I want to point out right now, that I wrote this chapter with the awareness that this is not a joking or laughing matter and I hope I have done it in the most earnest way possible (I think that's the right word) I mean no offence to anyone. Please review!

Reference: Bad Dreams

Chapter 38 – The Storm

Nick looked over to the teachers who were struggling to control the situation. His eyes fell on Harris, who had a large smile on his face and his eyes directly at Nick.

There was shouting and yelling from all directions of the gym. Teachers tried to contain the larger scale arguments but smaller ones seemed to be causing issues as well. "Well its not my fault you people don't understand!" Olivia heard a student behind her yell. She turned to find someone in her math class arguing with the student in front of him. "Yeah well maybe you should get a life!" was the reply. Olivia sat closer to Peter, who hadn't let go of her since they got inside. "Peter this isn't going to end well. I have a really bad feeling." She looked up at Peter as she spoke.

"It'll be ok Livia. I promise" He held her closer and placed a kiss on her forehead but her eyes were now glued to Nick, who hadn't moved his gaze from Harris. She pulled away from Peter, feeling an incredible amount of fear at the sudden lack of movement for Nick. In the moment she glanced away, back at Peter, the high pitched scream of a female could be heard and everyone looked around. Most looked for the screamer but some, some looked for the cause of the scream and once it was found people moved faster than a blink of an eye.

'Oh my god's' were thrown around the room when all the eyes of the students fell on Nick Lane standing on the gym floor at the from of the whole school, pointing a gun at the teachers, Harris in particular. More screams and the sound of students moving away from the front rows echoed around the room as the cold black metal of the hand gun glistened in the harsh light of the gym. Peter held Olivia so close to him, if she wasn't so scared, he would have been hurting her, shocked at what was actually happening. "Nick, Nick. Think about what you are doing!" Broyles voice echoed through the silent gym, bouncing of the walls eerily.

Nick's hands were shaking uncontrollably as he rose the gun to be level with Harris, many of the other teachers had now moved away from the scene, fearing for their lives. "I know what I am doing! I know exactly what I am doing!" his voice wavered as he cocked the gun. "NO!..." Broyles stood in front of the gun and between it and Harris, "…Nick, you don't have to do this. You are better than this!" He raised his hand as if trying to reach for the gun. Nick saw it coming and started to wave the gun around the air, "Stay away from me!" He shouted as the students screamed a few times more.

"Shut up! All you ever do it care about yourselves! All of you! No one knows what it's like! What it's like to be like me and so you dismiss anything that is different, anyone that is different!" Nick raised the gun once more, this time making sure his eye line to Harris was direct. Harris' smile had dropped from his face and he now had both his hands raised in the air defensively. "Think about what you are doing kid. Is shooting me going to be worth it? You don't have the guts to do it, even if you wanted to…you aren't good for anything in this world are you?" Harris spoke softly, but the silence allowed his voice to travel. Nick cocked his head to the side slightly as if thinking about what Harris had said.

The gun dropped slightly but as Harris took a step towards Nick, the gun was back into its position and the deafening echo of the gun firing filled the gym. There was complete silence in the gym as Harris fell backwards unceremoniously with a thud of the ground, a moment and then students screamed and cried and Broyles ran over to Harris, trying to stop the bleeding. Seemingly it did nothing, because within moments Broyles turned to face Nick who was still holding the gun, tears streaking down his face. "Nick listen to me carefully, you need to put the gun down. This isn't how it is going to end. Not here and not now. If you put the gun down now, we can work this out."

Broyles attempt to calm Nick down failed when he raised the gun once more, "It's too late for me! Like its too late for him. He abused his power, abused us! Abused those girls who will have to live with what he did for the rest of their lives. I am just giving them freedom. I am the soldier. This is what I am trained for." He walked over to the desk that was set up in the middle of the gym and he stood on it. Most of the people in front of him were crying, all shaking with fear. "You teachers, get over with the rest of them. I want to be able to see you!" he motioned with the gun for them to take a seat on the bleachers. They did as told.

Nick rubbed his face with a shaking hand, trying to work out what to do next, he honestly didn't think he was going to shoot anyone, so now he was stuck His head shot up at the sound on footsteps and he came to find a young girl had tried to make a break for the exit. "Hey! STOP NOW!" the girl turned to find the gun pointed at her and she broke into tears. "What do you think you are doing? You think this is a game?" she shook her head, tears streaming down her face. Slowly she walked back towards some of the students closest to her and the pulled her close.

"Do you all think this is a game? I come to school every day and this is what it feels like to be me! The fear you are feeling now, is what I feel and I just wanted it to stop!" He looked directly at Olivia, who was being clutched to Peter's side. "Is this what it felt like Olive? Was 'death' going through your mind when he was holding his hands to your throat?" Olivia clutched to Peter's arm, shaking violently, but still said nothing, "WAS IT!" Nick's voice rose, but it was frightened. She could tell he was panicking and scared and so she decided to answer quickly, trying to keep his anger down. "Yes. Yes it was Nick. This is exactly what it felt like. Like there was no way out. Like he was going to kill me and he was. He slammed me against the wall, so close to me, I was terrified by the look in his eyes." She could feel Peter's eyes on her. She hadn't spoken about how she felt about what happened to anyone that he knew of. He did know she was still having nightmares but she played them off. "But this doesn't have to be like that. There is a way out."

"NO! No there isn't! Not for me. Not anymore." He took a seat on the side of the desk and waited for a moment. "Sit, all of you…" and they did. It was tight because people didn't want to be to close to him but they knew they had to do what he said.

"Nick…I'm terrified to do to sleep at night because all I can see his him, all I can feel is his hands on me, in me. I know your scared, I know your angry. What you feel everyday coming to this school is the same thing I feel going home every day. Walking passed what used to be the glass divider that ended up in my back. Nick I know what it's like to be scared, to not want to live...but this is not the way. Nick please..."

"Why can't you see that this is the only way Olive. I don't walk away from this...I can't walk away from this!" Nick swung the gun in her direction, not meaning to but so much was going on in his head that he wasn't thinking. Olivia sat further into Peter, clutching his side painfully.

He was silent for a while, Nick was trying to work out where to go from here. Glancing up at the clock he realized that it was after 2 and most of the students would be being sent home now. Harris' body lay lifeless on the gym floor, as if waiting for someone to pick it up but no one made a move to it.

Olivia's eyes found their way to Charlie, who was holding Sonia's hand like a wrench and Bobby had Beth sitting on his lap, her head on his shoulder and tears streaming down her cheeks silently. She looked back at Peter and noticed that he had a scared look in his eyes, his arm around her waist, holding her tightly. He looked down at her and placed a kiss on her forehead, lingering for more than it should but he knew if he pulled away now, she would see the tears in his eyes.

"You wanted this to stop and yet you shot a teacher! How do you think this was going to end?" a student's voice rose suddenly and Nick's head shot up and glared at the boy speaking, "Lane, you really think you are going to get out of here, alive? That they won't fry your ass?"

Nick rose for a second and the whole gym held their breaths. Olivia spoke quickly, her voice shaking, "Nick. Listen to me…" His head shot up and his gaze found Olivia's, "…you can stop this. You don't have to do this. I am your friend, please let me help you stop this." She rose from her seat slowly but Peter held on to her like she was his life jacket, he didn't want to let her go.

The word friend from her lips caught his attention, he turned on her, his anger surging suddenly, "Friend? When was the last time you spoke to me? When was the last time you even looked my way Olive? When you weren't with your precious boyfriend? How can you call yourself my friend, when you haven't been there for me when I needed you…" his voice dropped off for a moment, the last words were only above a whisper, "…I needed you Olive…" Olivia had stopped in the isle, just waiting for his reaction, she hadn't expected him to react the way he did, or say what he did but she knew that it was true. She honestly didn't remember the last time she had spoken to him. She really couldn't even remember seeing him at school. He looked up once again suddenly, "This is all of your faults! Everyone of you, who has been mean or bullied someone for any reason. You think I am the only one who feels like this, like coming to school everyday is like living in Hell. Look around all of you, and look at everyone and think about every little mean thing you have said about someone else, to their faces or behind their backs." His eyes found Olivia's once more, seeing the pain that was clearly shining through.

"I want to stop hurting people! I did what they asked, I waited, stay focused and stay ready. I blended in but the call never came." He erupted once more suddenly, Nick brought his hands up to his head once more, shaking it as if trying to rid some memory. Olivia braved the few steps in front of her but Peter still held her hand. She turned to him, "It's ok Peter." Reluctantly he let her hand go, already shaking with fear as she stepped closer to Nick. "Nick, you talk about being a soldier and you and I both know what that means. A soldier is strong and fights, you know this." She spoke as she slowly took each step down to the ground.

"I want to stop hurting people. I have to make it stop. We weren't meant for this. I can't fight this much longer." He took a step forward and aimed the gun at Olivia, who stopped in her tracks. "Why are you doing this Olive? You were always the strong one. You must know what its like. You said it yourself, we know what its like to be a soldier." He dropped the gun and Olivia took the chance to take another step closer to him.

"Nick, I know because my father was a solider and so were you're parents. Please you need to stop this." She was less than a meter from him now. The students had their eyes only fixed on them. Peter was holding his breath, fuming with himself that he had let her go. Something snapped inside Nick and he straightened his back, "Olive, I need you to do this for me. Please I need to die or I will keep hurting people." He charged up to her with the gun out stretch. Olivia took a step backwards and the whole gym was froze, watching the scene in front of them.

"Please Nick. I know you are scared and I know you are angry but this is not the way." Olivia held her hands up and waited to see the response she would get. Nick sobbed. It filled the gym and Olivia felt her heart ache

for him. The gun fell to his side as he dropped his hand and his empty one shot up and cover his face and the tears that were now streaming down his face. Olivia reached out for the gun slowly, hoping he wouldn't notice, he did. Slowly he brought his hand up to meet hers and Olivia was able to get a hold of the gun, slide it along the gym floor and hearing it clunk against the wall. Nick collapsed to the floor, sobs raking his body, Olivia followed him to the floor and held him as he cried. Rocking back and forward, hoping his crying would ease. It would have been the most heartbreaking scene, if he hadn't have just shot someone…

Many of the students didn't move. Most, if not all were crying, shaking and hugging each other. Many of them didn't know what to do. They had all read about school shootings but had never really understood…until today.

Olivia stood and watched as the police drove away with Nick in the backseat. She was on her own, holding herself up as she tried to keep in all her emotions, there was so many that she honestly couldn't keep them all down for much longer. She glanced behind her and noticed that Charlie and Peter were looking anxious to get to her but the police had asked them to stay back.

"Miss Dunham, could you please tell me why you went over to him, when he had a gun?" the teachers and police had been strung up on the fact that she had gone over to him. "I don't know. He is my friend and I felt like I owed it to him to try and help him." Olivia shrugged. The policeman just watched Olivia and noticed that she continued to look back at the two boys standing behind them. "That's all for now Miss Dunham." The policeman turned his back to her and Olivia took her chance to make her way over to Peter and Charlie.

Peter saw her coming and decided to meet her half way, he jumped the barrier and ran straight to her, encasing her in his arms. He held her tightly and she took a moment before she let her emotions go and she began to shake. He held her tightly, not wanting to think about that would have happened if she'd been shot. "Please don't ever do that again, sweetheart." He whispered as he rocked from side to side.

Charlie stood off to the side and smiled at them. Through everything that had happened today, there they were still holding on to each other like nothing else mattered. "Charlie!" Sonia's voice pulled him from his thought and he looked up to find her making her way towards him. As soon as she was in reaching distance, Charlie pulled her in for a passionate kiss. "I love you…" Charlie whispered against her lips as he pulled her closer.

Peter did the same, he pulled her so his lips crushed on to hers and as they kissed he could feel the tears streaking down her cheeks. He honestly didn't care anymore if everyone knew about them. She wasn't something he wanted to hide anymore, not after the fear and panic he had gone through today, thinking he would lose her again.