S.E Hinton owns the Outsiders, 100% borrowed characters ahead. Enjoy!

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I'm running, running until there's no breath left in my body but my feet are stepping on thin air and there's nothing I can do to escape… it's pulling me towards it by the neck and I can't even turn my head all the way to see what it is. Panic pounds in my chest and without knowing why or how I know I can't look down, that if I look down all is lost.

"They're all gone."

"Shut up!" I shout, my voice cracking in desperation but I can't stop the calm, unseen voice from echoing again and again in my mind, sapping the last of my will and my strength. Don't look down. Don't look down.

And yet, it's as if an unseen force forces my eyes down to see what I won't ever forget.

The sea of faces stares up at me, the same four faces multiplied by infinity beyond the edges of my vision, stretching on forever. Mom. Dad. Johnny. Dallas.

They are the dead, and as one, they point an accusatory finger straight at me. Their mouths open and inside is utter blackness, seeping out and threatening to swallow me whole. I scream, but am frozen in place, unable to move.

"All your fault all your fault all your fault…" The words are like curses, filled with sheer hate and filling me with an icy dread, knowing it's true, it's all true…

And just like that, I fall. The sky's ablaze with red and silver and pink and orange, a sinister parody of the sunrises of Windrixville. Even in the sky, whirling around me like a tornado as I plummet on and on to horrors beyond my imagination, their faces are carved in every layer.

"Join us…"

"I will!" I scream the promise in pure terror, not even knowing what I'm saying. This is the answer they want, and I know it's cowardly but I'll give them anything. Anything to end this torture.

And then it does. A black hole, like the hole of their mouths but ten million times bigger, opens up below me and I'm still screaming as I fall towards it at the speed of light.

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My eyes snap open, and I lay there, trying to quiet my ragged breathing. Sometime during the nightmare I'd pushed the sheets off the bed, and for a minute I close my eyes before standing up.

As always, I can't remember the dream at all. Maybe it's better that way, but it sure is creepy.

"Soda? Darry?" I call warily, my voice weirdly echoing. No response. The house is silent, uncharacteristically so. Our house is never silent.

There's a bad feeling deep inside me and I realize I'm holding my breath as I walk carefully through the house, glancing in every room. Nobody. None of the sheets are even disturbed, no unwashed dishes in the sink. No note from Darry telling me where everyone is.

I'm already at the door when I realize what's wrong. Everything's too clean. Even the stains on the couch that have been there since I can remember are gone. Cracks on the wall, disappeared. There's a layer of dust on top of everything, the only proof that the house isn't a museum.

I shiver despite the sweatshirt, and head outside. It's not much better. One glance at the neighbouring houses is enough to tell me that no one's inside. Some of the windows and doors are boarded up. Even the movie house.

I shake my head in disbelief. What's going on? Where is everyone?

At least the streets aren't as spotless as the inside of my house. Cigarette butts and stray wrappers litter the streets. Despite that, though, not a breeze runs through the place and not a single person can be seen. None of the honking and raucous laughter I've grown used to around this side of town. Absolute silence.

It's a ghost town.

I cross my arms in front of my chest, cold fear creeping into my heart despite the windless air. Something's gonna happen. I know it.

The moment the thought crosses my mind, something does. Almost as if my thinking it is what causes it; triggers what happens next.

Smoke.

It's gushing into the still air a few blocks down from where I'm standing. Without thinking, without doing much of anything, I run towards it and within seconds the burning building is right in front of me. There's no time to wonder how I got there so fast because flames are pouring out of its smashed up windows and I know it's gonna collapse right before my eyes.

No time to think about why the building looks so familiar and so out of place at the same time.

There's buckets and buckets of water lying around at my feet all of a sudden and I don't pause to wonder where they came from, I just grab as many as I can carry and run into the building, pouring water all over the place even as I start coughing my lungs out.

I have no idea why I'm so desperate, but I can't let this building fall. I don't know why.

I just can't.

I hear the roof crackling above me but I only run faster, towards the farthest locked door. I pound on it desperately, refusing to give up for a reason I still can't quite figure out. It won't open no matter how hard I try, though, as if bound by cement.

"Someone help me!" I yell, knowing full well that nobody's around to hear me, that this is pure insanity. But I just have to get this door to open no matter what it costs me.

What I don't expect are the voices that drift out from inside the locked door.

It's them.

But it can't be, I try to reason with myself, they're dead. Buried six feet in the ground. They can't be in this room.

But they are. Clear as anything, they're speaking to me and even though I can't see them I know it's them.

"Guys, help me!" I shout, renewing my efforts of pounding on the door but they're still saying something, completely ignoring me and what else can I do but listen?

"…to choose," Johnny's saying. "You gotta choose, Pony. Us or them."

"What?" I yell in confusion. I don't understand. What is he talking about? "C'mon, Johnny, hurry! The roof's gonna give and you guys gotta get out of there. Now! Please, help me! I-" I'm about to continue but the new voice silences me. Dallas.

"Kid, stop hollering and start listening. Time is one thing you ain't got." His voice is unbelievably calm, calmer than it ever was in life.

"Ponyboy, sweetie, listen to me."

I stand stock still, forgetting the fire still raging all around me, lost in the latest voice. It's Mom. I haven't heard her voice in so long it hurts.

"Listen. You have two choices. It's us or them, dear. Look outside. Look outside and you'll understand."

I do. Through the window on my right (was it there before? I'm sure it wasn't there before) I can see out of the burning building and my eyes widen.

It's my brothers. What's left of the gang. They're watching me with eyes that hide something terrible. Eyes that beckon me, eyes that are almost pulling me outside, towards them.

They're the living.

Time slows. And I finally understand what they're saying.

I look back at the closed door as if I can see through the wood to make out the faces I long to see, my mouth open with horror at the realization. This is what they're talking about.

The Choice.

If I stay here, die in the fire, I get to join the people behind the locked door. I'm sure of it. And I'll never see the living again. But if I choose to leave now, break the window and escape before the roof collapses, I'll never see their faces. It aches to think that I'm so close, but so far from seeing them again.

How do they expect me to choose?

"Ponyboy." It's Dad, his voice solemn but starting to fade away. It scared me more than the thought of dying in the fire. "Choose wisely, kid. But you don't have time. Fourteen seconds." By now his voice is barely a whisper and my mind is a blur of indecision.

"How can I choose?" I whisper, falling on to my knees as time returns to its normal speed and my fourteen seconds whiz by before my eyes.

"Six seconds."

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Review? I promise I do have a plot for this one… It'll all make sense soon, hopefully. :)