poltergeist (shane x ryan)

[01]

Ryan had just moved into what possibly could be his hundredth rented apartment in Los Angeles. He always never liked moving, but he had to. Hopefully this time, he'd stay for longer than half a year.

"Aw, man." He mumbled to himself, dropping the last box to the floor. He closed the door and took a good look around. The place—it was nice. Modern. Filled with cardboard from all the boxes. He sighed, knowing he had to take another day off just to fix things around the area.

This was always the most tiring part. Getting settled in. Setting up new things, placing all your things in where they're supposed to be. Plus, no one was around to help him. He had to do everything all alone.

Taking a glance at his phone, he decided that trying to clean up his apartment was a bad idea at 1:32 in the morning. He slumped his shoulders, sighed, and headed to the bedroom, where funnily enough, he had already fixed earlier so that he could get a nice rest. He had no intention on sleeping on the floor again.

...

When he woke, the sun already poured through the windows and right into his room. He was still tired, even though he had probably slept for a good ten hours or more, he felt something was wrong. He immediately stood from his bed and fumbled for his glasses (that he had left on the floor) and put them on.

He walked out of his room and looked at the mess he had left, seemingly untouched. Still, he felt off. Probably just the new feel of the place, he thought to himself as he immediately launched into fixing the things he had left.

All the while, he still felt something different. Like someone was watching him intently, he recognized. He stopped what he was doing and took a look around. Nothing. He was the only one there. What he was feeling didn't shake off, though, and had only become stronger as he kept doing his work.

Finally, after what must have been an hour later, he sat down on the chair and pulled his phone out, trying to take his mind off the feeling, but it carried on until he heard something crash from the other room.

Ryan froze.

"What the fuck?" he whispered, standing up to go check on what had fell.

He walked into a spare room, which he had been sure was empty when he had checked on it the night before. Now, on the floor, was a photo frame. He stared at it for a while, not knowing where it had even come from—or where it fell. The room was entirely empty devoid this picture. He felt something crawl up his back, and he shivered, suddenly feeling the presence even worse than before.

He crouched, picking up the photo, and on a whim, turned it around. He didn't know what he had expected to see. What it contained was a photo of someone he hadn't seen before. Brown, blond hair, brown eyes. A boy.

The photograph looked old with many tears on the edges when he took it out of the case. It felt like the picture came straight out of the 60s, yet it was colorized. He checked the back of the photo, where a note and a date was on it.

i'm sorry

i had to do this

it isn't fair to you

but i deserved it

- s

1972

"What the fuck?" he repeated, at a much higher pitch.

Something like this definitely wasn't here when he first arrived, and even though he had slept heavily, he doubted that he wouldn't have woken if someone sneaked into his place just to put a photo into a room.

Who would, though? He thought. And how did it fall? The case was broken, and it had sounded like it fell from a pretty high shelf. There were no shelves in the room.

Just as he was about to stand to leave and take it with him, a hand-like thing placed itself on his shoulder and he jumped in surprise and fear, frantically searching the cause of the sensation.

He didn't know which was more horrifying in his opinion. Looking and seeing nothing, or looking and seeing something had, definitely, touched him. His heart raced like it had never before, and no matter how many times he blinked, it was still there.

His lungs weren't giving him enough oxygen, he felt, as he breathed heavily and hurriedly while staring at something who did the exact same back to him.

It was only after Ryan managed to get a good look that whatever was there looked familiar. Not that Ryan knew whatever this was, but that he had just been staring at a photo of it.

Suddenly, his legs could move and he ran out, quicker than he had ever done before and to the main door of his apartment. He clutched the photo and his phone, not knowing what else to do. He grew cold, and an eerie atmosphere fills over the whole place as whatever had been in the other room followed him out. It carried a blank expression and before Ryan could even leave the room, a sound rang in his ears that he registered was a voice that wasn't his.

"You seem to be in possession of something that isn't yours."

---

welcome to poltergeist, a story which i gained inspo from another one. i did not and will not copy the plot from the story i've read. i only really liked the premise of it and wanted to do my own try for it. follow me on social media and vote and comment if you enjoyed.

twitter: darkipliar