"Excuse me, but are you supposed to be here?"
The young man turned around and smiled sweetly, revealing perfect white teeth, then moved on his way. Luke furrowed his eyebrows, wondering where that guy came from. He continued to struggle with the door of his dorm until it finally swung open with a protesting squeal.
'I'm gonna need to get that fixed soon.' He thought with a resigned sigh and dropped his car keys onto the counter, thinking about finals and finals only.
"Give me the keys."
Startled, Luke looked up to see a girl in a ski mask holding up a Glock pistol, her hands shaking, along with her voice.
"What?"
The girl undid the safety lock and said with a voice that cracked, "Dude, just give me the keys. I don't want to shoot you, I really don't." Luke whipped aside his hair in front of his face that always seemed to end up there, and held out his hands in a placating gesture.
"Hey, it's okay. You don't have to do this; I could, like, just give you money or something if you really want it…"
"Shut up!" she yelled, and aimed the gun at Luke's head, then growled, "I don't have time, and I sure as hell don't have the money. So grab your car keys and give them to me now."
Luke had to think now, or the car his foster mom had finally trusted him with would be all for nothing. And this girl who looked innocent and forced into this by a bad situation would get dumped into a heap of trouble.
At first he hesitated, but then decided it was for the better, so he read the girl's mind, causing a scared, echoing voice to whisper in his mind, 'This guy looks so nice. Why did it have to be him I had to do? Rhena's going to kill me if I don't.'
"Look, this Rhena, she must not be a very good person if she's making you do this stuff." The girl's eyes widened but she kept her grip on her gun. "What you need to do is you need to try and—"
Luke's words were cut off by his own scream as the gun was fired and hit his right arm. Instinctively, his left hand clutched the wound, which was screaming in pain but horribly numb all at the same time. Tears welled up in the girl's eyes as she strode past him and grabbed the car keys, then opened the door with a familiar squeal.
That one familiar thing kept Luke from blacking out, that one life-line of sanity and consciousness. In the back of his mind, he slowly registered that there was something warm, sticky…red that was seeping in between his fingers in the hand he'd put on his wound. Some part of him registered that this was blood, and he could die if he didn't do anything to help it.
But help was so far away, the world was so far away, and now so was he…..
Two days had passed since Katie had hallucinated her chair rising a foot off the ground…and yes, she was pretty sure what she'd seen had only been a figment of her imagination. That was why she'd started taking pills, to calm the voices she'd heard in her head, the things she kept seeing….
She let out a deep sigh, and then stepped out of the dressing room. Her friend Annemarie gasped and put her hand in front of her mouth. "Is it that bad?" Katie asked and cringed.
"I love it!" she squealed and rushed forward to stroke the silky pattern of the dress I'd chosen. Annemarie sighed, "Katie, it's sooo pretty. I wish I could—Hey!"
"What?"
"We could be matching! I mean, we're going as friends, why not?"
Katie nodded with a wide smile on her face. But then, in perfect timing, a dull, annoying pain drilled her head. She clutched her temples and groaned. "Crap." She muttered.
"Oh no, Katie. Did you take your meds?" Annemarie's voice was full of concern, and it convinced Katie to fight whatever weird bout was coming on. She shook her head as if to clear the crowded cobwebs, and forced a smile.
"Yeah, I'm taking them. It just gets worse, though."
Annemarie made a sad face and fiddled with her fingers, obviously not knowing what to say. Katie felt the headache go down a bit, and she smiled as best she could. "I still have three dresses to try on."
Her best friend grinned wide and pulled out a green, strapless dress and held it up for them to admire. Girls, as a whole, were typically so happy with staring at pretty things that they could spend eternity doing so.
"Hey, girls." A suave, male voice said behind them. They turned around to see Cat Holder leaning against the doorframe of the dressing room hall. Katie rolled her eyes and folded up the dress she was about to try on, not because she had to, but out of frustration.
"What do you want, Rat?" Katie snapped, earning an, 'Ooh!' from his cohorts that had recently joined him in his pointless adventures. Cat swaggered over to her and Annemarie, who was shaking like a rag doll, and circled them like a hawk surveys his soon-to be prey.
Katie set a hand on Annemarie's shoulder to steady her, and looked Cat right in his piercing grey eyes. He had a smug look on his face as he chuckled, "You girls are looking good today. Do you feel like going someplace, maybe my house?"
The disgusted look on her friend's face said it all and she spoke up for her, "Can't you see that we're pretty sure we don't want to go anywhere with you, let alone your dump?" She knew that she was dipping her toe in some pretty dangerous waters, but if it was for her best friend, she would do anything.
Cat looked pretty steamed up at this, but managed to calm down. His explosive temper was infamous in Fanvoy High, and anyone who messed with him had one coming—but would he hit a girl? Katie doubted it.
She guessed wrong, though. "You see Annemarie's face here? That expression is saying, 'don't come near me ever again, you sociopath loser.'" That was when Cat blew up.
"Freakin b*&%#!" he yelled and raised his hand to slap Katie and Annemarie, when suddenly his hand stopped right where it was and stayed there. Cat looked like he was trying to move it, but it was seemingly stuck in place.
"What the—" he muttered, while Katie picked up the dresses and dragged her gaping friend away from the odd, remarkable scene.
