Chapter 2 a journey to the Past
"What are you doing here?" Ryan demanded jumping to his feet in anger. "Who are you?"
"Oh, Ryan, you'll know me, yes, you will." The figure's deep voice said and Ryan thought it sounded oddly familiar but as the intruder wore a cloak he still couldn't see. He knew this wasn't good though and so drew himself up to his full height.
"Look, I'm a power rangers so…" he began advancing on the interloper.
"You can not use your powers on a ghost." The voice laughed deeply and it had an eerie sound, hollow and yet whispishly.
"A ghost?" Ryan frowned puzzled by this, why would a ghost come to him? He'd killed as a follower of Diabolico but he'd not been haunted before.
"If you will." The hooded figure bobbed its head. "Now I want you to listen to me Ryan Mitchell."
"I'm not listening to a dumb ghost." Ryan spat in annoyance.
"I beg…" the invisible hand shoved him back onto the couch. "To differ." The being moved to stand directly before him so Ryan had no choice but to look at him. "Now tonight you'll have two more visitors, each will seem familiar to you. Like mine their presences are merely to show you what will happen if you do not change your ways."
"Look I'm fine I don't need…" Ryan began trying to get to his feet, why was this happening to him? Wasn't he having a bad enough day?
"Wrong, but you'll not know until you come along." The creature said extending a hand to Ryan.
The part time Titanium ranger didn't know what was going on but he knew better than to deal with mystical powers. He'd seen too much growing up to be stupid to take that hand. Besides he liked his life just fine.
"I'm not going anywhere…' He began aloud and even then the hand grabbed is and then the room faded, replaced by a wash of colors and lights. When that grew fainter he found them in an oddly familiar Kitchen.
"Where are we?" Ryan asked his guide, a little anxiously. He didn't like this but he still had the feeling he should know this place.
"Mommy!" A woman he'd not previously seen came from what had to be the pantry. Ryan gasped, it was his mother. She looked so beautiful, her long golden hair flowing loosely over her shoulders her apron stained with what had to be flower.
"Woe, Ryan slow down what's the hurry?" She asked the small curly haired boy and with a feeling like a fist to his gut Ryan knew it was him, a very, very long time ago.
"Where's Dana?" He asked in a high, squeal. Hell, he couldn't have been more than five or six. But then their mother had died when he was six.
"She's up napping why?" Brianna Mitchell asked in her musical lilt. , he'd forgot her accent. She'd been from Ireland, he recalled now. And he could even smell her scent, a catch or yellow roses.
"'I got her present!" The child jumped up and down the way anxious children do and she smiled down at his younger self.
"Well, I hope so it's Christmas Eve." Brianna Smiled and Ryan blushed.
"Mommy." He wined and Ryan couldn't believe he'd ever been such a brat. He however, was starting to faintly recall this whole scene. She'd gotten the box he held from the Santa's workshop at his school, yet he couldn't' remember what the gift had been.
"Ok, ok, go put it under the tree." Brianna continued to smile down at him.
"No, now, I wanna give it to her now." The child jumped up and down, almost on the verge of a temper tantrum.
"Mama!" The cry came and Brianna looked up a minute then back down at her son.
"Well, looks like you might get that chance." She smiled and he went running, racing through the kitchen, through the living room and up the steps.
"She was so beautiful Ryan breathed looking to the figure still positioned beside him. "I loved her so much
"Yes, and you were so excited." The entity nodded.
"All little kids are." Ryan retorted remembering his encounter with Jimmy and Katie months ago in the park.
"True but watch." The ghost said and they were upstairs now in the nursery.
"Mama…" the cries were now more clear, she wasn't just calling to them but sobbing and hiccupping.
"Dana, angel what is it?" Brianna asked her youngest child and Ryan watched envy shooting through him as his mother moved to pick up his sister.
"Monster, monster Ryan!" She cried and backed away from their mother."
"You had a nightmare?" Brianna asked and Dana just cried harder, her face looking both pale and blotchy. It was hard to believe that the pink ranger had ever been so little, so vulnerable.
"He took,' the words he now heard hit him hard, like a fist to the gut. She was still sobbing and yet her little voice forced it out.
"Dana, hey." Little Ryan stepped forward and climbed up onto the junior captain's bed slowly, his gift still in his hand.
"You ok?" She asked looking him over and the older form of the titanium ranger saw how close they were, the fear had been for him, not anything else. Hell, he'd forgotten all about that day.
"Yes, I'm ok." His little form said crawling over to sit beside the four year old child. They looked so alike an so close. Ryan had thought they'd always be like that back then. So much for innocence, he thought with a derisive snort.
"No monster?" The little girl asked and her brother shook his head and took her hand.
"No, but I got you something." He said and showed her the little box.
"For me?" Dana's blue eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.
"Yes." He grinned and she grinned back. Then she was tearing into the present with all of the fervor of a child.
"It's hard to believe we were ever like that. With no demons, no evil to fight." the older Ryan mused watching his little sister hugging the small dolly close as if she'd never let it go.
"Yes, and you were so close." The hooded figure agreed.
"But things change." Ryun said bitterly thinking of how their parents and Dana had all bailed on them.
"Perhaps." The apparition mumbled and then things again went rainbow before solidifying again in the living room of their old house.
"Take a good look around and watch." Was all his guide told him and sighing in resignation Ryan took in the whole scene.
The Christmas tree loomed in the corner, ornaments glittering in the light from beyond the window. Looking to the mantel he saw pictures and realized time must have changed, there were pictures of he, Dana and their parents and then ones of her and their Dad, but she was older, around ten.
The slight blonde creped silently down the steps and into the living room. She made her way to the tree and pulled out the little box, one Ryan recognized from the previous scene.
"Dana Molly Mitchell what are you doing down here?"
"Oh Dad!" She jumped half out of her skin.
"Dana you know we don't open gifts until tomorrow." William Mitchell chastised his child.
"'I know but I wanted to have Ryan's, I…" Dana looked away and her face was slightly crimson.
"It's funny, how you don't really remember him and yet…" her father said, Dana sighed and sank down onto the couch.
"I just want him here with us, I don't know…" She looked at her hands, then to the photograph on the mantel.
"I know honey but we can't change what happened. He's gone." William sat down on the couch beside her.
"No, no Dad, he's still with us, he has to be." She said and there was such a determination and Ryan could see her tears shimmering in the soft blue eyes.
"Yeah." William said in defeat. He seemed to go distant and then as if as an after thought he said. "You go on back to bed."
Dana shook her head and neither moved for a long time.
"It nearly killed her, sometimes, knowing her big brother had died. She missed you and the doll was all she had that you'd ever given her." The hooded figure said and Ryan wondered how he knew that. Yet he was a ghost… He probably knew everything.
"So they wrapped it up every year." Ryan said grimly.
"Yes, it was her way of keeping you close." The ghost said softly, as if he understood that pain.
"Now where are we?"
"Just watch."
"Carter, I know it's hard this year, I know that but why don't you play with the other kids." A pretty brown haired woman said and as Ryan spotted the boy with her he recognized him. True the Carter he knew had much neater hair and was a lot bigger but in any time Carter always wore that same expression on his face. It said he was thinking.
"No Mom I don't feel like it." The boy said sitting on the bed, and from it's appearance of the room Ryan supposed this was a homeless shelter. He'd never known Carter had been homeless. Sure he'd heard about the fire but not that Carter and his mother were out in the cold so-to-speak.
"Honey, I know a lot's happened but you can't lock yourself away like this." Justine Grayson said gently sitting down beside her son on the bed.
"I'm ok Mom, really." Carter said quickly and Ryan realized then that Carter's seeming aloofness was a protection, just as his distancing himself from the others had been after his return.
"Honey, we'll have a new house soon." Justine told her son brushing a gentle hand over the eleven year old Carter's hair.
"I know." Carter said and Ryan also realized that his attitude, his seemingly innate sense of responsibility had been instilled by his past just as his ease with Dana had been.
"Then what's going on?" Justine asked her son frowning slightly.
"Do you think that fire fighter; the one that saved me is ok now?"
"I bet he is," Justine told her son with a little smile.
"I hope so." Carter said looking at his hands.
"Hey why don't you open one of your gifts?" The woman suggested and Ryan was a little surprised, even in this situation Carter's mother had gotten him a present.
"Mom, we don't have money for them this year." The boy reminded her and she sighed.
"I know but I had to get you something." She then went to another cot, which was no doubt hers and pulled out a little box. He found himself watching as Carter was opening it hesitantly.
"Wow." Carter held the little model fire truck reverently.
"I'd thought you'd like it."
"I do, but Mom it has to go back, you need the money to find us a new house." Carter said handing the toy back to his mom.
"Carter, don't worry about it, we'll be fine, and a dollar or two won't make a world of difference." Justine smiled a littler.
"I love you mom." Ryan watched Carter hug his mother and Ryan felt a pang of jealousy, he should have had that, that no matter what kind of love. But no, he got taken by demons and then abandoned by the ones who'd said they loved him.
"Now where are we?" Ryan asked in annoyance as the scene once again changed. They seemed to be with in a large plushly furnished sitting room.
"Lasiandra I told you you are not staying here. When you married Kyle you made your choices." A harshly cultured voice said angrily as the two women entered.
"But mother, there's nowhere else for me to take Kelsey." Lasiandra Winslow argued and Ryan had never seen anyone look so tired or sickly. Was this Kelsey's mother? He'd never heard of friction between her family. Kelsey had just been such a happy person.
"Then perhaps you should have thought of that before you went slumming." The sharp words cut into Ryan's thoughts and he again listened.
"Mother, please Kelsey might be listening." Lasiandra looked towards the door as if afraid the child might hear.
"Fine Lasiandra but you are only staying the night. In the morning you will leave here." The old woman said tartly.
"Yes mother." Lasiandra sighed thankfully.
"That's her grandmother?" Ryan had to ask, just to be sure.
"In the flesh." His escort said and Ryan turned to the phantom, had that been bitterness in it's voice?
"I thought Diabolico was nasty." Ryan muttered shaking his head.
"When people are hurt they do things they really don't mean." The specter said and Ryan knew that there was a double meaning. He was talking about Ryan's run in with the part time yellow ranger.
"I wasn't hurt." Ryan argued.
"Weren't you? Ryan, your sister left for school, your father died and your friends were falling away further with every day." The vision pointed out easily.
"I was raised by demons and can deal." Ryan shrugged.
"But you are losing your heart." The ghost said slowly, thoughtfully.
"I still have a heart." Ryan argued, he had to or he'd not…
"But for how much longer…?" The phantom's words trailed off as Ryan found himself alone once again in his own living room.
TBC
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Well? Was it worth the wait? Listen I don't mean to be a nucence but if anyone is reading this please let me know.