Chapter Text
that day at the phantom realm, they decided to play board games. first, Aiden had a lot of luck in Monopoly, and Tyler flipped the board. then they switched to codenames. Logan gave Ashlyn and Taylor pretty good clues, but Tyler seemed to be struggling with the game. or perhaps he was struggling to focus on the game when Logan sat by his side.
“Batman, two,” Logan said. They had to more words to win. Taylor leaned over the words to observe them, but as soon as she was about to tell Ashlyn what she wanted to press on, a loud sparking sound came from outside the bus they were on.
Ashlyn immediately got up to check it, her friends following along.
the first thing they noticed was the lights they hung on the walls. or, to be exact, the lack of them.
“shit,” Aiden said.
“yup,” Taylor answered.
Ashlyn made sure everyone had their weapon, then made a decision. “alright, guys. we’re going to climb the wall and see if the phantoms can get to us. if they can, I’m going to need Logan, Taylor, Tyler, and Ben to hold them back. Aiden and I will fix the lights. Aiden, try not to jump off the wall again.”
Aiden saluted jokingly. “yes, ma’am.”
Ashlyn managed not to roll her eyes.
“Ashlyn! I think I found a way to climb!” Taylor called her from up. Taylor showed her knives. “I put them in the weak part of the wall to climb! and I have a rope!”
“That’s great! help Logan up first,” she ordered. Taylor nodded and followed the instructions. soon after that, all of them were up on the wall.
but the phantoms were doing something that made her heart drop.
“Are they…” Taylor said.
“creating a human ladder? yeah, I think they are.” Tyler replied.
“don’t you mean a phantom ladder?” Aiden asked. no one bothered to shut him up.
“They’re climbing way too fast!” Tyler said. “Logan, can you shoot them down?”
Logan was already aiming his gun at the creatures. “on it.”
Ashlyn and Aiden moved just as Logan shot his first shot. Aiden tensed, but Ashlyn didn’t say a thing. they needed to hurry.
They got to the first light, not too far away from the rest of the team.
“Okay, do you remember how the lights work? I assume you’d know that since you bought it,” she said. Aiden nodded, he opened one of his pockets to find tools.
“Why do you- never mind, just hurry.”
“I would, but it seems like it’s a problem with the generator. the wiring is probably damaged or it’s an overload.”
“why the fuck do you know so much about it?”
Aiden shrugged. “I’m a man of many talents.”
“Well, it can’t be an overload, since the generator is basically new every time we come back. so it’s an issue with the wires?”
“Probably, yeah.”
“so we need to climb back down?”
“Well, I don’t see any issue with the lights, so yeah.”
Ashlyn sighed and held Aiden’s hand. he looked at her with a puzzled look.
“so you don’t jump again,” she explained.
“I won’t.”
“believable.”
“They just keep coming!” Taylor yelled so Aiden and Ashlyn could her. “did you fix it yet?”
“No, but I figured out the problem!” Aiden yelled back. “just hold them while we fix it!”
“Hurry!”
“No shit!”
Ashlyn let go of Aiden hand to release the rope they used to climb to get there, but Mr. Durable took his chance and jumped once again.
“For fuck’s sake,” She cursed while going down the rope.
when she got down, Aiden was already on his knees, working.
“Alright,” he explained, “I replaced the severely damaged cables, now I just need to use insulation tape for minor damage and check the other connection before testing it.”
the timing wasn’t great, because just as he was done talking a phantom managed to pass their team’s defense.
Ashlyn stabbed it and kicked it, the knife in her shoes resulting in more damage. “hurry up! I got this!”
Aiden nodded and got back to work.
more and more phantoms were coming. Ashlyn managed to hold them back, not daring to look up at her friends.
“done!” Aiden yelled and ran the test. blinding lights came from everywhere. Ashlyn heard a few shots that almost immediately stopped and the rest of the team got down to help her.
“We’re here!” Taylor panted, running towards Ashlyn.
Ashlyn made the mistake of looking at her. the phantom took his opportunity and jumped on Ashlyn, tearing her throat. tears fell from her eyes, and hot stings of pain stopped her from screaming. She wondered if it would kill her. She wondered how much it would hurt. she wondered if any pain was greater than this.
Ashlyn woke up in her bed, still shaking with panic she carried with her from the phantom realm. the pain from the attack stung her throat. she hoped sleeping it off would be enough. She was somewhat relieved and calm when she unlocked her phone to see the group chat actively texting. the twins announced they were okay and asked Ashlyn how was she, and Ashlyn confirmed that as well. Logan did, too. Ben joined the conversation in a few minutes, and that’s when they noticed Aiden’s absence.
Aiden was usually the most talkative. He often had trouble sleeping, so he would text the group chat as if he was scared of being alone. Ashlyn noticed and decided to stay up for a while, just so Aiden would have someone to talk to.
For some reason, Aiden was more sharing at night. she never noticed it, but Aiden rarely talked about things that bothered him. Even when she was at his house and saw his old pictures when he partially admitted he was depressed, he played it down so smoothly that she rarely thought about it again. until she had her first real conversation with him.
she asked what was wrong, why couldn’t he sleep. He said he rarely sleeps well, he had sleeping pills for it but Ben had them locked away from him because he didn’t trust him. Ashlyn understood what he meant, even if it wasn’t said. She decided to stay up every night to talk to him. sometimes Ben was up, or Aiden fell asleep so she got to sleep as well.
One time, she accidentally caught Ben bandaging Aiden’s self-inflicted cuts. It was a mess. Aiden was panicking, he looked shameful and scared. She didn’t want to see him like that again.
the entirety of the last few nights went through Ashlyn’s mind as she read Tyler’s text.
Tyler
where’s the psycho? he’s the first to text usually
Logan
I’m sure he’s fine, right? @
you
do you know anything?
you
why ask me? Ben lives with him.
soon Taylor spammed the group with her tagging Ben and sometimes Aiden himself. neither of them responded.
Ashlyn thought she must be overreacting. maybe both of them were okay. maybe Aiden’s phone broke and Ben fell asleep. maybe the phantom realm exhausted Aiden into sleeping.
but she knew it couldn’t be true. she spoke with Aiden on the phone just a few minutes before midnight and even if he was asleep, he would immediately wake up in the real world and would say something.
Taylor said she’d try to call Ben, just to tell him to look at the group chat.
why wasn’t any of them replying?
Ashlyn thought back to the phantom realm. did Aiden seem strange? he was a bit quiet. she didn’t notice it at the time, because they were all so tired and quiet. but never Aiden.
His jumping off the wall wasn’t weird. it was concerning, and he was way too calm and quiet when they were up there.
well, he was strange at the phantom realm today. but why? What can she do about it?
and then she received a message from Ben.
Ben
I went to check on Aiden and he isn’t replying.
his door is locked.
shit.
Ashlyn quickly got up. she fell asleep in her clothes, so she didn’t waste any time wearing something warm.
she knocked at he parent’s door. “Mom, Dad?” she ignored the burning pain in her throat. She hoped the roughness in her voice could pass as her getting sick or something.
“What happened?” Emma opened the door for her.
“I don’t really know, but something’s wrong with Aiden.” she said. “can we go?”
“of course, can you just tell me why you think so on the way?”
Ashlyn nodded. She didn’t want to violate Aiden’s privacy, but she was convinced he was in danger.
her dad drove them there, and as soon as the car stopped Ashlyn got out of it and ran towards Aiden’s room. She found Ben there, not knowing what to do.
“Aiden, open the damn door!” she yelled. no answer.
“move over, kid,” Mike said. he kicked the door open.
Emma moved in front of Ashlyn and Ben, so they wouldn’t see what was going on. but they were worried and it was too late, despite her effort, they both still saw Aiden’s lifeless body on the floor, holding a pill bottle in his hand.