A/N: Read and Review please. Hope you like it.
Note:: A bit angsty and tradegy-ish kind of, so don't read it if you can't handle some jumpy scary-ish things.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Degrassi characters.
Summary: And Suddenly I realized silence was the loudest thing I'd ever heard. Marco story. Slash. Don't like it, don't read it.
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I knew that my sexuality was always going to be an issue. In school, in the community, in the workplace. I had never doubted it to be a problem; but I had never even dreamed that it would be fatal.
It was the day I had been playing man hunt in the Michaelchuk's backyard. It was late, I don't exactly remember what time, but the outdoors were filled with crickets chirping and twigs snapping as people raced into the trees to hide. It wasn't pitch black, but you could only see about 5 feet away, and past that it was faded outlines of people and bushes. It was me, Dylan of course, Paige, Hazel, Spinner, and Jimmy playing. Dylan, Spinner, and Jimmy against Me, Hazel, and Paige. It was our turn to hide.
I raced behind Paige into the dense forest behind her house as Dylan's strong voice counted down from 20. "18, 17, 16..." I heard Paige giggle and run off to one side with Hazel, as I blindly made my way deeper into the trees. I rested at a tree, slowing squatting until I was sitting on the cold bare ground. I heard a few bugs make noises around me, and a leaf rustle somewhere to my left. I was silent and heard the yell of "1."
The hunt had begun.I could hear Paige and Hazel whispering a far distance ahead of me, and held my breath as I heard footsteps pound the grass outside of the trees, someone approaching. Then there was silence again. Paige giggled quietly.
"They're in here!" I heard what sounded like Spinner's voice call. Twigs started snapping and leaves started getting pushed aside as Spinner made his way through the first clump of trees.
I could also hear Paige and Hazel squirming around, trying to move out of the path that Spinner would walk straight through. I heard Dylan's voice, "All of them?"
"Yeah!" Spinner called, moving faster through the trees. He nearly brushed against Paige's hair but stopped walking at the last minute. He turned and whispered, "Wait... shh..."
I couldn't hear anything, only the pounding of my own heart and Spinner's hushed words. No longer did Dylan walk into the forest or Paige and Hazel talk. The crickets had been silenced, and I was suddenly scared. I could feel someone... near. Not Paige, not Hazel, not Spinner. Someone... bad.
And almost as if he had read my mind, Spinner suddenly whispered, in what sounded like the most scared I've ever heard Spinner, "There's someone else in this forest... besides the other team."
Even though this statement was most likely directed at Dylan, I felt he was talking to me too. I could also feel it... someone...something else. I pulled my legs in tight to my chest and buried my face into my ripped jeans, clamping my eyes shut and trying to escape to an imaginary world. Everything felt real. Way too real.
And then I heard it.
A branch behind me snapped. That's when I knew something wasn't right, that something was very very wrong. No one was behind me, I had gone further into the forest than Paige and Hazel, and Spinner had only made it to where Paige was. Dylan hadn't even entered the forest. I knew. I had been listening. Fear overcame me as I sat there, trying to be as still as possible and pray it was only a squirrel or a bird.
'Squirrels and birds don't have enough weight to be able to break branches,' I thought, and all of the sudden I was deathly frightened again.
'Marco, calm down,' a voice inside told me, 'You're probably overreacting. It could be Jimmy playing a joke on you. Or some kid who was playing a similar game in a yard nearby.'
Then the barrel of a gun was placed against the small of my back and I knew this was no joke, no little kid playing hide and go seek. This was life or death.
"Make one move," An unrecognizable male voice whispered cruelly into my ear, "I pull the trigger. Make one sound, I pull it. Got it?"
I nodded slightly, enough for him to see I understood, but not so much as to make him uncertain about what I was going to do next. I felt tears burn at my eyes, but I convinced myself they would not fall. I would not cry. I could handle this... my dad had always told me to be strong and manly, and that I was going to be. I couldn't let him down, especially since I was gay. I knew this fact would make me even more feminine in his eyes, so I was determined to be as strong and manly as I was taught to be. I felt the barrel dig into my back and I stiffened, biting my tongue to keep me from yelling.
"Hey, is everyone alright?" I heard Spinner call. Paige and Hazel soon revealed that they were next to him and that they were fine.
"Where's Marco?" I heard Dylan's voice come into the picture as footsteps moved through the leaves on the ground.
The barrel pushed harder into my back, as if warning me to not utter a word about my whereabouts or make any noise at all. I kept my mouth clamped shut, although I didn't know why I hadn't yelled. I didn't even know who this guy was; and what would he want with me? I'm a straight A student, nothing has ever brushed my permanent record, and I've never seriously hurt anyone. Then I remembered...
Another fist pounded down onto my left shoulder and I rolled over, wincing in pain. "Stop...please...I'm sorry...I'm not gay... Stop... I'm not..."
I felt someone kick into my side, and evil laughter fill the small area I was laying. They kicked again in the same spot, making me cry out in sheer pain. I clutched my side as they pulled my chest up and shoved me back down on the ground. "I'm sorry!" I sobbed, pain slicing though my body. "Stop! Please!"
I heard the wail of sirens and mutters of a few of the boys as they raced off and a woman in a police suit come over to me. "I didn't do anything," I defended, tears still flowing down my cheeks, "I didn't do anything!"
It was because I was gay.
Because I liked the same sex, this man was threatening to kill me. Kill me... take my life. I couldn't imagine something so horrifying and awful. It was all so simple. The icyness of his tone as he whispered into my ear, the apathetic way he shoved a gun to my back. I had done nothing, so this was the only explanation that made any sense. He wouldn't just want my life for no reason... there was nothing in it for him.
I heard Paige yell my name. I sat in silence. I had no option but this, because if the man was loathing enough to threaten to kill me, I had no doubt that he actually would.
Everything had happened in a blur. One moment; a simple game of hide-and-go-seek in the dark. The next minute, my life is layed out before me. I felt like it had been only minutes since we had divided into teams in the Michaelchuk's backyard. I couldn't really see the full picture, I could only see that if I did anything; moved, breathed, sneezed; I was gone...or atleast in a hospital bed. I felt a tear slide down my cheek and I no longer cared.
"He probably hid somewhere else..." Even though the words had escaped Paige's lips, she had still said it without any real hope that I wasn't in the forest.
"Yeah, why wouldn't he come out if we called him?" Dylan reasoned, "We can come back if we can't find him."
"Yeah..." The gang murmered and seemed to agree that I wasn't in there. If only they knew....
I vaguely saw the silhouettes of them as they started walking together out of the forest. I knew that the Michaelchuck's backyard was huge, and it would take them at least half an hour to search every place I could have hidden. By then, I could be dead, buried in this dense forest without a hint of where I'd gone. There would be no hope left... It was now or never.
I saw a figure turn, Dylan most likely, and I thought he looked straight at me. He continued to skim the forest though and he stopped. I thought I could see him closing his eyes.
"No."
The movement of the rest of the group moving through the forest stopped as they turned around. "What's wrong?" Hazel asked.
"No. He's here," Dylan said, as if he could feel me right next to him. He said it with such confidence I wasn't sure if he did actually meet eyes with me or not.
"Dylan how do you know? I mean... you can't have seen him, right? Do you know where he is?"
"He's in the forest," Dylan repeated, sounding 100 sure. He moved closer towards me.
'Please,' I prayed, 'Let him see me. Let him see me here and let him save me. Please!'
I felt the gun dig into my back and as Dylan made noises moving across the ground, and the man whispered, "Like I said: say anything, and your friends won't see you in one peice ever again."
"Marco please! If this is a joke stop it now!" Paige exclaimed, looking wildly around the forest. "I'm not kidding! Joke's over! Come out now!"
Dylan stopped mere inches away from my right hand. I could easily reach out and touch his foot, but I knew that would surely make me dead meat. How could he not see me!? There was even another person behind me! I stayed silent though, seeing the outline of those blonde curls.
"Yeah..." Dylan said shakily, slowly observing the trees around him, "Marco, if this is a joke, quit it. Paige is right."
'It's not a joke!!' I wanted to scream, 'Help me!'
I didn't understand why he wasn't looking down. If he would just glance down he would come in eye contact with me and possibly the masked man behind me. Then I would be safe... well until I was shot. But then atleast Dylan would be the last thing I saw before I passed on... and that was the most beautiful goodbye picture. Even if he was enclosed in darkness.
I couldn't hold it in any longer. I needed to get help. I wasn't going to sit here and let this man make me ashamed of who I was. So, without actually thinking it through fully, I rolled to the side and screamed as loud as I could.
I heard the shot go off, and there was a mere millisecond where I felt the world enclose around me. Not a sound echoed in my ears...
And Suddenly I realized silence was the loudest thing I'd ever heard.
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A/N: Ack, I might continue if I end up liking this. I wrote this when I was extremely bored, and I'm sure it sucks. I haven't gotten it betaed either, so sorry for mistakes. I tried my best.