(A/N: You get a mini-chapter! YOU get a mini-chapter! Everyone gets a mini-chapter! You can extinguish those pitchforks now. I'm alive.
To AllyMarvel: You probably hate me by now for not updating. Sorry!
To Burke23: You're welcome.
To Everyone else: It's Homecoming time for a lot of people out there. Let me just say one thing: even if you don't like crowds, go. Just do it. I went, joined three Conga lines & won a Red Bull. I got my really shy friend to go and now he's got a girlfriend. :)
My point? You only get one high school adventure. There is no restart button. So play like you mean it this time. The more mistakes you make, the more stories you can relive with your friends when you're old. So what the heck are you doing, man?! Get off of your laptop! Becky is still available! Ask that girl out! Go have fun!
-The Onyx Dragon)
"I thought, 'Heaven can't help me now.
Nothing lasts forever
But this is gonna take me down...'
I can see the end as it begins, my one condition is...
You see me in hindsight
Tangled up with you all night
Burnin' it down.
Some day when you leave me
I bet these memories follow you around
Say you'll remember me...
Say you'll see me again even if it's just pretend...
Even if it's just in your wildest dreams..."
-Taylor Swift, "Wildest Dreams"
A wrinkled piece of paper slipped off of a desk onto the tiled floor. The room was drafty, after all. It would only be a matter of time before the parchment would fall.
But the most important part of that small piece of lined paper was its contents - the hastily written words one could have read had the paper not fallen face first into a pool of blood on the tile below.
Now the pen ink scrawled across the paper, mixed with blood. The note was nearly indecipherable.
"Dear Tony (Or Whoever Finds This),
I'm alive, thankfully. I've picked up a few companions..."
The only letter that can be visibly seen is a cursive letter L.
"We're in the R&D part of the labs near the teleporters SHIELD sent in. We can't really leave here, though. There is this little girl. She acts so angry. But I think she's just alone. If only you could listen to her talk..."
A large section of the body paragraph became too smudged to be legible.
"It's like a game of sorts. We have to play by her rules now. And if not, we suffer. I'm trying to think of a way out of here, but it's stressful.
If you find this Tony, just know that I love you.
-Pepper"
Suddenly, the whir of a machine disrupts the momentary silence and the note flies off, under the wooden door.
It hasn't been read to this day.