A/N: This was for a class project.
Disclaimer: I don't even own this story. My brilliant and talented friend, Ariel, owns this story. She just wanted me to upload this for her. Oh and neither of us owns the Outsiders or any of the characters. That S. E. Hinton. She's brilliant, too.
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Flames roared, exhaling their black breath that curled and twisted around me, sparks exploded from falling timbers, and came crashing down on top of me. Ponyboy, lying half alive on the ground by the fountain, soaked to the bone with water, blood pooling around the soc that I killed. I killed. The knife lay on the ground, glittering dangerously, drops of deep red blood dripped off of its edge. My hands are shaking; suddenly the dead Soc stands up, wreathed in fire, the blade that took his life in his own bloodied hand. I gulped as he turned towards me and fear gripped my heart with hands of ice as I saw the hatred burning in his eyes. I don't make a sound, I kept my mouth shut tight to keep the screams from escaping my lips as he drove the knife into me, fire entered my veins, undying pain seared through my body.
"Johnnycake?" a voice that seemed miles away, echoed through my head, I strained to make out who it was.
"Johnny?"
It was Dally. The pain from my dream still had its grasp on me but it was just a dream. Just a dream, my eyes slowly flickered open, knowing that this would be the last time I would ever see him. I couldn't battle with the fact I was going to die, that was of no use to me. I didn't really have much to live for anyways, just for the guys, but after lying here for hours I realized that sixteen years isn't enough. It's not enough time to do all the things that you could ever dream of doing, but death was coming. I could feel it in my gut, it was there and it was evident. If only they could understand that their love would never be enough for me. 'If only they cared' I had thought with a grimace, of my parents. I slowly ran my tongue over my dry lips and feebly muttered,
"Hey." The voice that said that word was not my own, the pain I was feeling intoxicated my voice, Ponyboy seemed to hear it too, and see it in my face.
"We beat the Socs. We stomped them- chased them outa our territory." The blood drained from my face, 'Didn't they get it?!'. I thought miserably. I struggled to stay awake for sleep tugged relentlessly at my body. I shook my head slightly,
"Useless… fighting's no good." I sounded so weak that it scared me and my heart beat faster. Dally shifted nervously, he knew what I meant, but ignored it.
"They're still writing editorials about you in the paper. For being a hero and all." He said smoothly.
"Yeah, they're calling you a hero now and heroizin' all the greasers. We're all proud of you buddy." The pride in Dally's eyes was genuine, soft and caring. I made my eyes smile at him, and sighed as it would not reach my mouth. Suddenly I remembered something I had to tell Ponyboy as a wave of pain washed over me.
"Ponyboy." I struggled, panting from the effort it took. Fear gripped my heart as it began to beat sluggishly, almost stopping. 'NO, NO, NO!' 'Not yet!' my mind raced with thousands of things I wanted to say, but I knew I only had time for one. Slowly I took a breath, my whole body quivering like a car about to teeter off of the edge of a cliff where it would come to certain doom.
"Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold…" That was all I could manage. I thought of the sunset by the church, the beautiful colors swirled across the sky, Robert Frosts' poem echoed in my head. Sleep came for me, it came forcefully and quick, yet agonizingly long, and swept me far away from this world. Far away from all the Soc's, far away from my parents, and away from all my problems.
Death.
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