There was a cold feel in the air that early September morning, but no one seemed to think twice about it; It was Minnesota, what exactly did you expect? But that wasn't the only thing off that day. It seemed as though time knew there was a problem and was desperately trying to warn the students of St. Mary's Catholic High School to get away. To run away fast. To run away fast and don't look back, but of course, no one took heed.

Logan trudged in slowly on that September morning, having a crushing weariness weigh him down for no particular reason. He hadn't had P.E. recently and he was pretty sure he didn't do any strenuous activities over the past few days, but something was off. His stomach was churning and his head-ached, but he credited it all to an undiagnosed illness and moved on with his day, not paying significant thought to his body's warnings. This should have been a sign to not come to school today; to stay home and be sick or whatever it was, but of course, he didn't take heed the warning.

James strided with the usual layers of swagger to his step in an unusually careless way; for some strange reason, he felt really light-headed today, but he didn't mind because he thought I made him seem that much cooler. He did his best to continually play the whole 'to cool for school' character and today, it seemed like it could be easier. But it wasn't. He could hear the noises around him, but they sounded more like senseless babble than actual coherent speech. And everyone was passing by in a strange array of wind-like movements and blending colors. At the moment, James could swear he was high for all the feelings he was experiencing, but he didn't know why. He guessed he should have stayed home and let this ride it's course, lest he come off as a dumbass at school, but for some reason he didn't; he didn't take heed the warning.

Kendall moaned as he slowly walked to his locker, his desperate joints needing a break badly from the pain of just moving. He always though joint issues were for the elderly, but at the current moment, he felt like one twist could tear him apart. At first he thought it was yesterday's hockey game, but he honestly doubted that now. He'd played Hockey for most of his life and he'd gotten used to the blows you would take in the game. In a strange way, he even enjoyed them, but today he was in pain. He could barely move and he regretted not listening to his sister on what to do about it. He should have stayed at home and rested like he always did when he was worn out; he knew his mother wouldn't care. When did she ever fucking care? But he didn't, and he still wasn't exactly sure why; he didn't take heed the warning.

Carlos walked in with his usual appearance; a big black, swollen eye with messy, undone hair and wrinkled clothes. It was apparent that he had just gotten beaten up like he did every day before school. And every day after school. And just about every day in general. But something was different with him today; he didn't take heed the warning, yet he knew what it was. And he had reason for that as he limped forward. Because he was what the day was warning about.

"I'm so sorry," Logan said when they saw the Latino boy's locker, "I, I, I don't know what to say besides sorry."

"What, did you do it," Carlos responded with a grin slowly curling his lips.

"NO!" Logan shouted, instantly hurting his own head with the noise, "Iwouldneverdothattomybestfrie-,"

"Calm down Logalete," Carlos replied, making Logan squirm at the sound of the nickname, "It was a joke. Haven't you ever heard of sarcasm?"

"Well, Well, yes, but," for some reason, the brunette was having trouble rationalizing the situation correctly, "but It's just a bad day for me. My nerves are kind of shot and my head really hurts."

"Are you okay?" Carlos said while caressing Logan's cheek softly.

"Carlos, you're the one with the black-eye," Logan responded while finally putting the combination in, "Plus, that." He motioned to the slur written across the locker; 'FAG' was written across the red, metal rectangle in big, black spray painted letters. How could people be this cruel?

But Carlos just laughed a little, "I'm, I'm fine … I guess," the smaller Latino boy looked away and Logan started to get frightened. Something was off with his friend today.

"Look C-los," the brunette tried to be as caring with him as possible, but there just was something wrong today, "What's going on; you can tell me anything, you know that better than anyone."

Carlos looked up slowly, "Look Logan, I, I just, I've been having bad thoughts lately, and, and I'm scared," the Latin boy swept the floor with his eyes.

"Tell me right now Carlos, are you alright," Logan was urgent when he grabbed Carlos by the arms and tried to be more forceful. What the hell was going on?

"Ha. How come you're getting rough at school," Carlos responded, "when I asked for you to act more like this at home."

"This isn't funny, what's up with you right now," Logan's haze was getting worse slowly as he was confronting his friend, "What's going on…." And then the brunette went down and felt the Latino boy's pocket.

"Look Logan," Carlos said with a different, frightening intensity, "Don't try to stop me, this needs to happen. They need to learn."

"Please, please don't do this. I'll take you home and we can put that away and we can even stay home and watch movies all day."

"No."

"What, what do you want. I'll do anything to just not get you to do that. Please," Logan started to feel the tears well in his eyes, "Please, tell me, I'll do anything. "

"I want you to get out of here; Get out of here right now and don't look back. This is happening with or without you here, but I don't want to hurt you Logie. Don't make me hurt yo-,"

"Calm it down butt-fuckers," A few of the football boys said as they walked up behind the two jittery friends.

"Fuck off Cal," Carlos responded in a harsh tone while Logan looked on in horror; as soon as he saw the foot-ball captain walk up, he realized it was over. This was going to happen.

"Look Fag, I'm just trying to help you not get the crap beat out of you," the tall, red head said back, "Then again, I do enjoy beating the crap out of you." The boys all laughed while Carlos glare got even sharper. And then the brunette saw the flash of black and the shrill sounding screams.

Carlos pulled the gun from his pocket and fired into the air while the bullet sailed through the big lights above. The raining glass and sparks seemed to scare everyone, but he merely stood there with his glare, staring daggers at the boy in front of him.

"SO YOU ENJOY BEATING THE CRAP OUT OF ME," Carlos screamed in the cowering football players face, "DO YOU ENJOY IT NOW." The Latin boy put the gun under the bigger boys chin while Cal started to cry.

Yet Carlos looked on unchanged, his expression staying stern and cold in the face of the quivering boy he was holding the gun too. He didn't show fear or terror and at the same time, he didn't seem hysterical or mad; he merely looked as if he were Justice itself. The pure embodiment of Vengeance.

"Pa-Pa-Please don't' ,da-da-do this," the football captain whimpered out while he steadily shook from fear.

"Now where have I heard that before," the Latin boy responded coldly, holding the gun readily under the other teen's chin, "When have I ever. Seen. Such. Terror."

"I-I-I'm sa-sa-sorry for w-wh-what I di-did ta-too you," the red-head replied on the brink of tears.

"SORRY DOESN'T MEAN IT DIDN'T HAPPEN," Carlos barked out, "Sorry makes me want to do this that much more."

Finally the football player broke down in tears, "P-P-Please Da-Don't Ka-Ka-Kill *sob* Ma-Ma-Me," he was desperately stumbling over his own words, his heaving chest forcing him to bump up closer to the loaded gun. Carlos looked on with the smile from before slowly returning.

Logan was afraid, but he couldn't watch a death and immediately, he dove for the weapon, but Carlos dodged his blow, forcing the brunette to land hard in the lockers. He had accomplished one thing though; Cal was out of harm's way. Just cause he was an ass, didn't mean he deserved to die. No one ever deserved to die. But as soon as the Latin boy realized this, his cold stair of daggers turned quickly to Logan.

"FUCK," he hollered at the frightened brunette in the corner, "Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck Logan. Why? Why would you do that? Why would you protect him?" Carlos still kept the killer glare on Logan, but with his back to the crowd, things started to change.

"I-I-I, Carlos, da-don't do tha-tha-this to everyone, pa-pa-pa-put the gun down and we ca-can just go home," Logan was desperate to just get Carlos to stop all of this; he was his best friend. His only friend. He couldn't lose him like this; not with him doing something so despicable.

"No, No, No. No more excuses for them Logan, No more taking up for them when they do this to us," Carlos was pacing, the few students left in the hallway cowering out of fear when he would realize that so many had escaped, "Fuck. Why? Why wouldn't you let me kill him?"

"It would have ruined your life Carlos; Is that what you want, to end up in Jail and never get to see anyone again. Prison isn't fun." Logan was still scared, but he had to do his best to at least try to be forceful with Carlos

"It's better that this; anything is better than this," Carlos responded while putting his arms in the air, "Look, Look at this place and these people. Look what they do to us Logan."

And the worst part of all was that the brunette didn't entirely disagree with the Latin boy; they were both abused so much on a daily. When Logan first came out, he never really thought people would care that much. He wasn't like some big important person in the school or something like that, yet it caught on around the place like wild fire. All of his friends ignored him. He was kicked off of the Quiz Bowl team. He started to get preached to by the teachers more often.

Logan was forced to learn that day that you shouldn't come out while in Catholic School.

But nothing was worse than what happened to Carlos; he came out a few months later while he was still very involved in everything. Especially sports. Immediately, the football team beat the crap out of him in the locker room and almost broke his nose. After that, he quit the baseball team quickly because he didn't want to endure that kind of pain again. And he had every intention of leaving the hockey team if they said anything, but for some reason, they were different; the team captain made a point of not letting anyone attack Carlos. But he also didn't make anyone stand up for him.

So Carlos ended up having it ten times harder than Logan ever did; he would get beat up on a daily basis. That never happened to the Brunette. He was ignored and made fun of, but never did he face any kind of violence. So Logan couldn't say Carlos was entirely wrong. Still, this wasn't right. No one deserves to die.

"Please Carlos, P-Pa-Please don't do this," the brunette pleaded one last time, "I beg you, don't do this now, think about the consequences."

"I have," Carlos responded coldly, "I've thought long and hard about all of this and I realized something," Carlos lowered the gun to face Logan, "We shouldn't have to endure this life anymore."

Logan started to breath harder when he was faced with the barrel of the gun to his face; he, he never imagined dying like this. His jaw started to tremble and his eyes got wide when he saw Carlos take a step closer.

"I'm sorry Logie," the Latin boy said as he stepped forward with the weapon, "but we're better off."

Logan took his last breath while looking around the hallway and realizing that this could be his last moments of life. Why was this happening? What did Carlos hope to gain from this. And Logan just started to cry when he felt the cold black tip of it touch his forehead. This was the end. The end of everything.

"Pa-Pa-Please don't ha-hurt me Ca-Carlos, I-I, I don't wa-wan-want to da-die," the brunette pleaded for the last time.

But then something happened; the gun went off, but somehow, Logan was still alive. He was still breathing and his head wasn't bleeding, but he had heard the shot. He could smell the gun in the air. Immediately, he opened his eyes to see a blonde boy wrestling with Carlos for the weapon in his hands; but he was still so confused.

He heard the gun go off again and the blonde teen rolled over, bleeding badly from the wound he had just received.

Carlos stood back up with the gun in hand and looked at Logan before putting the weapon up slowly, "Look Logan, I –I- I, I loved you," and then he put the gun up to his chin.

The brunette screamed before slamming himself into Carlos's legs to try to get him to not do this, to stop and quit. He refused to give up on the idea of Carlos not doing it, but it was too late.

"Da-Don't do this Ca-Car-Carlos *sob* I I la-love you too," Logan moaned out, not wanting his best friend to pull the trigger.

Carlos put his other hand through the brunette's hair before placing his finger on the trigger, "Bye Logie."

And then he pulled the trigger, the boom of the gun sending a jolt through the Latin boy's body before he tipped over, life immediately leaving him.

Logan could feel it happen; he could feel every minute of it and it was horrible. It was something no one should ever endure. Or do. Or see, but it was too late.

He could feel a pair of arms lift him up and whisper things to him while a rag wiped away at his face, taking swift strides down his tear ridden cheeks.

"It, It's okay, just ba-breath."

Logan tried to follow the direction, but he was absolutely still terrified.

The day was Monday, September 11, the day that the Twin Towers were attacked and destroyed, a tragedy that caused a whole nation to change. And on that day, ten years later, St. Mary's was giving a dose of real, pure terror.

And it was terrifying.

Author's Note: I really hope this didn't feel insensitive or anything that could offend people cause I know just how sad today is. Ten years ago, a terrible tragedy reshaped this nation. I don't really know where I go the inspiration to do this, but I just felt the tragedy and terror thing fit today. It's going to be my next ongoing, but it will probably be a while till the next chapter comes out. It's very, very dramatic, so it's pretty much what I always do. I hope it wasn't too ridiculous or serious and hopefully, you enjoy it enough to read again. I'm still going to finish I'm Not Your Toy, but I felt it was necessary to post this. So comment and review and let me know what you think. Luv Ya. XoXo