Tales of the First – Ryan’s Problem Part One
September 20th, 2019 | Published in Tales of the First | 2 Comments
A couple of hours later Charlotte was sat on Sienna’s bed holding her knees and not saying anything. Sienna and the others were waiting patiently for her to be ready to talk but she was just staring in to space.
“I’m glad I have a large bedroom,” Sienna said dryly. “Because it would suck to try and host an impromptu slumber party if I didn’t.”
Wendy just snorted and sat down on the bed next to Charlotte. “Come on, Charlotte,” she said. “You said you needed help but you need to tell us what’s going on if we’re to do that.”
“I-I-” Charlotte fumbled in her bag for her telephone, thumbed through her videos and put one to play. “Watch this.”
The girls crowded around her and watched the small screen. It showed her cousin Ryan, who was indeed the short, brown haired one though in the video he was anything but quiet. He was seated at the dining table at Charlotte’s house and Charlotte’s mother was trying to get him to eat. The sound was poor but they could make out him swearing loudly at her before tossing the plate across the room. As it hit the wall the light bulb above his head shattered and electrical sparks flew from from every socket in the room forcing Charlotte – who was apparently the one filming – and her mother to retreat to the kitchen.
A moment later broke down sobbing before fleeing up the stairs.
“He’s flying off the handle at a drop of a bat and that sort of thing happens whenever he does.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “And he can hear what everyone is thinking as well. He’s refusing to eat say he can’t stand the noise and wants to die. Please help.”
“Okay.” Wendy pulled her phone out. “We’ll try. Can you bluetooth me that video, please?”
Charlotte hesitated visibly. “You won’t put it on Youtube will you? I don’t want those men with guns finding him.”
“Of course not!” Wendy said. “How can you think that! I want to show it to Martin later. He’s been helping Sienna get a handle on her powers and might have some thoughts.”
“Oh, yes!” Charlotte looked over at Sienna as she held her phone up to Wendy’s to transfer the video. “Can you help him get control? Wendy says you’re doing very well.”
“I’ll try,” Sienna said. “But I was never that out of control?” She chewed on her lip. “If he’s receiving a bunch of telepathic noise could that be why?”
“It’s a reasonable hypothesis anyway,” Wendy said. “He never had a temper like that before, and he’s just a kid. How old is he anyway?”
“Fifteen,” Charlotte said. “Though he’s so short he looks about twelve, and no, he’s always been the quiet and practical one.”
“Can he project thoughts as well as hear them?” Lucy asked.
Charlotte shook her head. “Not as far as I can tell, but he can hear what everyone is thinking – which is creepy – and he’s constantly complaining that his head hurts.”
“And he can’t stop,” Sienna said. “I’m really glad that Martin is wrong about me being a receiving telepath.” She frowned thoughtfully. “My head was hurting just before I threw that guy. It stopped as soon as I did. I wonder if there’s a connection?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Wendy said. “Though I’m not sure how we’d test it. For now let’s deal with the immediate problems. We need to figure out how to help Ryan gain control and how to stop those men finding him. Was he exposed to the mist as well?”
Charlotte nodded. “He was at the park with some friends and went all wonky and started screaming about the noise. They got him home to Aunt Louise and Uncle Terrence but a couple of hours later this stuff with the electrics started.” There was a deadly flatness in Charlotte’s tone when she mentioned her aunt and uncle and Sienna had never known her call them anything but ‘Aunty Lou’ and ‘Uncle Terry’ before.
“Louise and Terrance?” she asked. “Sounds like you aren’t happy with them?”
Charlotte’s face tightened. “They freaked. Worse than I did about you. They dumped Ryan on the streets and skipped town with their other two kids. Aunt Louise called Ryan a freak to his face and said that she hoped those men shot him. It’s lucky he wasn’t quite as strung out then and had the presence of mind to come to Mum and Dad.”
Sienna opened her mouth then closed it again. There really wasn’t anything much you could say to that.
“Well,” Wendy said awkwardly after a few moments. “We need to talk to Ryan first. Hopefully if we can help him figure out how to block out the noise he’ll be able to learn to control the rest of it. I’m sure it’s that that’s making him so volatile.”
“I’m not sure where we would even start with that,” Sienna said. “I hope we can sort it out because constantly hearing everyone’s thoughts sounds dreadful.”
“It does,” Wendy agreed. “Do you think you can coax him out of his room, Charlotte? We could do with getting him to the base to see if we can help.”
“Plus it’s a bit out of the way so hopefully it’ll be quieter there for him,” Lucy said.
“I was hoping Sienna would come over and talk to him,” Charlotte said. “I thought maybe if she showed him her powers he’d be more willing to talk to her.” She frowned. “What base?”
“It’s the cellar of an old factory where Martin and Wendy build their robots,” Sienna said. “I’ve been practising there.”
“Oh,” Charlotte said. “So will you come and talk to Ryan? Try and get him to let you take him there?”
“Sure,” Sienna said. “Will your parents be out tomorrow?”
Charlotte nodded. “They both have work. Dad only works mornings so we’ll need to go fairly early to avoid him.”
“I won’t stay the night after all,” Wendy said. “I want to talk to Martin about this. He said his mother could sense emotions. She must have had a way to filter them and maybe he can remember something about it. See if you can get Ryan to come to the warehouse the day after tomorrow.”
“I hope this works,” Sienna said.
“Thank you for trying,” Charlotte said. “I’m sorry I was such a berk when all this started.”
“Pfft!” Sienna waved that aside. “You were scared. I don’t blame you. Are we good now?”
Nooooooooooo!! Not another cliffhanger!! Poor Ryan. His parents… ugh can’t believe that 🥺
I’m am LOVING this 😁😁😁😁
LOL, I agree. Becka, how could you? And what is Charlotte’s answer, why cut there? …….. uggg. But, taking a guess by using the last chapter, since she called Sienna, I think I know the answer.
But why? Why do you do this to us?