Chapter Ten: Here By My Side, The Devil

Previously:

"I know, right now, that I haven't explained everything to you. Well, we have a few hours until the doctor comes and I can take you. I suppose now would be a good time to tell you.

"The reason I can't use my real name, and the reason why I've been borrowing your cousin's, is because there is a man named Branden Grayvler…and he wants to kill us…"

Oh, my god…

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"I'm not exactly sure of everything that happened to you, but I can tell you what happened before your accident."

I heard the chair scrape across the floor, the sound getting closer. Had she moved nearer to explain? I suppose so, but I pushed these small musings away and prepared to listen carefully.

And I did.

She talked for a while, hours it seemed. I learned a lot from her explanation. I learned what happened to me. I learned the whole truth, but not the way you think. As she began to explain to me the situation, my head split in two.

"Shit!"

Ashley yelled as I somehow gripped her hand so hard, I was sure I had broken something. Then it went white, the memories flooding through. This time, I knew it was everything…

"Haha!"

I looked over at Ashley. Her smile spread all the way up to her eyes. A real smile. It made me smile right back. We'd had a great day, just hanging out.

Ash stopped the truck in my driveway, and as I went to unbuckle myself, she pushed me back into the seat.

"Wait here a second…"

She got out of the truck and headed in through the front door, yelling for someone. According to Ashley, she was yelling for my father.

"Arthur!"

She called through the house, until she walked into the kitchen. From the truck, I was getting impatient and unbuckled myself, heading in the same way.

"Ashley!"

I yelled. I heard something clatter in the kitchen, and I headed there. I saw Branden standing behind Ashley with a shocked look on his face. He saw me, and ran out of the back door which had been sitting open.

I thought he was gone for good.

I turned to Ashley, finally seeing what she had.

There was my family. On the floor. Laying in something.

It was blood…their blood…

"Mom…Dad…"

"Spencer! Don't look! Get out, right now!"

"Mom!? Dad!?"

"SPENCER! GET OUT!"

"What's going on? Ashley? What's happening!?:

"Spencer, ge—"

"TELL ME WHATS GOING ON!"

"I found them."

"You found them? Like this?"

"Yes."

"You just FOUND them?"

"Yes! You have to believe me!"

"I-I…"

"Please!"

I ran out of the kitchen when Ashley looked up at me, covered in my family's blood. I stopped in the living room, hunching over and placing my hands on my knees.

"Spencer! Come back!"

This all seemed familiar to me. My memories had smashed themselves together when I first started getting them back, but now they were so clear to me…

"Spence!"

"What do you want?!"

"Just hear me out!"

"No! You didn't see you in there! You didn't see what I just saw!"

"It's not what you think it looked like!"

"There was so much blood! How could that happen? And you were just sitting there, right in the middle!"

"I was trying to save them!"

"You killed them! YOU KILLED THEM!"

"No! How could you think that?"

"You were on the floor…"

"I tried so hard, Spencer!"

"You're covered in their blood, right now!"

"I was trying to save them! Please, please believe me!"

"What was he doing there?"

"He? Who are you talking about, Spencer?"

"Branden! What the hell was Branden doing there?"

"Oh, my God…"

"What?!"

"It was him…"

"Are you talking about Branden? What is going on here, Ashley?!"

"No! Don't you get it Spence? It was Branden!"

"Branden?"

"Yes! He was there before I was even in the house! He…he was covered in their blood, Spencer…he just let me go past him!"

"Oh my god…"

"It was him, Spencer! Branden killed your family!"

"NO!"

She walked over to the other side of the couch, where I was standing, my hand over my rapidly beating heart.

"Listen, I know you don't want to hear this, but it was Branden! It was!"

I could only nod as the facts finally slammed into my vision, and I was forced to believe what she was saying. Suddenly I started coughing. Gray was covering the ceiling, and looked like it was coming from the kitchen.

Ashley and I ran back to see the whole kitchen up in flames, the bodies of my family members caught aflame. I scrambled to get ahead of Ashley, to save my family, but I could only yell one thing…

"FIRE!"

"Shit! Spencer, run! Run, and don't you dare look back!"

"Ashley!"

"GO!"

"Not until I know you'll be okay!"

"Spencer, if anything happens to you…"

"If anything happens to me, what?"

"If anything happens to you I won't be okay. You need to get out now!"

Part of the roof fell onto the island in the middle of the kitchen, exploding everywhere. Ashley turned back to me.

"GET OUT!"

She shoved me toward the front door. I spun around to see her run out of the back door, presumably after Branden. I wiped the sweat from my forehead, and began running out of the front door, down the street.

As I ran, I couldn't help but try and look back at the disaster that used to be my family. My home. As I began to crane my neck sideways, I hit something and tripped, falling face-first into the concrete.

I black out for a moment, but my eyes snap open against my own power. She flips me over. I'm on the ground it seems. I can see her reach down and touch my head as she cradles my body into hers. She brings her hands up. But they're different. They're wet…

Its blood. My blood. Her hands are covered in my blood. "I'm okay!" I want to tell her, but I can't seem to move anything. My lips stay still, my arms are loose, but my eyes stay open. I can't blink. I look back up at her and she's crying.

She thinks I'm dead.

No. I'm not! I'm alive! See?!

She can't see. She can't see because I'm not moving anything. I focus on my hand, the one she's now holding, and gather whatever life is left in me and attempt to squeeze her hand.

I did it!

She blinks at me, not quite believing it. I squeeze again, much weaker this time. A smile graces her features.

And I'm seeing black.

The sheer concentration of that one tiny move has drained whatever energy or adrenaline that was previously surging through my veins, and my eyes finally close.

"I love you, Spencer."

I love you, Ashley…