’s goal with trying to get Tyler and his family to live with her? She was having a lot of trouble understanding the purpose of them living with her. Yes, his stepfather died, and yes, his mother was very sick. But that didn’t mean that she could not have taken care of both Tyler and his sister.

Both of those facts were very concerning to Kaiya, she couldn’t answer those questions. She couldn’t rack her mind around those facts.

Tyler had thought long and hard about Kaiya’s question, but he just couldn’t find an answer that could justify his paranoia.

“I don’t know honestly.” He said. “I couldn’t, well, I still can’t describe her at all. Especially when I was twelve, she was just very weird to me. As I said, I swore that she held that candle up to Desi, and I swear to God that she said something to Desi to make her cry. But I didn’t have any proof according to anyone, including my parents. So, I had to let it go.”

“So, do you think that she wanted to get revenge with potentially accusing her by trying to psychologically mess with you?”

“I don’t think it was that, but I feel like once I go over the events when I was living with Andrea, then I should start to put some of the pieces together.”

Tyler let out a deep sigh and sat up. He rubbed his eyes and look at Kaiya who was still in the same position, but now her arms were crossed against her chest.

“So, now what?” She asked.

“What do you mean?”

“How do you want to do it?”

“Do what exactly?”

“Try to relive the flashback? We already got one of them already done. We have time for one more.”

Tyler looked out of the window and stretched his arms.

“I would love to, but I fucking exhausted.” He said. “Talking about my shitty childhood made me even more tired than I already was.”

Kaiya tried to hold back her laughter. She knew that Tyler had literally slept for hours prior to screaming himself awake, but she knew that pressing him any further would cause him to potentially close up on her and that would have ruined any chances of finding out any more information about his family.

“What is the purpose of this?” Tyler asked. “Like what is me telling you about my shitty life going to do for us?”

Kaiya had a feeling that that question was going to surface again. She was never prepared for it because she knew that she didn’t have the right answer zero percent of the time, but she knew that she had to give him an answer to make him trust her.

“Well, as I said, I’m here to help you to the best of my ability.” She said. “I could write down what you said, but I don’t know if that would be a good idea because then it would be our word against your aunt’s and now potentially Elise as well.”

She started feeling a little down about the fact that she may have been wasting Tyler’s time. She was starting to feel that she couldn’t help him.

“What am I supposed to do?” She thought to herself. “I can’t help him, I can barely fucking help myself for Christ’s sake!”

She started tearing up and held her head in her hands. At that point, she felt useless and hopeless.

Tyler saw that she was crying and proceeded to sit close to her and began to comfort her. He didn’t know what to do in that situation, he had yet to be put in a situation like this before. However, he felt like shit because he didn’t have any experience in helping others because he could barely help his sister, let alone himself.

“Hey, it’s alright.” He said. “Don’t worry about not being able to come up with an answer to that question. You shouldn’t feel bad. You actually wanted to talk the time out of your life to help me and you’ve never met me before. Most people would hear about this situation and immediately turn around and leave. So… thank you.”

Tyler’s words hit Kaiya with passion. She didn’t know what to make of what he just said, she had known him as a standoffish kind of person. But when she heard him say that she felt so happy inside.

She looked up at him and smiled.

He smiled back at her.

“W—well, thank you for reassuring me that I can at least help someone in need.” She said.

“Shit, at this point, you might want to reconsider your education and become a therapist or something.” Tyler laughed.

She laughed quietly to herself. And after a while, she felt a little better and stopped crying.

“Well, is it alright if I take a shower?” Tyler asked.

“Yeah, that’s fine. The bathroom is down the hall.”

Tyler let go of Kaiya and got up and walked over to his belongings and walked to the bathroom.

He turned on the water and stepped in and began to wash. As he was standing in the hot water, Tyler started to hear a voice.

He looked out of the shower to see Desi (now eight years old) sitting on the toilet looking at her phone.

“Desi? What are you doing here?” He said. “Wait… why are you here?”

Desi didn’t respond, it was like she was occupied by the phone in her hands.

Tyler didn’t think much of it because sometimes Desi would come into the bathroom while Tyler was taking a shower and just sat on the toilet and usually would just talk to him. But he didn’t hear the door open, however, the shower was pretty loud, and he wasn’t paying attention, so she could’ve just walked in, and he didn’t hear her.

But at the same time, he hadn’t seen his sister in a very long time, so her being here was an unexpected occurrence.

“Umm… Desi? Are you alright?” Tyler said.

Desi was still occupied by her phone and still didn’t respond to him.

He just stared at her for at least a minute or two and was completely confused as to why she wasn’t responding.

There was a knock on the door.

“Hey Tyler, are you alright in there?” Kaiya said. “Who are you talking to?”

Tyler didn’t realize that he was talking so loudly, but he didn’t expect her to walk up to the door and notice him speaking. It was almost like she was sitting by the door listening to his conversation.

“Oh, no one,” Tyler said. “Just having an out-loud thought. Sorry, I’ll keep it down.”

“Oh, alright. I was just asking.” She said.

He waited for there to be a consistent sound of silence before he peeked his head out of the shower to see if Desi was still sitting there. However, she wasn’t there. Where could she have gone to? She was just there a minute ago.

Tyler tried to not think about it too hard, he was already wasting so much hot water, to begin with. He eventually got out of the shower, and that’s when he saw Desi again. But when he saw her again, she was sitting on the counter for the sink. She was just looking at Tyler and was smiling at him. That same innocent smile that she always gave him whenever he looked sad or was feeling depressed about something. He felt that he could always rely on the fact that Desi would always deliver a smile to brighten up his day or to take away any pain that he had.

“I can’t help but ask you if you’re okay or not.” He asked.

She again didn’t respond. What was going on what her? Was she mute? Was she too scared to say something and was just putting on a happy face to hide her fears? What was it? Tyler did not have any ideas as to what to do or how to fix the situation.

As he looked at Desi, he couldn’t help but start to tear up. Aside from the flashbacks and that dark visions of her, that was the first time that he actually saw her somewhat smiling at him. Most of the time, it was just a quick smile or something to try to reassure Tyler that she was alright. It was never once a legitimate smile, but Tyler never knew that because he never asked. He felt that he didn’t need to, he thought he knew his sister like the back of his hand. But alas, he was starting to question if he even knew her to begin with.

“I know you must be scared or questioning how you got here, but it doesn’t matter. I’m just glad to see that you’re alright.” He said tearfully.

He went up to hug her, but when he went to sneeze her; he went through her. Almost like she was a ghost or something. He was confused, he was for certain that she was real and looking at him at that moment. There was no way that she wasn’t real. That was a harsh reality that Tyler just wasn’t willing to accept, unfortunately.

That fact caused him to cry even harder. He knew that he had once again failed to save his sister, at least that was what he believed in that very moment because he couldn’t actually hold his sister in his arms like he wanted to. But she still stared at him with that smile on her face, but when he looked up, he noticed tears starting to fall from her eyes and that her eyes were turning red. He knew that he had to do something to fix it, but he didn’t know what to do. That was the problem, he couldn’t figure out how to fix any of the situations that he was presented with. And that fact completely enraged him internally. He felt his blood boiling, he felt surges of rage flow through his body. He needed to hit something, someone, hell, anything at that point. However, the problems were that he wasn’t in his own home and secondly, he didn’t want Kaiya and/or Desi to get scared of his rage because he never actually learned to control it. It always spiraled out of control; it was to the point that he actually put Elise in the hospital because he—

That shouldn’t be said. Apologies about that.

You didn’t read that.

Sorry, got a little carried away. Apologies.

Tyler couldn’t help himself though, he finally got to see Desi for the first time as an adult and that was the situation that he was put in. How was he supposed to react to that? Most people would have just lost their minds at that point. Imagine losing someone so close to you and then when you thought that you saw them again, they were like a ghost; you couldn’t touch them or hold them.

And that was happening to Tyler at that current moment. He was beside himself though. He did start to tear up a little, however, at the same time, he couldn’t let Kaiya see him like that. Actually, in his mind, he couldn’t let anyone see him like that. Especially after what happened between him and his aunt and cousin after moving in with them. He felt the anger and rage that he felt at that time, not being able to do anything because he was so powerless. However, he couldn’t blame himself though, he was way too young to do anything. He couldn’t stand up to his aunt, and whenever he tried to deal with Elise; he would always get shut down by his aunt or by her herself. So, in short, he was literally on his own at the point. And feeling like the world was against you and there was nothing that you could do would cause anyone to grow up with some anger issues and some paranoia.

And that was the case with Tyler, but he didn’t realize how much it was affecting him.

The effects of being psychologically drained and having people trying to psychologically break him caused him to have major trust issues. He couldn’t find it in himself to open up to anyone. Even before he met Kaiya, he knew that he couldn’t rely on anyone because of the fact that no one would believe him. Whatever Andrea and/or Elise did to Desi and their mother was so nonchalant that no one would have noticed anything wrong with them.

And Tyler knew that, but he never did have an answer.

He looked up and saw that Desi was now gone, she disappeared the same way that she entered: quiet and without warning.

That was completely fantastic, now what was he supposed to do? He couldn’t believe that as soon as he saw her; she just left. Now he was crying a little more, but he still tried to keep his sobbing down so that Kaiya didn’t hear him. But he had a feeling that she was listening in on whatever he was doing.

There was a little quiet knock on the door.

“Tyler, it’s me,” Kaiya said. “Are you alright? You’ve been in there for a while.”

Tyler attempted to wipe his tears and quickly cleared his throat so that it didn’t sound like he was crying.

“Uhh… yeah. I—I’m alright. Thanks for checking on me.” He said.

“Yeah, any—anytime…”

Then there was silence. He didn’t know if she was still standing on the other side of the door or not. But at the same time, he really didn’t care. He was too distraught to think properly.

He finally pulled his self together and put on his clothes and stepped out of the bathroom and walked back into the living room area. And he saw Kaiya sitting on the couch watching a TV show wrapped up in a blanket.

“Are you feeling alright?” She asked.

“Yeah, I—I’m alright. Are you alright? You look like you’re freezing.”

“No, I’m alright. Just a little cold, I guess. Do you want to watch this show with me?”

Tyler walked over towards the couch and looked at what show was on the screen.

“What is it?” He asked.

“I don’t know. Some random kids show that I just happened to stumble across.”

“I mean, we can watch that or something.”

He sat down next to her, and they watched that TV show. He was a little uncomfortable about the situation because he had never sat next to a girl before like that. Usually, it was just to do menial things like homework or something, but it was different in that case. Kaiya sat back further into the couch was wrapping herself up further in the blanket to keep herself warm.

“Are you that cold?” Tyler laughed.

“Shut up! You gonna try to warm me up?”

“No, but I can try I guess.”

Tyler reached over and grabbed his favorite hoodie and gave it to her. She then looked at him and started to blush a little bit.

“What are you doing?” She asked.

“You said you were cold, so I’m letting you wear my hoodie. It’s my favorite, so don’t mess it up.”

She was really blushing at that point; it was really noticeable. However, she tried to play it off like she was phased by Tyler giving her his hoodie.

She put it on and then wrapped herself back up in the blanket. She was apparently still really cold.

“Are you still freezing?” Tyler asked.

Kaiya looked at him with a pouting face and lightly shoved in a playful manner.

“Oh, fuck off! Yes, I’m still fucking freezing.”

Tyler then picked up Kaiya and rested her on his lap to where her head was resting on his shoulder. All of a sudden, she was feeling a lot warmer and started to get a little tired.

“Do you feel warmer now?” He asked.

“Well, a little bit. I’m a little more comfortable.”

“How are you more comfortable when you’re sitting in a fetal position?”

“Because someone is holding me, that’s how?”

At that point, Tyler too was starting to blush. He had never heard a girl say that to him before, let alone “cuddled” with a girl as well. He didn’t know what to make of the situation. He was more confused than anything. He knew that he felt something toward her, but he didn’t know whether to trust her or not. Which in his case at that very moment, he was conflicted. To be fair, he did just open up to her and gave her a glimpse into his childhood and how his life was prior to moving in with Andrea and Elise, however, there was still more that he wanted to talk about and didn’t know how to tell her about those events. On top of that, he didn’t know how to tell her about the hallucination that he had about Desi. That whole situation was very weird because Desi was around the age of eight years old. However, the last time he saw her, she was thirteen. So, that whole situation was very weird to Tyler, he couldn’t explain the situation and why she was so young in that hallucination. At the same time, he didn’t know that he was hallucinating; he actually thought that he was looking at Desi in the flesh as if she was actually there looking at him.

It was at that moment; he knew that he needed to do something to try to rectify the situation. However, he had more prominent matters on his hand at that current moment. He had a girl who he’d never met in his life resting on his lap. He was very nervous and tried not to get… aroused by that fact.

Although Tyler was wide awake, he noticed that Kaiya wasn’t talking and that she was very still. But she was still breathing, so that indicated to Tyler that she was still alive. But he didn’t know if she was just watching the TV show or if she had actually drifted off to sleep. Either way, he didn’t want to bother her. He looked down to see that her eyes were indeed closed, and she was breathing very lightly and was sound asleep. He figured that all she wanted to do was warm up because she was cold, but he wasn’t expecting to pick her up and lay her on his lap to try to warm her up. Even though she was in his hoodie, she was still wrapped up in the blanket.

“Wow, she looks so peaceful.” Tyler thought. “She’s so beautiful when she sleeps, yet she’s unaware of it.”

He started to brush her hair very softly, trying not to wake her up. However, she wasn’t fazed by it. She was knocked out at that point. It could’ve been that she was exhausted from him waking her up out of her sleep and now that Tyler was calm, she could safely go back to sleep knowing that he was okay.

“Hmm… I guess she wouldn’t mind if I changed the channel to something else.” He thought.

He picked up the remote and flipped through the channels when he stumbled upon a news channel that was talking about child abduction and murder of that child. He considered turning up the volume on the TV, however, he didn’t want to wake up Kaiya for her desired slumber. But he was very intrigued by what the news channel was broadcasting. So, on a whim, he turned up the TV to the point where he could hear it, but it wasn’t loud enough to wake Kaiya up.

“We have further news on the abduction of a ten-year-old girl that was abducted just a few days ago. She was considered to have been abused and neglected in her residence, thus prompting her to allegedly run away from her home. But in the same breath, when police questioned the parents about her relationship at home, they stated that their relationship was fine and that there were no allegations of abuse or neglect in the household. However, police have their suspicions as to why the girl ran away. In other news, the missing child that had been abducted two weeks ago was found murdered in an abandoned shed on the outskirts of the city. It is unknown how that child ended up there and how they were murdered. People are skeptical saying that the child froze to death, others are saying that it was foul play. Police and investigators are now on the case and are searching for clues and answers to the case. If you have any information on either child, please call the police as soon as possible. Now back to the news back at the station…”

Tyler couldn’t believe what he just heard.

“There was an abused child? And another child was murdered?” He thought. “One of those children could have been Desi. No, there’s no way. Andrea is evil, but she wouldn’t murder Desi, right?”

The fact that Andrea had the ability to commit murder started to get to Tyler. He started to get very anxious as to why someone would murder an innocent girl. What did Desi do that was so bad to Andrea and/or Elise? Was it the way she looked? Was it because of who her father was? Did they always not like Desi because of who she was? Did they feel that since Tyler’s mother was too ill to do anything to stop them, they took advantage of that and proceeded to abuse Desi as revenge for Tyler telling his family about Elise? There were so many questions that he had, but he didn’t have an answer for any of them. And that enraged Tyler. He had already felt that he had failed his family because he left them in the hands of his aunt and cousin, but also because he wasn’t sure of whether these two children were Desi or not.

However, there was something that Tyler was thinking about. At that time that the news was broadcasting the children, Desi was thirteen years old. The child that was abducted was ten years old. So, that child couldn’t be eliminated from the list. Therefore, that left the other child that was abducted and murdered. There was an uncertainty of who the child was. The news didn’t give a name as to who the child was or how old they were. So, the child could have been anyone. That was the thing that was scaring Tyler, he didn’t know whether to panic or be calm. Because that child could have been Desi, but Tyler had to keep reassuring himself that Andrea wouldn’t have murdered Desi, but at the same time, he couldn’t shake the feeling that all that was possible.

He noticed that Kaiya was moving around in his lap. So, he assumed that the volume was too loud on the TV. As a result, he quickly turned down the volume out of courtesy of Kaiya. But she was already moving around in his lap, but Tyler wasn’t aware of that.

“Your heart rate was very high just now.” She said quietly. “Is something wrong?”

She lifted her head just enough to see Tyler’s face, but she still rested her head on his shoulder. She was in such a comfortable position; she didn’t want to move.

“No, not really,” Tyler said. “Just a thought rummaging through my head.”

That was both true and false. True because it was a rummaging thought in his head. But it was also false because he was lying saying that there was nothing wrong even though there was something obviously wrong. He just didn’t want to tell Kaiya about it for some reason. Although, he had already begun to open up to her slowly but surely. There was still a sense of distrust lingering inside of him, yet he couldn’t shake that feeling. For better or for worse, it didn’t matter. He still felt like the world was against him and he had no one to turn to. But there was this person sitting there waiting to hear more about his story and was also waiting to provide any assistance that they could give. But in his mind, he was still very conflicted. He was angering himself trying to understand why he couldn’t trust this person that had completely opened themselves up to him. The more that he pondered on why, the angrier he was becoming towards himself.

“I have a slight feeling that you’re lying to me,” Kaiya said breaking his racing thoughts.

“How do you figure that?”

“Well, firstly, you were talking to someone in the bathroom even though there’s no one here except for us and my dog. Secondly, I heard you softly crying to yourself when I walked by. Thirdly, your heart rate was very fast just a few minutes ago and is starting to increase again. And lastly, I see that you changed the channel to the news, so there must have been something you saw to make you feel the way that you’re feeling. Am I right?”

Tyler tried to hide the fact that he was caught up in the act and that he couldn’t deny what Kaiya had just told him. He knew that she was right and had to accept that fact.

“Y—yeah, you’re right,” Tyler muttered.

“What was that? I couldn’t hear you.”

“Yes, you’re right. There, are you happy now?”

Kaiya smiled and laughed softly to herself, “Couldn’t be happier.”

Tyler rolled his eyes in annoyance, yet he wasn’t too upset at Kaiya however. She did say that she was studying psychiatry and mental health, so it really didn’t surprise him to hear all these things that she was telling him. However, at the same time, he was kind of surprised that she could piece together such facts in such a small amount of time and with such little to go off of.

“So, what was on the news while I was sleep? Hopefully, something good I’m assuming?” Kaiya said.

“It’s the news channel, usually it’s some biased bullshit that they feel like spewing out their mouths to make a headline.”

“Well, apparently what you saw really triggered you. Care to tell me what it was?”

Tyler looked down at Kaiya to see that she was also looking at him. He started blushing a little bit.

“W—w—well, i—i—it was nothing really. You wouldn’t have cared to hear about it.” He stuttered.

“Please, I have heard some really fucked up shit. Whatever you say probably not scare me.”

Tyler took a deep breath and cleared his throat.

“Well, if you insist.” He started. “I stumbled the newscaster talking about two children that were abducted. One was ten, and the other one… well… their age was unknown. The ten was just abducted recently, they claimed that she was a victim of child abuse and neglect from her family, however, when the police questioned her family; they said that there was no indication of abuse or neglect going on in the household.”

“I see…” Kaiya said. “So, she was only ten? Did they say who abducted her?”

“Nope, since she was abducted recently, the police are trying to figure out who abducted her and how she was abducted. Her location according to the police is still unknown.”

Kaiya felt a chill go down her spine.

“W—what about the other child?” She asked.

Tyler sighed and looked at her.

“Do you really want to know?” He asked.

She could see the seriousness in his eyes. Like he had just witnessed a murder, however, his face was fairly neutral. His eyes, however, were completely emotionless and ominous.

She didn’t want to know what happened to the other child, but she was already way too invested in the story to turn back and say no.

“Alright, go ahead.” She sighed. “What happened?”

Tyler cleared his throat and took another deep breath.

“Well, the other child was also abducted. However, they were murdered. The police found them dead in a shed. They didn’t describe the condition of the child, they just said that they were dead. The theories were that the child either froze to death or was murdered in another location and then was brought back to that shed and the dead body was just left there. The child’s gender was unknown, they’re still trying to figure out who it was. They don’t have a name for the child either. So, everything about that child is a mystery. And also, they don’t have an age for the child either, so the child can be either a little child or a teenager. They’re not sure yet, I’m sure that the police will give out more information in the coming days.”

Kaiya felt tears running down her face, she couldn’t believe what was hearing. How a child could be abducted was one thing. But to hear, that a child was abducted and then murdered on top of that was something that she couldn’t handle. As a result, she started crying out of sympathy for both children.

Tyler didn’t know what to do in that situation. Whether to blame Kaiya for asking him to tell her about the second child, or whether to comfort her because she was crying. He decided on the ladder and wrapped his arms around her and comforted her while she wept to herself. That was the first time that Tyler had the opportunity to comfort someone that was not Desi in his life. He just did what his mother would do to him when he was sad. It seemed to work a little bit because Kaiya stopped crying after about fifteen minutes.

Once she composed herself, she looked up at Tyler and smiled. Her eyes were still bloodshot from crying, but she was glad that he was there to comfort her.

“W—was that the reason why you got so angry?” She asked. “Did that remind you of your sister?”

Tyler pondered on the question for a few moments even though he knew the answer to the question. He was just wondering if he was overreacting or if he was right in his reasoning for being so angry.

“Yes, that was the reason why I was starting to get angry.” He said. “That girl that was abducted was too young to be Desi, but the situation sounded similar to hers. However, that second child that was abducted and then murdered really rubbed me the wrong way because that child could’ve been anyone. And in my mind, I was scared to think that that child could have been her, but at the same time, I had to reassure myself that Andrea, albeit is a very evil woman, couldn’t find it in herself to murder anyone. Especially Desi or my mother. But I can’t shake the feeling that it could’ve been possible.”

Kaiya looked at the TV to see that the news was off and was showing some other show. She stretched her body and sat up and hopped off Tyler’s lap and walked into the kitchen. She was still shaken up from the story that Tyler had just told her. But she knew that in order to help Tyler, she needed to find the strength to push past her fears and concerns to help him.

Tyler noticed that she was taking quite some time in the kitchen. Maybe she was getting something to drink or something to eat. He wasn’t sure that she had eaten anything or had drunk anything when he was asleep. However, he was concerned for obvious reasons. He got up and walked into the kitchen to see her drinking some alcohol in a small glass cup. She was grabbing her forehead insinuating that she had either a headache or a migraine.

“You alright?” Tyler asked.

“Yeah, I—I’m fine. Thanks for asking. Just a little stressed out for hearing those stories, you know?”

“Y—yeah, I understand what you mean.”

He leaned up against one of the counters and stood there just to make sure that Kaiya didn’t drink too much.

After a few minutes, Kaiya saw that Tyler was still leaning against the counter and then walked over toward him and laid her head on his chest once again. She had her drink in her hands, but she just needed someone to be there for her.

“Most people don’t actually tell me scary stories, or any stories at all for that matter.” She chuckled. “Hell, most people barely want to be my friend half the time because I’m allegedly so weird to some people. However, they are people like you that actually want to be there for people like me, especially in a time like this. Oh, would am I kidding? I’m a fucking wreck right now. You probably think that I’m useless or some shit. I can barely handle a story about two fucking children getting abducted! L—like, what the fuck, you know? I don’t get it! I—I—I don’t understand! I—I—”

Tyler wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly.

As a result, she started crying once again. She was sobbing even harder than before. She couldn’t wrap her head around someone actually being there for her. Especially, in a time like that. She hated for people to see her drink, let alone have a mental breakdown in front of someone. She was supposed to be the one comforting Tyler in his situation, not the other way around. She felt so guilty about that. She felt as she said, useless. She was defeated.

“You have nothing to be ashamed of,” Tyler said reassuring her. “You have done nothing wrong. You wanted to know, so I told you. You weren’t expecting a story like that. It’s understandable for someone to be scared after hearing a story so dark and grimacing. Everyone deals with their fears differently, and that’s alright. But you shouldn’t feel guilty about feeling useless or some shit like that. I appreciate you being there to help me.”

Her tears slowly went away, and she stopped crying. She put her glass down on the counter and stood next to Tyler, trying to pull herself together.

“It’s late, you should try to get some sleep,” Kaiya said. “I’ll be fine. Thank you.”

“Are you sure?”

“Y—yeah, I’m sure.”

She leaned and gave him a kiss on the cheek and smiled to reassure him that she would be fine.

Tyler looked at her and smiled.

He walked out of the kitchen into the living room where the couch was and took the medication that he was given at the hospital. Once those kicked in, he turned off the TV and closed his eyes.

***

Tyler looked around to see that he was all alone. Was he still dreaming or was awake? He wasn’t sure.

He couldn’t move his body, but he could move his eyes.

It was dark. The only thing that provided any light was the TV, but there was only static showing on the TV.

“Tyler, what’s going through your head right now?” A voice said. “Looking back on those events have really screwed with your mental state, haven’t they? I wouldn’t be surprised if they did.”

He then could see something moving in the corner of his eye, but he couldn’t move his entirely to see who or what it was. All he could hear was a voice.

It sounded like her voice.

There was no way that she knew where he was, it was impossible.

He was able to recognize a figure slowly move into his vision. He thought it was Kaiya because it was her apartment. Well, that was what it was supposed to be.

“I honestly feel bad for you, seeing those children on that screen really messed with you, didn’t it?” The voice said. “It would be quite interesting if that was your sister, hmm?”

The figure finally came into view, it looked like Andrea’s figure. But he couldn’t see a face on her, the darkness in the room and then the brightness from the TV made the figure have a silhouette-type appearance.

The figure moved closer and closer to Tyler’s face until it was speaking in a whispering tone.

“It’s only a matter of time, just try not to think about it too much. Worrying about such matters will only drive you mad.”

He felt a finger run across his cheek.

“Have a goodnight, and… try to sleep well.”