Categories > Celebrities > Panic! At The Disco > Poise and Rationality

Masks

by nirvana93 0 reviews

Ryan's senior year is marked with trouble and betrayal. But falling for a girl involved with the supernatural might just be the end of him.

Category: Panic! At The Disco - Rating: G - Genres: Horror,Romance - Published: 2009-12-29 - Updated: 2009-12-29 - 1316 words

0Unrated
Run, scream, anything
At least wake up.

“Ryan? Get up! Stop playing dead...” a women said in a frustrated tone. Familiar hands tickled his side gently.
But Ryan only produced a sad grunt.
“UP!” His mom ordered stroking his dark brown hair.

He opened his eyes abruptly.It was like being pulled out with a suction cup.

He felt his Mother’s soft hands on his forehead checking for a temperature rise before he realized were he was.
Sitting up quickly, he threw fleeting looks all around his room looking for conformation.

A dream.
He felt sick with relief.

“Honey, are you okay?”

Ryan looked at her nervously, trying to push himself back to his ordinary little town in Iowa.

“Yes?” He mumbled. Ryan frowned at the feeble tone of his voice and explained to himself sternly that it was just a dream. No need to talk like he'd just met Frankenstein. Though his chances of survival in that situation would have been comparatively higher than in his nightmare. The head ache growing from the base of his neck - where the female monster had held him - did not help at all.

His mother smiled and put her arms around him.
“Bad dream?”

Ryan relaxed slightly at her touch. Only his mom could incite that kind of calm in a cookie situation. No matter what, he knew could run to her.

“Yes…” he said again, weakly. After a moments contemplation, he launched into a long and slightly exaggerated - not that there was much to exaggerate - account of his nightmare.

Mrs. Ross listened silently.

“Well?” asked Ryan tensely waiting for her opinion. He needed her to convince him it was just a dream; because he was failing to do so himself. "every thing was so...real. Unlike any nightmare I've ever had."

Her lower lip was twitching.

“What?” He challenged, readying his fingers to poke if she dared laugh.
But in a way, her laugh would be extremely reassuring. Maybe he was reading too much fiction.

“I think” she said, reflectively tilting her head, “this is the first day of school syndrome.”

First day back in School.
All the calm his mother had brought vanished.
First day of senior year.

“Oh no.”

“Oh yes.” She affirmed getting up to let him perform the morning works. “Breakfast will be ready in 15 minutes”

Then she left him with that sick sensation you get right before you are about to go on stage.

And after wayward Christmas party last year, thanks to the Katy episode, Ryan pretty much was on stage almost always.
In a bad way too.
Katy. Oh God please, no.



Shortly, Ryan walked downstairs from his bedroom into the dining room he knew so well. The walls were decorated by the family with home made Bulletins holding important schedules, notes saying “Hey mom, I love you :)” and lots and lots of pictures – smiling, and occasionally goofy images of himself, his mother and his sister. None of them held an image of the ‘Father’ part in the family though. Mom had told Ryan that Dad had died in the navy and that was all the acquaintance he had of his Father.


Every morning, Mrs. Ross set the table while chattering about random things to Ryan (“Finally we have new neighbours next door, I think I’ll go see them today- And Mrs. Ketchum called me yesterday; she’s adopting an Asian baby- oops,too much sugar in the tea”)
Usually Ryan listened to her happy banter with interest, but today he poked resignedly at his cereal, thinking of ways to skip the year, knowing full well any plan would be futile.
But it was better than actually thinking of School. Or those kids waiting for every opportunity to humiliate him. It was amazing how some people lived on bringing people around them down.
Every year needed an unfortunate target. He was sure it was him again.

But his train of thoughts relapsed into thinking of her again. Katy. He tried supressing them away before he got any more depressed.

Just then, Ryan’s little sister skipped into the dining room bringing in a wave of hypo-energy, bawling to a song by Avenged Sevenfold.

“Morning Quasimodo- ah, he’s thinking about Katy” she taunted, stroking his hair in mock pity.

“What…” Ryan snapped out of his day dreaming “ No I wasn’t….” he returned lamely, wishing his cheeks didn’t go red like that.

“Stop it, kids.” Their mom sighed in vain.

“She started it”

“I’m really sorry…I shouldn’t have pointed out you have a strong resemblance to the Hunchback of Notre Dame.”

“Paige!”

“What? I’m apologizing.” She said composedly starting on her cinnamon toast.

"Emo"

"Oh.no.he.didn -"

“Alright. Stop.” Mrs. Ross said finally. "You two will be late. One more word -” She looked pointedly at Paige “-and you’re grounded till Christmas."

With few more minutes of low volume squabbling, the two siblings were out of the house. Ryan received an extra big hug from his mom. It eased a bit of his nerves.



Finally, they were out of the gate and Ryan took a last look at his warm house.

“Love you!” Paige said squeezing his arm harder than necessary, “And if anyone bothers you, just call me. I don’t like it when others bug you. That’s MY job only.”

Then she took the opposite road that lead to her Middle School. She was in eighth grade and had more friends than Ryan had bacteria in his mouth, so to speak.
But despite everything else, Ryan loved Paige. Her quirks only made her special.

Ryan usually avoided main roads on his walk to School. He loved keeping to himself. That was his usual demeanor but it had become more of a condition since that junior Christmas party.

He sighed involuntarily as his thoughts played with uncomfortable memories of that party last year. The day everybody at school decided that Ryan was their new village idiot.

“Ryan” she asked that night, “do you like me?”
The question caught Ryan off guard. Katy and Ryan had been classmates since 4th grade. Nothing more than casual friendship ever developed between them. Although both Katy and Ryan knew that Ryan had a thing for her. It had all leaked out from a game of Truth and Dare in 7th grade. Everyone had taken it well; however, she still remained platonic.
No wonder her question made Ryan choke on his sprite.
“W-well, y-yes. Sure.” He mumbled. It was an extremely confusing situation, but he did get a warm feeling, regardless of everything else.
But even he had to admit that Katy was drunk stupid.
“Then” she hiccupped “kiss me”
“Aren’t you with Jake-”
She kissed him anyway.
Confused and embarrassed, Ryan tried to move away, but even he enjoyed it. Katy had grown into one of those irresistible woman who could control a man according to her will. She wanted to kiss Ryan, and kiss him she did.

He could feel his middle school crush waking up again slowly.

Only Jake, Katy’s new quarterback boyfriend, had appeared at that unfortunate moment and ended things with a bang – a punch on Ryan nose.
That explained why it was slightly crooked.

For a finishing touch, Jake had made Ryan a joke for the remainder of the year.
Katy claimed to not remember anything.

His uncomfortable thoughts slowly cleared and Ryan recognized the vacant alley he was standing in front of.

The silence felt eerie today.

He could almost see his nightmare standing there. His favorite lane seemed filled with malevolent mystery. The dream was still fresh in his mind and Ryan decided he preferred the demanding main road today.

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Hey guys! This is my first fan-fic =]
I would really like reviews and some constructive criticism.
And should I continue?
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