Chapter 81: Filler??? (Part 2)

Being stopped by a random neighbor this way, Ryan felt pretty weird. After all, this was a very unusual situation to find oneself in, but he tried to remain calm.

Seeing the kid staring at him completely puzzled, the neighbor, Mathew, didn't know how to continue the conversation and a moment of silence followed.

As Ryan was about to ignore this stranger and turn toward the door, Mathew reached out his hand outside his car window to stop Ryan from afar and quickly said, "Hey kid, don't go there. That place isn't safe!"

Still clueless, Ryan asked, "Huh? what are you on about?"

Mathew replied using a solemn tone, "You don't understand, kid. I have seen things. Things that …I shouldn't have seen."

Ryan was shocked when he first heard this, but he eventually realized that he had encountered a lunatic by accident, and what's worse was that the guy lived next door.

In his mind, Ryan had already labeled this weirdo as some crazy person who potentially believed in false conspiracies, like the earth is flat and the moon landing was fake.

Seeing Ryan still staring at him, Mathew again spoke, "Kid go back home immediately."

"Otherwise, who knows how that monster will react? I heard that monsters like him love to torture kids until they die."

Hearing such threats, Ryan felt he was in danger and might even be facing a lunatic who escaped from a place and immediately turned around to ring the doorbell before he started knocking.

"Help, there's a lunatic outside. Help!!! Phil!!" Ryan yelled as he continued to knock on the door.

Phil, who was getting some snacks from the refrigerator, heard the loud knocking and shouts from outside. He accidently spilled something on himself from the surprise.

Phil looked towards the main door and asked himself, "Huh, what is going on out there?"

As Phil stood there motionless, he suddenly heard Claire's voice from upstairs.

"Honey, what is all that commotion downstairs?"

Phil finally snapped out of his stupor and walked to the front door, "I don't know. I am going to go check it."

After removing a pin from her mouth, Claire yelled, "Okay," as she continued to style Alex's hair.

Meanwhile, outside, Mathew sighed with a defeated face as he realized he had failed to warn the kid after witnessing Ryan ring the bell and call for help.

Mathew now had two choices; let the child perish or man up and save the youth. He paused for some time before making the only morally correct choice.

Mathew next reassured himself as if he was taking a life-changing decision, 'I don't know how strong or weak he is, but I can't just send a kid to his death knowing that I could have done something.'

Mathew, coming to a decision, turned off his car to get out. This, in turn, made Ryan panic even more. However, just as Mathew was ready to unlock the door to exit and help Ryan, he saw the Dunphy house door was opened.

His eyes widened, his palm became sweaty, his knees weak, his arms were heavy. He almost vomited his mom's spaghetti as he saw Phil's appearance.

He instantly started the engine, firmly pressed his foot on the accelerator, and dipped quicker than his dad had when he left to get milk after finding his mom pregnant.

Why had Mathew, a calm and logical person, made such a snap decision? It was because he was so utterly horrified by what he saw.

Ryan, left standing by himself in front of the door, was astounded by what he saw and moved backward before realizing it was Phil.

When he saw Ryan backed away with a horrified expression, Phil asked quickly, "Ryan, what happened? What made you shout?"

"F-First off, Phil, tell me what's on your face and your shirt as well?"

With a knife on his hand, and a sprayed ketchup on his face and shirt, Phil looked menacing and was giving out serial killer vibes.

Phil looked down at his shirt and couldn't help but say, "Awh, man, this was my favorite shirt."

Ryan next spotted a dish of French fries and ketchup lying on the ground, and suddenly everything made perfect sense.

Ryan then exhaled a breath of relief before saying, "Phil, you need to be more careful when eating. Look at the mess you have created."

Phil agreed and said, "Yeah, I got to be more careful. Come in and close the door. Meanwhile, I will get some tissues and try to wipe this off."

Ryan then started heading inside, but before that made sure to look behind to find the odd person who stopped him but found no one and felt even stranger.

Upon heading inside, Ryan saw Phil grabbing onto a few tissues and wiping off the ketchup on his face and shirt. Once Phil was all done, he asked Ryan about all the screaming he heard outside.

Hearing this, Ryan described his peculiar situation. After hearing Ryan, Phil pointed in a specific direction and asked, "Was the man from that house?"

Seeing the direction Phil pointed was correct, Ryan asked, "Yes, Do you know him?"

Phil saw that his guess was correct and said, "Oh dear, this is bad."

Ryan asked, "Why?"

Phil answered, "Ryan, you remember my dream and how it coincided with reality."

Ryan replied, "Yes, but how does that have anything…."

Before Ryan finished his sentence, his brain connected all the missing dots, and Ryan instantly understood everything.

Next, Ryan began laughing aloud, which made Phil cover Ryan's mouth and criticize him, "Ryan, this isn't something to laugh about. Also, keep it down. Claire might hear you, and the cat would be out of the bag."

Ryan continued to chuckle aloud despite being warned by Phil. This left Phil with no other choice, and he said, "Ryan, if you keep laughing, you can forget about our friendship, Phil muttered next."

When Ryan heard this, he eventually became calm. He stopped laughing and removed Phil's hand before saying, "Fine, I won't laugh,"

Phil said, "Good. Come on, Ryan, we must find a solution to this problem."

Ryan replied, "Yeah. Otherwise, next time when Jay or Gloria come over, the man will reveal the whole thing to them."

Hearing this, Phil, who was thinking, said, "No, no, no, we can't let that happen."

Ryan thought for a sec and continued, "Yeah, otherwise, it would be game over."

Phil asked, "Game over? I didn't know you were a gamer?"

Ryan answered, "I mean, who isn't these days."

Phil replied, "Cool, so what games?"

Since video games were an aspect of the entertainment industry, Ryan had no idea if they were the same or different in this world.

This led to Ryan dodging the question and responding, "Phil, let's stay on topic. We may discuss this at a later time."

Phil agreed and then asked, "You said he turned off his engine, right?"

Ryan replied, "Yeah he turned off his engine. I assumed he was getting off, but he next disappeared."

Phil pondered and said, "That's strange for him to suddenly run away. Something must have happened."

Ryan laughs again and replies, "Well, he probably thought you were covered in blood and got scared, hahaha."

Claire came down from the staircase after hearing all this laughter and asked, "Oh what are you guys laughing about."

Phil immediately responded, "Nothing."

Ryan interjected before Phil could mess this up and said, "Oh we were just having some friendly banter."

Claire asked in confusion, "Banter?"

Ryan replied, "You know just joshing around is all." He punched Phil's bicep lightly to show Claire their closeness. Phil smiled excitedly and did the same thing. But Phil's punch made Ryan's bicep stings a little, so he punched him back a bit stronger, causing Phil to rub his shoulder in pain.

"What are you guys talking about?" Alex suddenly said from upstairs. Ryan turned his face to look at Alex, and his expression froze as he laid eyes on her.

Author Note: Yes I am back and what a proper welcome an epic hate review I love this book hahaha.