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"Mr. Thomas?"

"Oh, right! Thank you."

Giving her paper too, she kept her eyes on the man, but the teachers focus was on her sister. With furrowed brows, she followed her sister and the group out the classroom, giving one last look at the teacher, meeting his eyes, before she couldnt see him no more.

All of them stood around Ashlyn and her shadow as she leaned over the table. She was showing what the two of them saw this morning; har hairs shadow. "Am I seeing this right?" Tyler asked with his arms crossed, Logan sitting next to him, and then Taylor leaning over to see it too. On the other side stood Ashlyn, Aiden, and behind the blonde boy stood Ben and Rylee. Having seen this at morning, she didn't inspect it again. "Woah that's pretty rad-"

"Let go before I break your arm."

The younger girl stiffled a laugh as Aiden immediately dropped her sisters braids. By now, she was sitting at the edge of the table, Ben on one side of her, and Tyler on the other. Having no appetite, she decided not to get lunch, and just sat with her knees pulled up to her chest, her chin resting on them. "Ha... Another mystery..." Taylor said as she kept looking at the redheads shadow.

"This might have something to do with why injuries from the phantom dimension don't transfer over to our dimension." Logan spoke up, keeping his head down. At this, the brown haired girl faced him with a soft smile. "Speaking of injuries, how are you holding up?" As she asked this, everyone seemed to focus on Logan. Lifting his head up, he looked into her eyes. "Oh, um.. It kinda feels like I have a rash and It's pretty sore. Like I've been doing sit ups or something. But It's nowhere near as painful as it was last night." She hummed in response, as she looked down at her own hand, feeling it throb with pain. 'So it's the same...'

"And what about you guys? What happened?"

Now all of them were looking at Aiden and Ben. "Ah- Right. That." The blonde turned to his cousin. "Ya sure you want me to tell em?" At this, the brown eyed sister furrowed her brows, and looked at the taller boy, seeing him type something on his phone.

"It's best to have these types of things out in the open if we're going to be a team."

This made the girl even more confused. 'These types of things'? She kept looking at the boy as he began typing once again. "But I'm putting my earbuds in until Aiden's done." And with that, he plugged them in, and focused on his phone. Her face softened, and turned her gaze back to Aiden, who began to speak. "Ight well, that's that then." He shrugged. "He is right though, It's probably best to let you know before you accidentaly set him off or something."

"...Set him off?"

"Yup. But.."

"This converstation doesn't go outside of this group."

"Understood?"





Everyone agreed, before the asshole just had to be an ass again. "Don't tell me what to-"

"OW!"

Throwing the nearest thing she could find, which so happened to be a bottle, she silenced the boy and glared at him, making him looke away. "Fine." The brown haired girl rolled her eyes at his childish actions, before she focused back on Aiden.

"I don't think any of you have realized this yet, but Ben has anger issues. Like- extreme Haha. Much worse than half-wit over there." The girl couldnt help but let out a laugh, before she slapped a hand on her mouth, looking over to the twin, who seemed annoyed with the girl, but couldnt help as the corner of his mouth curled upwards. Not noticing this, Rylee turned back to the boy who continued explaining. "And... The reason also has to do with why he doesn't speak."

"Ben was in sixth grade when the incident happened... Or was it seventh?"

"ANYWAY-"

"He's always been a big guy for his age, and his size tended to intimidate people. Despite his appearance though, Ben was pretty timid. And more than anything, he loved singing. It was everything to him. However, because of his appearance didn't match his personality,"

"He started to get bullied for it."

Once again furrowing her brows at Aidens words, she took a quick glance at the mute boy, before she turned back.

"It didn't start out as bullying. The group of idiots offered to 'fix' him first. Offering him to join their group and they would teach him how to fight. Once Ben refused though, that's when it started."

"They started to beat him nearly everyday."

A frown crossed her lips as she continued listening.

Ben was just trying to mind his own bussines, but sadly his earbuds couldnt play the music too loud, and he could still hear some of it, a frown on his lips too. He scrolled on his phone, listened to songs, and just tried to do anything to try to forget what the others around him were talking about. But it was hard. Looking through his playlist, his brows furrowed, why was nothing helping to calm him down at the moment? He didn't get it- His head snapped up at the feeling of something warm against his hand. His eyes went to his hand first, only to see a smaller, different skin colour hand next to his. Looking up, his eyes stayed on the girl next to him, but she wasnt looking at him right now. A small, barely noticeable smile appeared on his face, before he took her hand, gently interlocking it with his.

The brunette felt the corner of her mouth curl upwards as she felt Ben taking her hand, but she didnt turn her face towards him. She kept focusing on Aiden, as Ben looked back to his phone, now much calmer. And their hands stayed interlocked under the table. Having not noticed a pair of eyes on them, they continued whatever they were doing; Ben on his phone, and Rylee listening.

"Afterwards the leader, Shane, would ask Ben to join his group, and every thime, Ben told him no. Then one day, Shane decided to take things to a drastic level."

"Shane strangled Ben."

Everyone listened to Aiden in shock. Taylor with her hands infront of her mouth, Logan and Tyler looking down, and the two sisters with their brows furrowed. Hearing this, the girl tightened her grip on the boys hand, only a bit, and the boy gave a small squeeze back. Aiden continued.

"Not with the intention to kill him, but just enough to damage Ben's voice box, because he knew that singing was something precious to Ben. Afterwards Ben started spiraling into depression."

"And then depression turned into rage."

"When Ben finally went back to school, he confronted the group. But even after he beat the ones who hurt him, he didn't feel better. He didn't know what to do to make the anger go away. So he kept picking fights. Even picked up street fighting."

She looked down at their interlocked hands, before looking back up. Tyler having been keeping his eye on the girl by his side, slid down in his seat a bit, to take a look at what the girl was looking at so much under the table. His eyes catching onto their interlocked hands, he furrowed his brows, and sat back straight in his chair. Giving one last glance at the two, he scoffed, and turned back to the blonde.

"He stopped going to school, and he'd always come home late. His parent's didn't know what to do. Ben refused to go to therapy and would sneak out of the house. At some point, a kid he fough turned out to have an older brother that had connections with a gang. The gang found where he lived and, well-"

"-They ended up having to move."

"Ben was ashamed of what had happened and realized his temper was out of his control. That was when his parents suggested he come stay with us for a while. Since we were always travelling, doing new things, and exploring new places, they thought it would help him find a new meaning in life. Someething he loved just as much as singing."

"He agreed and also started going to therapy."

"And so that's how he ended up living with me. His therapist also suggested taking up calming hobbies like gardening and drawing in that notebook he always carries with him. He's calmed down quite a bit, but there are times where something can trigger his anger." Aiden had his head resting on his hand as he continued explaining. "Like when he saw Logan, Rylee and that other guy in the hallway. God, I haven't seen him that mad since like.. forever." He eyed the brown haired girl, before he turned back to his food, playing with it.

Having noticed his look, the girl spoke to him. "So he can still talk, right?" Aiden raised his brows at the girl, before his wicked smile returned to his face. "I mean- He can, but he doesn't like hearing his damaged voice, so he chooses to be silent." Aiden shrugged, and finally stopped talking, going back to his food again. Rylee gave a small squeeze to the hand she was holding, making Ben look up at her. She pointed to her ears, signaling that he can take his earbuds out with a smile.

SILENCE.

"Alright, let's move on then-"

"Thanks Ben." Taylor cut the redhead off. "For letting Aiden share that with us, I mean. You don't even know us that well, but felt like we should know as a team. I'm sure it wasn't that easy.. So i just wanted to let you know it was appreciated." The brunette smiled at the girl as she spoke. That was sweet of her...

"Ah- I'm sorry Ashlyn! I didn't mean to interrupt you.." Rylee let out a chuckle as she continued holding the boys hand under the table, watching the group. "Huh? No, It's alright. I also agree that it was considerate of Ben to let us know."

"M-Me too.."

"Yeah."

"Mhm.."

"Um.. It's a little off topic- But I think I have a theory of what happened in Savannah.." Logan spoke up as he played with his fingers. Everyone was now looking at him, and he seemed to become flustered. "Well- Er, not exactly 'WHAT HAPPENED' but how we went from Savannah, Georgia, all the way back here to Alto, Georgia on the second night."

'Right... That's something we've been stuck on for a while..'

After we left Savannah, instead of us returning to the motels on the second night, we woke up in our beds back home. Which didn'T make snese once we figured out that we always return to where we were previously in the phantom dimension. We alll ended up having to hide ourselves as best as possible until things were safe again. This whole situatin has been a disaster...

Two sisters sat next to a couch on the ground, with the younger ones head burried in her sisters neck, sobbing quietly, while the other tried staying silent, a monster peeking in through the window behind them.



But the first few night were particularly brutal..

-That's when we realised that whatever was happening at night wasn't a fluke and it wasn't going to stop.

"Okay, so what's the theory?" Tyler asked the boy with glasses, who seemed to be still fiddling with his fingers. "Well.. Because of how our injuries work in relation to each dimension, I think the bodies we use here and use in the phantom dimension are separate but also.. connected. So, if they ARE connected in some way..."

"...What if there's a distance limit?"

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A/N) UGHH HAVING TO TYPE ALL THAT SHIT AIDEN SAID WAS SO ANNOYING😭