-prologue-
It was supposed to be a fun night. Booze and teenagers and too much to lose. The lifeblood of summer.
Leigh had gripped her red Solo cup of apple juice like it was her life force. Not much tempted her out to a party, but even she couldn't avoid this one.
The fire looked too big and dangerous for so many drunk teenagers to be stumbling around. They stood around it, shouting and cheering as if they were having a good time. It wasn't exactly like the parties on TV, chiefly it was populated by actual high schoolers, not 30-something actors, but it was true enough to form.
Leigh clung to the outer fringes, hoping her unfriendly expression was enough to keep most people at bay. It did, for the most part. She spent her time scanning the crowd for a familiar face. A few people from school but no one she could talk to.
Nick was around here somewhere. He had told her he would be, and asked her to meet him there. Leigh had blindly agreed. He said he had a surprise, she was pretty sure she knew what it was. As time passed, though, she felt maybe as though she had been stood up.
"Oh my god," Brandi Tessenburg approached her unsteadily, using a friendly embrace to regain her footing, "you made it! I thought you had plans!"
Brandi was Leigh's lab partner at school, and was as sweet as she was pretty. She always informed Leigh of who was having a party and where, but never pushed. Leigh, in turn, would make up something that always conflicted with said party. Despite Brandi catching on after the first couple weeks, she persisted.
"I cancelled," Leigh replied sheepishly.
"Well good," she still held on to Leigh's shoulders, "Yaaay, Leigh Walker, outside, hanging out."
It wasn't like Leigh didn't like being outside, she just preferred the day, and sobriety, "Did you see Nick anywhere?"
She nodded excitedly, "I did."
When it became apparent that she would not continue, Leigh prompted, "Where?"
"Where what?"
"Where is he?"
"Who?"
"Nick!" She gave Brandi's arms a light shake.
Brandi giggled, "Oooh, I saw him over by the cars earlier, it's really kinda lame if you ask me."
Leigh agreed, and then got Brandi back to the heart of the party. Then, she set off towards the patch of grass acting as a parking lot.
Just as Brandi had reported, Nick was there, leaning against his old battered pick-up truck a bottle in his hand. A crooked smile spread across his freckled face when he saw Leigh approach.
"Evening, ma'am," he greeted her, tipping his imaginary hat. It was the only thing missing from him looking like a true farmhand. His flannel button up and boots would have you thinking he had strolled right off a ranch.
A blush spread across Leigh's cheeks, "Evening, sir."
He moved over, giving room for Leigh to sit beside him. They sat in silence for a while. A fall breeze brushed the leaves above them as the last of the crickets and frogs hummed across the field.
"The world seems too right, doesn't it?" He began at last.
Leigh didn't want to know what he meant, but of course she did. It was the whole reason they were out there, "At least he's gone now."
"A bullet in the forehead," he sighed, taking a swig of his drink, "hardly seems right after all he did. After Robert and Daniel."
Leigh truly hoped Nick hadn't drug her all the way out here to talk about their dead classmates.
"It really puts things in perspective. They were us, you know. We could have been them. Last thing Robert said to me was how he was planning on getting online later that night if I wanted to join his campaign.
"He had no idea how short his life was going to be. He was just a kid who played video games. He never got to be anything."
Nick turned to her his blue eyes bright with fear, "Leigh, I'm scared. I don't want to end up like them. I want to fall in love and get married and have a job and kids. I used to be so afraid of the future, but now I'm more afraid of not having one."
His voice cracked and strained as he tried to hold back tears. For few moments his chest heaved as sobs tried to crawl their way out of his chest. Nick had never been afraid of crying, but he had shed too many tears over the past few months.
"You will have a future. What happened, it's over now," she assured him.
"Let me finish," he grabbed her hand, "I feel so stupid, can't even ask a girl out properly. Leigh, I have never dated a girl from our school, not because I didn't like one, but because I didn't want to end up like my parents. Divorced high school sweethearts fighting over custody of their three kids. I'm not, we're not, them, though. We're better, we're,"
He didn't finish his thought, instead he pulled Leigh's face into his.
It was supposed to be a fun night. It was a fun night.
A scream came from the party, breaking off their kiss. Another followed. Nick grabbed Leigh's hand, whether to protect or seek protection, she wasn't sure.
"What was that?" He asked.
"Probably someone caught their jacket on fire," Leigh responded, before realizing she was one of a few sober people here, and if someone got hurt, she should probably check on them, "come on let's go see."
There was another scream, this time it was male. And then all hell broke loose. People came running by. It looked like the police had shown up.
Nick hopped on the hood of his truck, "Oh my God, we gotta get out of here."
"What's going on?"
He just shook his head and began patting his pockets.
"Nick!"
He looked up, his eyes wild, "Dammit, I put my keys in the box."
His hand gripped hers tightly again, "We need to run."
Although she followed him, Leigh still protested, "Hey, it's fine, the cops can't really get anything on me, I haven't been drinking. I thought they were gonna stay away anyhow."
Nick was sprinting, but he threw back a glance, "Cops? What? No Leigh, He's back."
"Who?"
"Who do you think Leigh? Marshall Hanson."
Leigh found her feet after that.
There was a thud next to them, followed by a ripping sound and muffled cries. Then again, this time closer.
"Oh my God," Nick hissed with every breath, "ohmygodohmygodohmygod."
His hand was torn from hers, which brought Leigh to a halt. She could have run, but she knew it wouldn't do any good.
She turned. Marshall Hanson crouched in front of her, his hands scrabbling at Nick as he tried to crawl away. Tears fell from his wide blue eyes. He seemed torn between wanting her to help and wanting her to run.
Seeing no outcome in which she made it out alive, Leigh made a very stupid decision.
She roared and charged straight at the attacker. Whether it was dumb luck or the element of surprise, Leigh didn't know, but she did manage to knock him off of Nick and onto the ground.
As Nick scrambled away, he tried to grab at Leigh's clothes, but when she didn't budge, he left her.
Leigh had seen Marshall Hanson before, albeit not in person, his beady eyes had stared out of every television set in the state for months. This was not Marshall Hanson, not the one she knew. His neck was too long, his fingers too sharp. In fact, we're it not for those beady eyes and the bullet hole between them, she would believe it wasn't Marshall Hanson at all.
A blood red tongue ran over his pale, thin lips. His claw-like hands dug in the ground. The way he posed reminded Leigh of a cat just before it pounces on it's unsuspecting target. Except in this case she was the prey. Still, she didn't move. Something kept her rooted there like a statue.
With one swift movement Marshall Hanson lunged at Leigh.
xxxxx
Leigh sipped her long-cold hot chocolate angrily as she sat in the overpriced airport cafe. There was a TV across the way playing the news, and even though the sound was off, she knew exactly what they were saying.
Five dead, twelve injured.
It had been a month, but the police only issued the official report a day ago. Leigh, wasn't in it, luckily. Well, she was, but no one knew that.
A Weapon at the party managed to hold off the attacker until law enforcement could arrive.
She looked at her hands, solid flesh, nothing like the green metal she saw that night.
An image on the television caught her eye.
It was Nick, sitting in the hospital, a mountain of flowers and "Get well soon" cards by his side. She hadn't seen him since the accident. Non-family member weren't allowed inside his hospital room and he didn't have access to a phone.
Psychological trauma, his mother had said when Leigh called. Along with a ruptured achilles tendon and a fractured wrist. It wasn't that bad, considering. Then she started crying, simultaneously trying to apologize and thank Leigh.
That was the last time Leigh had tried to contact him. She decided to give him time and space to heal. When he was ready, if he ever was ready, he could find her.
Hot tears burned her eyes for just a second as she gained her composure. At least she cut the only real tie she had here before leaving. She could go without worrying about the people she was leaving behind.
Her parents would be fine without her, they had enough on their plate with her little brother. They could visit when they liked as well, though she doubted they ever would. No, to most of her sleepy little town, Leigh Walker, didn't, and still wouldn't, exist.
A smiling employee walked up to her gate and chimed on the intercom: "Now boarding for flight 42 Nonstop to the DWMA."