The AH family

Ch. 10

Geoff's POV~~

I push open the door and step inside.
"Ryan!?" I pause...silence. I quickly walk to his room and through open the door. "Ryan!?" nothing. "shit!"
I begin to walk down the hall but pause, "he couldn't be..." I turn around. in Ryan's closet there's a hatch to the crawl space. he used to always hide up there when we would play hide and seek with mom. I return to his room and look up at the small opening in the ceiling. The crawl space door is slightly ajar, but it could have been like that for years. I grab a flash light off the top of his dresser and push the trapdoor aside, placing the flashlight between my teeth. I pull myself up and look around. a small figure cowers in the corner. I completely pull myself into the small space and slowly go over to him.
"Ryan..." I say quietly.
"Go away..." he replies.
I crouch next to him. I gently wrap my arms around him as he lets out a quiet sob.
"It's alright" I whisper to him. We sit in silence for a minute before I carefully pick him up and climb out of the hiding place. I carry him over to his bed and sit down, placing him gently on my lap.
"Shhhh... What happened Ryan?" He sniffles and looks up at me.
"I-I'm sorry I didn't go to class..."
"It's alright, now tell me what happened?"
He takes a deep breath and tells me the whole story, of how the lady yelled at him when he dropped off Ray and how he ended up here.
"It's alright Ryan, don't worry. Everything is okay now."
"G-Geoff... I-I miss mom..."
"I know you do. I miss her too. We all miss her."
"I do to want to drop Ray off tomorrow."
"That's okay. I'll drop them off."
"Th-thanks."
"No problem little bro... and Ryan?"
"Y-yeah?"
I look him in the eyes. "Never run off like that again."
"I won't."