A/N: Welllll, thanks for the reviews. I read over it a few times and I still don't understand why people liked it. Honestly. Oh well, sigh, here's Chapter 2. I highly doubt this will be any good since I have no inspiration and am only writing because nothing else seems more appealing at the moment. Sorry if it's bad. Really I am.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Degrassi characters or settings.
Chapter 2: Dreaming of Reality
Silence in the Night
And Suddenly I realized silence was the loudest thing I'd ever heard. Marco story. Slash. Don't like it, don't read it.
by: amber1134
I felt the wind encircle me like an awful hurricane at shore, threatening to rip everything apart in just moments. I was sitting alone in a feild, a few daffodils and sunflowers popping up randomly through out the dense grass. I was alone, I knew that much. I could only see to the edge of the feild, where a forest lay. It was unrecognizable, dark leaves growing across long sturdy branches rooting from tall, thick trees that were firmly packed into the ground. The forest at the Michaelchuk's was different. The trees were more scattered and sparse, with a light sort of lime greenish glow to the leaves, so I knew I was far from home. However, I had abosolutely no idea where I was. I could be far away from the game of Man Hunt, the shot of the gun not peircing me but yet inserting into someone else's flesh. Or I could have been knocked unconcious by a rock or branch I might have hit my head on, and I was dragged by the masked man somewhere very far away. I could also be dreaming; but the possibility didn't seem likely to me. I felt very alive, very real, and the grass surrounding me felt real and damp to the touch.
I stood slowly, carefully searching my body for signs of bruising or broken bones. My head showed no sign of a concussion, and a bullet hadn't seemed to enter my skin any place I was aware of. Overall, I felt fine. Not a single thing wrong, except for maybe a scratch or two on my leg from running past bushes into the forest the other night. Nothing wrong... but yet something had knocked me unconcious.
I shrugged away the thought, thinking maybe the shock of the bullet made me faint and that I actually hadn't been in a bad condition. I turned around, studying my surroundings. I was, in fact, alone. Not a sound nearby, which came as a surprise to me because usually the chirps of birds and ruffle of squirrels hopping through leaves made me so happy of the outdoors. And yet not a single sound came from anywhere...
I shrugged again and walked forward, heading straight for the forest that lie ahead of me. I might as well do some exploration of the place I was in. I stepped onto the ground of the forest, trees immediately surrounding me on all sides. I saw a narrow path over to my left that I got on and walked through for a while, until I heard a noise over to my right. I stopped for a second as a voice spoke in a hushed tone to someone else. The voice was distinctly familiar... the kind I would recognize immeadiately if someone had called me or said "Hi" from behind. I listened again, intently, trying to see if the person would talk again.
"Over here!" came a hushed giggle, and at once I knew who the voice belonged to.
"Paige..." I whispered. I suddenly realized I wasn't alone, and I was around people. What was Paige doing in this random forest in the middle of the day though?
I stepped through a small group of trees and found myself in a small opening. I was suddenly back in the Michaelchuk's forest. I blinked and looked around slowly. Paige was wearing the same clothes she had worn the night before... and Hazel was crouched next to her, also wearing the same blouse and pink jeans as the day before. I was very very confused. I looked over to my left, away from Paige and Hazel, a few inches to the left of me...
And saw myself.
I gasped and let out a small scream, but not loud enough for them to hear. I didn't think they could hear me anyway, but I was going to be cautious just in case. What would it do to a person if they saw themself?
I saw the other me blindly sit down almost on top of a bush, although I had no idea why I wasn't watching where I was sitting. My eyes were wide open, but I was acting blind and feeling the ground around me.
The second me squatted against the trunk of an old Maple tree it looked like, and sat there in silence. I heard Paige giggle again and she murmered something to Hazel.
Just like the night before.
Spinner's voice came into the picture, just as it had last night, pouring out the fearful words again. Dylan entered the picture also, appearing at the other end of the forest. I heard Spinner repeat the same thing, but the words didn't fully enter my ears. I had heard, but not listened.
I suddenly realized I was in the past... I was seeing the whole thing happen again, except this time I was on the outside looking in instead of the other way around. I heard a branch crunch to my right, almost equal to where I was standing, and I saw a man... I saw him.
I gasped and yelled subconciously, but it made no difference. The man didn't even flinch. Neither did Paige or Hazel or even the other me. They all sat dead still, and I watched what I had done. I curled my legs into my chest. I remembered the fear that seeped through my head...
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....
I suddenly felt horror absorb into me again, even though I was perfectly safe and merely an onlooker on the situation. I gasped again and put my hand to my mouth, seeing the man squat down behind me.
I could clearly see him, for the sun was still shining where I was. I didn't know why I had been placed in the situation again, much less why I was in broad daylight. I watched the man pull the gun silently out of his pocket and hold it against my back. I saw lips move behind the cut in the ski mask, whispering the words into my ear...
"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 watched the whole situation silently, empty of words that would express my emotion. Spinner called out the identical words, "Hey, is everyone alright?"
I observed Hazel and Paige standing up, Paige blindly hooking herself to Spinner's arm. Dylan traveled farther into the forest, asking yet again, "Where's Marco?"
I glanced back over at the man and the other me, and just as I had predicted, the gun was being pushed farther into my back. I watched the other Marco flinch and close his eyes tight. I imagined at this point I was having the memory of the beating come to me, the reality of it boring deep beyond my skin and leaving an emotional wound forever more. I saw my eyes open and a tear run down my cheek as Paige yelled my name.
"Marco!!"
A pause and then the same...
"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....
They started to turn and walk slowly out of the forest. I couldn't help it anymore. "NO!!!" I yelled, "DON'T LEAVE! I'M RIGHT HERE!" I screamed it at the top of my lungs, not caring now if the man had heard or even if the other me had heard. Apparently neither one had, because neither moved a muscle...
Except Dylan.
I saw him turn and look around the forest, as if searching intently for a sound... Had he heard me? Had he really heard me? Was that even possible? I clutched a tree next to me, begging for him to turn around again and walk to me again, even though it was most likely he would since so far I was only seeing the past, nothing new.
"Dylan!" I pleaded, yelling as loud as my teary voice would allow. I was crying again... If Papa saw me now... what would he say? I'm crying and pleading my crush... a boy... to come to my rescue. I was such a shame to my Italian family... and then I cried harder. The current me, watching the situation, in no danger, stood there and started crying all over again like a little girl. Oh what Papa would have said...
"Dylan!" I yelled again, my voice straining and more tears falling down my cheeks. This time I knew he heard me. He had stopped skimming the forest and closed his eyes, trying to listen again.
"DYLAN!" I cried, my lungs fully collapsing. Then he said it. My words had not been wasted. He had heard me. He opened his eyes, and said the word yet again, as if inevitable...
"No."
Everyone else turned and I could see their confused glances they exchanged between each other. "What's wrong?" Hazel asked, looking at Dylan intently for an answer.
It was dejavu. Everything was the exact same. The tighten the man held on the gun, still holding it firmly against my back. Dylan's confused look and the next sentence he said confidently...
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.
"Yes," I whispered, a small smile breaking out onto my tear streaked face. "Thankyou, Dylan, thankyou." I thought about it deeply... if he hadn't came towards me then, I might have changed my mind about rolling to the side and dodging the bullet, therefore lying as a cadaver forever in the forest, my memory a dead end. Nothing would have peiced together, had it not been for Dylan.
And I knew, right then, why I had been so confident in dying with Dylan's face as my last memory. He was the only one who understood me, the only one who really cared, the only one who really loved me. To hear me, sense me, know I was in the forest when all my other friends had lost hope... to hear a memory of me plead him to save me... that was love. And that was why I loved him, too. He was a part of me.
I watched it all happen again, the gun dig into my back again, the man whisper more words into my ear, Dylan and Paige yell for me to stop playing a joke...
And then I did it... I watched the other me scream and roll to the other side of the tree, and I saw the bullet go flying out of the gun. I was right... it had hit flesh. I gasped as I watched both Dylan and I collapse, one of us with fear from the other being shot, and the other going unconcious because of a bullet slicing through his skin.
And then I woke up.
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A/N: Hey... haha cliffhanger, I know. Muhahaha. Review, and be a kind little person. Sorry if it sucks, I don't feel like reading it through again.