“Music?” he said slowly, somehow adding syllables to a normally two-syllabled word.
“Oh really?” Her smile widened. “So, all I have to do is click this button here, and it will turn on?”
With hesitancy, Scottie replied. “That… should be it.”
Her smile couldn’t get wider as her eyes narrowed.
Hannah pointed the remote at the TV and said “Why you little Perv-“
She never finished the word. The moment she pressed the button, there was a flicker, not on the television, but with Hannah herself. For a moment, she was there, and the next, Hannah vanished; remote and all.
Scottie blinked, taking a moment to register what he just saw.
“Ha… Hannah?” stuttered Scottie as he looked into the space she was standing mere seconds ago. “Where… Hannah?!”
Tentatively, he reached his hand in her space, or at least where she was. For a moment, there was a brief tingle of static electricity, enough to make the hairs on his arm raise. Then the feeling dissipated.
“What the fuck…” he said, then “Oh shit. Oh, SHIT!”
In a frantic burst of energy, Scottie ran through the house screaming “Hannah! HANNAH! Oh-fuck-oh-fuck-oh-fuck-oh-fuck…” over and over with varying volumes, tears, and expletives.
He tore through her room, looking in the classic hiding places they would use as kids. He checked all around the inside, then outside of the house, trying to keep his calm and appear collected when Widow Anderson waved to him while pruning her roses. He even looked through the boxes, because at this point, there was nowhere else to check.
And so, it was in the living room, twenty panic-filled minutes later, where Scottie was seated. Barely on the edge of the couch, he held his phone out, finger hovering over his mother’s phone number.
“I have to tell them… I have to tell them… What do I tell them?… I can’t tell them… But I have to…” Over and over and over again, when suddenly, he felt an odd… sensation.
It was a sudden shiver or tingle that ran through him, though the room was far from cold. His eyes narrowed as he felt the tiniest of pull on his arms and he watched as the tiny hairs start to raise up as the room started to fill with a strange static energy.
Right as he was about to say something, reality seemed to flicker before him, and suddenly, there stood Hannah.
Her arm was outstretched as she held the remote, her eyes were wide, skin flushed and sweaty, and hair ruffled. She was panting, hard, causing her chest to rise and fall with each breath. She brought a hand up to it, holding her chest as she let out a deep, heavy sigh of relief.
“… Hannah?” croaked Scottie.
As if startled, she looked at her brother, noticing him present for the first time. In the blink of an eye, her expression went from shock to rage.
“You… fucker!” she screamed and slapped him across the face so hard his vision blurred.
Scottie was just able to catch her throwing the remote down on the ground as she ran out of the room and up the stairs.
He started to run after her, feeling a sting on his lip and the metallic taste of blood.