Chapter 1: It Was Once A Dark Lonely Summer's Eve On The Lonely Streets Of Sunset

The introduction and the meetings

Friday May 26

It was a night like any other night in L.A., this day just happened to be a Friday it followed after any day in L.A., except I'm here, my car's broke down, and I'm walking home from my best friend Julie's house. The cold air rushes past me, it happens all way too fast, suddenly I feel a cold hand cup over my mouth and I gasp.

"Don't scream and just cooperate with me, we don't want to hurt you," an almost weirdly reassuring voice says softly in my ear. I nod trying not to cry as I quickly process what is happening to me.

I can't believe this is happening, this isn't happening. I tell myself

Something's happening, I'm slowing down, my visions going blurry, slower and slower, I feel like- like I'm drifting, floating in the pool in Julie's backyard, away from anything terrible that could ever happen to me, away from any pain my parents or anyone else could ever cause me. Something's coming toward me, a mass of black, now it's coming at me even faster, I try to scream a 'no'. When the mass hits me it liquidates and submerges me in a pool of black.

Mmm so- so peaceful, I think. I, at this point, have no idea what to do, and am for some reason all of a sudden really sleepy, so I curl up in a ball and go to sleep, and somehow, in doing this, I am enveloped and a blanket of heat.

"Hey, hey kid wake up," a nearby voice calls to me.

"Julie? Ha-ha Julie I had the strangest dream," I say sitting up.

When my eyes flicker open I am surrounded by six figures, all of them have masks, except for one who sticks out the most to me, who bears a bandana and sunglasses. His bandanna has lettering on it but I can't quite make it out...

"Good morning sunshine!" A voice to the right says, almost sincerely. I squint up and notice he's wearing a black mask with three freckles in a triangle formation under the left eye hole and the letters 'fm' to the right of the chin.

"Don't mind him kid, just ignore him," another voice coming from a man with a blue mask says "He'll crack jokes no matter how inappropriate the current situation," this man has I think tattoos on his neck? It's kinda dim, I'm guessing by the lighting we're in a basement. He's wearing a blue mask with white butterflies stretching down across the left eye and a white three stretching down the other side.

"Why you have to be like that Johnny? I'm just trying to make her feel comfortable," the black-masked man says.

"Why do you always have to do the most inappropriate things and the most inappropriate times Funny Man?" The man I now know as Johnny shoots back.

"How about both of you calm down shut the hell up!" the man in the center says, "Can't you see you're scaring her?" He has a grey mask with blue paint around the mask and reddish-pinkish duct tape over the mouth.

Both Johnny and Funny Guy are quiet now.

Johnny is the first to speak, "Why don't you guys just go, me and Charlie will talk to her."

I'm guessing "talk" is code for, we have first dibs on her.

"Okay, whatever," the man next to Grey-mask says, and they all shuffle out and up the stairs, mumbling.

"Hey kid," The man I now know, due to process of elimination, as Charlie, says and sighs, not just a sigh, but a almost depressed sigh, like he's been through a lot, like me, I hear myself sigh like that all the time. He rolls a chair over and sits in it near the couch I was laying on.

I just nod my head in at him, and I whisper a very quiet "Hi" even I, being the one who said it, barely heard it.

"So um-" Johnny starts.

"Olivia," I whisper, I stifle a cough, "My name is Olivia," I say for real this time.

"Well, O-liv-i-a," he enunciates my name, "I'm Johnny 3 Tears and this is Charlie Scene,"

"I would say it's nice to meet you, but I have a distinct feeling you wouldn't feel the same under the circumstances," Charlie says. I have a feeling, and an odd feeling that under that bandana of his there's a smile directed at me, a real, true smile. But, there's something about these guys that's familiar to me. Their voices sound weirdly familiar to me. But that's impossible, right?

I laugh at this, then stops, realizing this isn't exactly a laughing matter.

"See look at that," Johnny says.

"You got a real pretty smile kid," Charlie says awkwardly, then I realize he's probably just trying to make me feel comfortable.

"Um thanks," I say looking down.

And that's the end of chapter 1~