Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. They belong to FOX. Thanks again for the reviews. I really am thankful for them. By the way, this story isn't even close from over. Just thought I should tell you. Don't forget to review!
The three Cohens were at the movie store. The skimmed through the hundreds of movies. "Ooh! Rebel Without a Cause! Ryan would love this!" Sandy laughed. "What generation are you from, Seth?" Seth made a face. Sandy, who was still laughing, glanced towards Kirsten. She appeared to be sad. She looked at the ground and sighed. Sandy walked towards her as Seth continued picking movies. "What's the matter sweetie?" He asked, putting his arm over her shoulder. "Nothing...It's just..." she stopped herself before she finished her sentence. "It's just what? What is it? Are you really a mutant sent from outer space to destroy the planet?" Kirsten laughed and kiddingly punched him in the shoulder. "You've been hanging around Seth too much. No, it's nothing important. But I don't think it was such a good idea to invite Dawn to the party." Seth suddenly showed up behind her. "Are you doubting my plan?" Kirsten jumped a little at the sound of his voice. She turned around to face her son. She put on a sympathetic face. "No, babe! It's just, Ryan doesn't deal with things very well, and I'm afraid that if his mother leaves again, he'll have a breakdown or something. I'm worried about Ryan. You understand that, right?" Seth looked away. "Yeah, I understand, I guess. I just wanted him to get along with her."
Kirsten knew that nothing good could come of Dawn Atwood's visit to their home. All she did was cause pain, and she had no idea why she had gone along with Seth and Sandy's plan to try to get the two to make up. She was really concerned about Ryan. She had a lurching feeling in her gut that something was wrong. "Sandy?" she practically whispered. "Yes my darling?" said Sandy with a stupid grin. He wiped the grin off his face when he looked at his pale wife. "Do you mind if I go outside and make a call?" Sandy shook his head. "Go ahead. Who you callin'?" She shrugged. "Just Ryan. I...I wanna make sure he's doing alright." Sandy nodded and gave her a kiss. Kirsten walked through the sliding doors and took out her cell phone. She shivered slightly. It was freezing outside, but it was a beautiful night. The stars were bright, and it was perfectly clear. There were no clouds or anything.
She dialed the numbers to their house. She waited through one ring...two rings...three rings...She was beginning to get nervous. They were both supposed to be there, then why weren't they picking up the damn phone! Just as she thought this, Dawn picked up the phone. "H-hello?" she asked skeptically. "Hey Dawn, it's Kirsten." she said, filled with relief. "Oh! Hello Kirsten." said Dawn, her voice also notably relieved. "I just called to, uh, make sure you and Ryan were alright." Dawn paused before answering. "Why would you think otherwise?" She was getting very worried that perhaps her stupid son had called the Cohens to help him. "Oh, no reason. I just wanted to check up on you...How is Ryan?"
Dawn was comforted by the fact that it was very possible that Kirsten didn't know about their little free shopping spree, but annoyed that Kirsten didn't trust her with her own son. Even though she shouldn't have been trusted, but still. "Listen, bitch. Ryan is my son, not yours, understood? Just because you pretend to care about him does NOT make him YOUR son! He will ALWAYS be my son, no matter what. So don't act like you're his mother just because you took him in like a stray puppy, alright?" Before Kirsten could get over the initial shock of being yelled at, the phone clicked and there was a long 'beep'. Kirsten put away the phone. She wondered if perhaps Dawn had gotten drunk as she walked back into the movie store.
"How'd it go?" asked Sandy cheerfully. She didn't exactly feel like upsetting the boys, or reliving the insults she'd been given over the phone. "Fine!" she said, giving her family a big, fake smile. Seth shrugged and walked off with all of his movies in hand, but Sandy did not look convinced. "Fine? You're starting to sound like Ryan. What happened?" Kirsten really didn't want him to press the matter. "I don't want to talk about it..." Sandy laughed. "Even more like Ryan! Is everything alright over there?" Kirsten nodded. "I guess so, as far as I know." she sighed sadly. She had finally shaken off her nosy husband, but she still couldn't shake off the feeling that something was wrong.
"Done." said A.J., clapping his hands together. He had just finished taking everything they could get from the Cohens, and packed it in the back of his truck. He walked into the living room, where Dawn was standing over the phone. "Let's go, babe." he shouted at her. He walked closer to her. Dawn turned to face him. She had bags under her blue eyes, and you could tell she had been crying. "I...I don't think I can leave him like this." she said, her eyes welling up with tears. "Why the hell not?!" asked A.J. "He's my baby...I just can't abandon him again." she looked down at the ground to avoid his glare. "You wanna stay with him, then you stay with him!" he yelled. But Dawn shook her head, and finally met his glare. "Can't we take him with us? Please!" she pleaded with A.J., who kept glaring at her. "Please? We can take him to the hospital and run away! Or say that we found him in an alley or something!"
A.J. was starting to see reason in his girlfriend's ranting. He didn't want her to see him as weak, so he still refused. "I'll make it up to you...I promise, babe!" she said, winking at him. He was finally won over. "Fine. But he does anything that gets us caught, or attracts any kind of attention, and he's dead. I've already given him enough chances!" Dawn nodded. If her son messed it up one more time, then he deserved to die in her opinion. A.J. walked over to Ryan, and put him over his shoulder. Dawn opened the door for him to make sure that the coast was clear. A.J. put the teen in the back seat, lying down. He sat in the front seat and slammed the door. Dawn jumped into the car with A.J. They drove off into the night.
Ryan opened his eyes slowly. He wasn't even sure if he was still alive. "Maybe I'm in hell! Or heaven..." he thought to himself. He shivered. It was freezing, wherever he was. "If this were hell, it would be hotter, and if it were heaven, I wouldn't be cold, or in pain." he thought again. He couldn't figure out where he was, but he sure as hell wasn't dead. He saw a radio and a steering wheel. "So I'm in a car, but who's?" he thought again. His head was throbbing, and he hurt all over. He bent over a little to touch his leg, and he almost screamed. The pain was intense, and he fought hard not to black out. Then he remembered. The vase and the suitcase fell on his leg when A.J. pushed him against the wall. He heard voices outside. Both doors of the truck were open. If he knew his mother and her boyfriend, they were probably too drunk to even notice the door was open. "I don't care what I fuckin' said! I don't want him alive!" he heard A.J. scream. "Please, A.J.! You said we could take him to the hospital!" He heard A.J. snort. "What makes you think he won't rat us out?" Dawn paused before answering. "He won't! Because...because he knows what will happen if he does!"
A.J. wasn't going to hear any more of her bullshit. "But the damage is still done! He rats us out, and we go to jail! Unless we hire someone, we can't exactly kill him from jail." Dawn, defeated, gave in. "Fine. Kill him. Just make it quick."
*
The Cohens happily parked in the driveway. They walked out of the car, Seth with bags of movies in his hands. Sandy opened the door to the house and led Kirsten in. Sandy had been looking at Seth, so he hadn't seen the disaster that was their house. Kirsten put her hand over her mouth. "Oh my god." she blurted out. "What's going-" Seth was cut short by the sight in front of him. He dropped the bags of movies. "Shit" whispered Seth. "What the hell happened?!" asked Sandy, looking at his destroyed house.
There was barely anything in it, and whatever was in it was completely demolished. He ran in, as if he were going to catch the culprit red handed. He looked around, then a horrible thought occurred to him. "Ryan?!" he screamed. "RYAN!?" repeated Kirsten, who was about to have a nervous breakdown. Sandy ran outside. The glass doors to Ryan's pool house were broken, and there were glass shards everywhere. He saw blood on the ground. "Kirsten! Look for Ryan upstairs!" he screamed, tears already flowing down his cheeks. He slowly tip-toed into the pool house. It was also ruined. There was barely anything in it, and there was a photo of Ryan and Marissa on the ground.
Seth looked around the house. There was blood on the floor. He didn't even want to think about who's blood it was, but he already had the terrible thought seared into his mind that it was Ryan's. Kirsten ran down the stairs just as Sandy walked in. "He's not in the pool house." said Sandy sadly. "He's not upstairs." said Kirsten, her voice cracking. "Dawn's gone too..." said Kirsten, wiping her face. She was a strong woman. She did not cry. She kept repeating those thoughts in her head, to make sure she didn't cry. She didn't want to scare Seth.
*
Ryan's eyes widened. His own mother had agreed to have him killed. He quietly snuck out of the truck, his leg searing with pain when he moved it. He stumbled around, hiding behind bushes, until he got into a forest. He took out his cell phone, and crawled around looking for reception. He finally found some. He put his finger on the 9, to dial 911, but he just couldn't do it. Even though his mother had wanted him dead, he couldn't do that to her. He hated himself for not being able to send his mother to prison, but he still loved her. He dialed the Cohen's phone number instead, hoping they were home already. "Pick up, pick up, pick up" he whispered into the phone. He heard someone pick up. "Hello?" he whispered again into the phone.
Sandy had nervously picked up the phone. He heard Ryan's familiar voice over the phone, but it sounded different. It sounded scared. "Ryan? Ryan is that you?" he asked, loud enough that Kirsten and Seth ran up to him. "Yeah it's me..." said Ryan, looking around to make sure there was no one behind him. "What the hell happened? Where are you? Are you...are you okay?" Ryan gulped. "I'm okay, but I don't exactly know where I am...in a forest somewhere, I...ran away, so I didn't get the chance to see where I was." Sandy was dumbfounded. "But what the hell happened? We came home to find the house in ruins and you...gone. There was blood on the ground, we were freaking out! We were on our way to call the cops!" He could tell Ryan was on the verge of tears. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you...I'm sorry." he whispered. "It's okay, Ryan, everything's gonna be okay. Just stay on the line, okay?" Ryan whimpered out an "okay."
Sandy was on the edge of a breakdown. He could tell something had happened to Ryan. I mean who else's blood would be on the ground? He tried to stay calm, for Ryan's sake. "I'm going to call the cops, and they'll try to figure out where you are." Ryan shook his head. "No, no don't call the cops, please Mr Cohen, don't call the cops." He coughed sharply, trying to be quiet. "Ryan, are you sure you're alright?" asked Sandy, full of fear for his adopted son. He heard no response, just the sound of quick breathing. Then he heard a scream.
The three Cohens were at the movie store. The skimmed through the hundreds of movies. "Ooh! Rebel Without a Cause! Ryan would love this!" Sandy laughed. "What generation are you from, Seth?" Seth made a face. Sandy, who was still laughing, glanced towards Kirsten. She appeared to be sad. She looked at the ground and sighed. Sandy walked towards her as Seth continued picking movies. "What's the matter sweetie?" He asked, putting his arm over her shoulder. "Nothing...It's just..." she stopped herself before she finished her sentence. "It's just what? What is it? Are you really a mutant sent from outer space to destroy the planet?" Kirsten laughed and kiddingly punched him in the shoulder. "You've been hanging around Seth too much. No, it's nothing important. But I don't think it was such a good idea to invite Dawn to the party." Seth suddenly showed up behind her. "Are you doubting my plan?" Kirsten jumped a little at the sound of his voice. She turned around to face her son. She put on a sympathetic face. "No, babe! It's just, Ryan doesn't deal with things very well, and I'm afraid that if his mother leaves again, he'll have a breakdown or something. I'm worried about Ryan. You understand that, right?" Seth looked away. "Yeah, I understand, I guess. I just wanted him to get along with her."
Kirsten knew that nothing good could come of Dawn Atwood's visit to their home. All she did was cause pain, and she had no idea why she had gone along with Seth and Sandy's plan to try to get the two to make up. She was really concerned about Ryan. She had a lurching feeling in her gut that something was wrong. "Sandy?" she practically whispered. "Yes my darling?" said Sandy with a stupid grin. He wiped the grin off his face when he looked at his pale wife. "Do you mind if I go outside and make a call?" Sandy shook his head. "Go ahead. Who you callin'?" She shrugged. "Just Ryan. I...I wanna make sure he's doing alright." Sandy nodded and gave her a kiss. Kirsten walked through the sliding doors and took out her cell phone. She shivered slightly. It was freezing outside, but it was a beautiful night. The stars were bright, and it was perfectly clear. There were no clouds or anything.
She dialed the numbers to their house. She waited through one ring...two rings...three rings...She was beginning to get nervous. They were both supposed to be there, then why weren't they picking up the damn phone! Just as she thought this, Dawn picked up the phone. "H-hello?" she asked skeptically. "Hey Dawn, it's Kirsten." she said, filled with relief. "Oh! Hello Kirsten." said Dawn, her voice also notably relieved. "I just called to, uh, make sure you and Ryan were alright." Dawn paused before answering. "Why would you think otherwise?" She was getting very worried that perhaps her stupid son had called the Cohens to help him. "Oh, no reason. I just wanted to check up on you...How is Ryan?"
Dawn was comforted by the fact that it was very possible that Kirsten didn't know about their little free shopping spree, but annoyed that Kirsten didn't trust her with her own son. Even though she shouldn't have been trusted, but still. "Listen, bitch. Ryan is my son, not yours, understood? Just because you pretend to care about him does NOT make him YOUR son! He will ALWAYS be my son, no matter what. So don't act like you're his mother just because you took him in like a stray puppy, alright?" Before Kirsten could get over the initial shock of being yelled at, the phone clicked and there was a long 'beep'. Kirsten put away the phone. She wondered if perhaps Dawn had gotten drunk as she walked back into the movie store.
"How'd it go?" asked Sandy cheerfully. She didn't exactly feel like upsetting the boys, or reliving the insults she'd been given over the phone. "Fine!" she said, giving her family a big, fake smile. Seth shrugged and walked off with all of his movies in hand, but Sandy did not look convinced. "Fine? You're starting to sound like Ryan. What happened?" Kirsten really didn't want him to press the matter. "I don't want to talk about it..." Sandy laughed. "Even more like Ryan! Is everything alright over there?" Kirsten nodded. "I guess so, as far as I know." she sighed sadly. She had finally shaken off her nosy husband, but she still couldn't shake off the feeling that something was wrong.
"Done." said A.J., clapping his hands together. He had just finished taking everything they could get from the Cohens, and packed it in the back of his truck. He walked into the living room, where Dawn was standing over the phone. "Let's go, babe." he shouted at her. He walked closer to her. Dawn turned to face him. She had bags under her blue eyes, and you could tell she had been crying. "I...I don't think I can leave him like this." she said, her eyes welling up with tears. "Why the hell not?!" asked A.J. "He's my baby...I just can't abandon him again." she looked down at the ground to avoid his glare. "You wanna stay with him, then you stay with him!" he yelled. But Dawn shook her head, and finally met his glare. "Can't we take him with us? Please!" she pleaded with A.J., who kept glaring at her. "Please? We can take him to the hospital and run away! Or say that we found him in an alley or something!"
A.J. was starting to see reason in his girlfriend's ranting. He didn't want her to see him as weak, so he still refused. "I'll make it up to you...I promise, babe!" she said, winking at him. He was finally won over. "Fine. But he does anything that gets us caught, or attracts any kind of attention, and he's dead. I've already given him enough chances!" Dawn nodded. If her son messed it up one more time, then he deserved to die in her opinion. A.J. walked over to Ryan, and put him over his shoulder. Dawn opened the door for him to make sure that the coast was clear. A.J. put the teen in the back seat, lying down. He sat in the front seat and slammed the door. Dawn jumped into the car with A.J. They drove off into the night.
Ryan opened his eyes slowly. He wasn't even sure if he was still alive. "Maybe I'm in hell! Or heaven..." he thought to himself. He shivered. It was freezing, wherever he was. "If this were hell, it would be hotter, and if it were heaven, I wouldn't be cold, or in pain." he thought again. He couldn't figure out where he was, but he sure as hell wasn't dead. He saw a radio and a steering wheel. "So I'm in a car, but who's?" he thought again. His head was throbbing, and he hurt all over. He bent over a little to touch his leg, and he almost screamed. The pain was intense, and he fought hard not to black out. Then he remembered. The vase and the suitcase fell on his leg when A.J. pushed him against the wall. He heard voices outside. Both doors of the truck were open. If he knew his mother and her boyfriend, they were probably too drunk to even notice the door was open. "I don't care what I fuckin' said! I don't want him alive!" he heard A.J. scream. "Please, A.J.! You said we could take him to the hospital!" He heard A.J. snort. "What makes you think he won't rat us out?" Dawn paused before answering. "He won't! Because...because he knows what will happen if he does!"
A.J. wasn't going to hear any more of her bullshit. "But the damage is still done! He rats us out, and we go to jail! Unless we hire someone, we can't exactly kill him from jail." Dawn, defeated, gave in. "Fine. Kill him. Just make it quick."
*
The Cohens happily parked in the driveway. They walked out of the car, Seth with bags of movies in his hands. Sandy opened the door to the house and led Kirsten in. Sandy had been looking at Seth, so he hadn't seen the disaster that was their house. Kirsten put her hand over her mouth. "Oh my god." she blurted out. "What's going-" Seth was cut short by the sight in front of him. He dropped the bags of movies. "Shit" whispered Seth. "What the hell happened?!" asked Sandy, looking at his destroyed house.
There was barely anything in it, and whatever was in it was completely demolished. He ran in, as if he were going to catch the culprit red handed. He looked around, then a horrible thought occurred to him. "Ryan?!" he screamed. "RYAN!?" repeated Kirsten, who was about to have a nervous breakdown. Sandy ran outside. The glass doors to Ryan's pool house were broken, and there were glass shards everywhere. He saw blood on the ground. "Kirsten! Look for Ryan upstairs!" he screamed, tears already flowing down his cheeks. He slowly tip-toed into the pool house. It was also ruined. There was barely anything in it, and there was a photo of Ryan and Marissa on the ground.
Seth looked around the house. There was blood on the floor. He didn't even want to think about who's blood it was, but he already had the terrible thought seared into his mind that it was Ryan's. Kirsten ran down the stairs just as Sandy walked in. "He's not in the pool house." said Sandy sadly. "He's not upstairs." said Kirsten, her voice cracking. "Dawn's gone too..." said Kirsten, wiping her face. She was a strong woman. She did not cry. She kept repeating those thoughts in her head, to make sure she didn't cry. She didn't want to scare Seth.
*
Ryan's eyes widened. His own mother had agreed to have him killed. He quietly snuck out of the truck, his leg searing with pain when he moved it. He stumbled around, hiding behind bushes, until he got into a forest. He took out his cell phone, and crawled around looking for reception. He finally found some. He put his finger on the 9, to dial 911, but he just couldn't do it. Even though his mother had wanted him dead, he couldn't do that to her. He hated himself for not being able to send his mother to prison, but he still loved her. He dialed the Cohen's phone number instead, hoping they were home already. "Pick up, pick up, pick up" he whispered into the phone. He heard someone pick up. "Hello?" he whispered again into the phone.
Sandy had nervously picked up the phone. He heard Ryan's familiar voice over the phone, but it sounded different. It sounded scared. "Ryan? Ryan is that you?" he asked, loud enough that Kirsten and Seth ran up to him. "Yeah it's me..." said Ryan, looking around to make sure there was no one behind him. "What the hell happened? Where are you? Are you...are you okay?" Ryan gulped. "I'm okay, but I don't exactly know where I am...in a forest somewhere, I...ran away, so I didn't get the chance to see where I was." Sandy was dumbfounded. "But what the hell happened? We came home to find the house in ruins and you...gone. There was blood on the ground, we were freaking out! We were on our way to call the cops!" He could tell Ryan was on the verge of tears. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you...I'm sorry." he whispered. "It's okay, Ryan, everything's gonna be okay. Just stay on the line, okay?" Ryan whimpered out an "okay."
Sandy was on the edge of a breakdown. He could tell something had happened to Ryan. I mean who else's blood would be on the ground? He tried to stay calm, for Ryan's sake. "I'm going to call the cops, and they'll try to figure out where you are." Ryan shook his head. "No, no don't call the cops, please Mr Cohen, don't call the cops." He coughed sharply, trying to be quiet. "Ryan, are you sure you're alright?" asked Sandy, full of fear for his adopted son. He heard no response, just the sound of quick breathing. Then he heard a scream.
