Authors Note: so, this was supposed to be up months ago, except i lost the outline for the chapter and i only just found it about two weeks ago. sorry about that. also, one of my good friends is moving to Florida tomorrow and i was trying to spend as much time with him as i could. i don't know when i'm going to see him again.
Disclaimer: i don't own the oustiders.
Chapter song: Eye of the Storm - Bullet for My Valentine

Can you hear the thunder
Can you feel the raining force
Nail down all your windows and barricade the doors
Mother nature's fury, takes you by the hand
Showing all but mercy, wreaking death upon the land

- Curly-

The glass was cracked and jagged pieces lay strew across the hard wooden floor. A large red brick sat in the middle of the mess. The room was still silent as people slowly began to move towards the window, curious as to what had just happened. Curly Shepard, one of the hosts of the party, came barging into the room.

"Move the fuck out of my way before I kick all of you out!" he shouted as he tried to make his way to the window through the growing crowd of people. Noise filled the air as the party goers began talking, some in panic and others in disbelief.

"You've got to be kidding me" Curly mumbled to himself as he surveyed the damage. "Alright, who's the little shit that did this?" he asked, turning to face the crowd of people. No one spoke up; they just shrugged their shoulders and looked around. He shook his head and walked over to the brick. It was when he picked up the square object that he realized something written on it. An angry growl escaped his lips and he became blind with rage. Without warning he hurtled the brick across the room, earning him shouts from a few of the girls present.

"What's wrong?" someone asked but Curly didn't have time to notice who it was. Outside of the broken window stood a man dressed in all black. His hood was pulled over his eyes and his smile was that of a smug criminal. The man lifted his hand to his throat and gracefully moved it across his neck as though he was making a slit in it. Then he ran.

"You little punk. Get back here!"

The cold October wind hit his bare arms with a chilling force as he ran out the door. It was dark and he couldn't see anything – or anyone for that matter- but he refused to give up. He stopped at the end of the driveway and spun in place, looking for the hooded figure. Curly someone on his right whispered. Once again he turned in a circle but still there was no one in sight.

"Come out come out wherever you are" he said as though it was a simple game of hide and seek.

Something was making a screeching noise against the side of the house and it was growing louder by the second. As quietly as he could, Curly began to move towards where the sound was coming from. But as suddenly as the noise had started, it stopped. Catch, he the voice whisper again. Before he had a chance to realize what was going on, something hard and round the space between his shoulder blades. Brightly colored stars filled his vision and air felt trapped between his lungs.

"Argh. What." Breath. "The." Breath. "Hell".

Come and get me.

Air filled his lungs again and he resumed running towards the side of the house. He slowed down as he rounded the corner, preparing himself if anyone was to jump out. But nothing was there except for a hose reel, some leaves and an old rusty rake leaning against the wall. It was most likely the source of the screeching he had heard. Now it was his only weapon. A light shone on the yard in back of the house and he inched to it slowly, like a moth to flame. Holding the rake against his shoulder, he stepped into the light. Once again he was greeted by nothing but leaves and trees. He threw the rake down in aggravation, temporarily giving up the fight.

"Fine! You win, but don't think this is over asshole. I will find you."

Is that a promise? The voice came again."That's a threat" Curly responded as he gritted his teeth.

I'm wondering. How will you find me when you don't even know who I am or what I look like? I suppose you could ask Angela, although I don't know how much help she'd be in the state that she's in now.

Curly's hands balled into fists. "What are you talking about?" But this time no answer came. The only sound was that of leaves rustling in the breeze. Music had started playing in the house again and he decided that he should go back to the party. Maybe if he had been concentrating a little more he would've heard it. The snap of twigs, the sound of footsteps. He would've seen the shadow sneaking up behind him in the light. He would've noticed the steel bat being raised above his head and maybe he could've fought back. But all he could think about what how pissed off he was. And so when the first swing of the bat connected with his head, nothing made sense. The blood slipping down his head confused him. The hard concrete hurt his arms and the haze covering his eyes rendered him helpless. The sound of his bones cracking frightened him but he was already too lost in the dark to do something about it. Now the only thought in his head was the brick, and the note on it that he should've taken a little more seriously.

Rest In Peace
Angela and Curly Shepard
October 25th 1967

As he sat bloody and dying on the rough ground he prayed that only half of the grim note was true. Even though he didn't always like his sister, he never wanted he to die. Too bad he was dead wrong.

- Ponyboy -
It had been almost a half hour since Curly had run out the door and he still hadn't returned. No one seemed to notice, or maybe they just didn't care. It had only taken them 10 minutes to return to how they were before the disruption; drunk, horny, loud and obnoxious. Darry and Soda, the only two people to make an effort to help, had tried to clean up as much of the glass as they could but gave up when the pieces became too small. Meanwhile, the youngest Curtis wandered through the house trying to find his drunken friend, Dallas, who had run off with some girl the second everyone's eyes were off him. This wasn't a job Ponyboy enjoyed much because he knew almost exactly what Dally was doing and he didn't care to see. The only reason he embarked on this journey was because of his older brother Darry, who had insisted that everyone in the gang be accounted for before Soda explained what was wrong.

"Excuse me, have any of you seen Dallas Winston?" Ponyboy asked a group of girls that were lined up outside of the bathroom.

"He's in the room straight ahead of you. Went in there about 10 minutes ago with some blonde" one of the girls answered. He mumbled a quick thanks and then walked towards the door. Timidly he began knocking on the door.

"Dal, it's Ponyboy. I need to talk to you." The door opened but the person standing in front of him was not Dally. It was a girl and she was thin, blonde and beautiful. She was also in the middle of putting on a t-shirt

"Oh I'm..." he started but the person placed a finger over his lips to quiet him.

"He's over there on the couch" she stated quietly and pointed to the person dangling off the couch. "I think he's passed out" she added on, answering Pony's next question.

"Great" Ponyboy said as he walked over to retrieve his friend. The girl lingered in the door for a few seconds, watching Ponyboy struggle to get his friend off the couch. Then she gave him a small smile and vanished from the room. Five minutes later Two-bit and the rest of the gang appeared at the door. Pony had given up trying to move Dally and opted for bringing the group to him.

"Jeeze Pony what did you do, punch him out?" Two-bit chuckled as he looked at Dally.

"Ha ha. Very funny Two-bit."

"Well I can't wait for him to wake up so I'm just going to come out and say it" Soda paused before continuing. "Something weird happened at the house and I think someone's dead."

"Sodapop Curtis that is not funny at all. If this is your idea of a practical joke..." Darry said giving his brother a disapproving look.

"No Darry listen, I'm not kidding. I was in the bathroom when I heard someone screaming so I told Steve to go see what was going on. He did and apparently Angela Shepard was at our door, covered in blood and crying that someone was going to get her. All she kept saying was that Kevin was dead. So Steve came to get me and then the lights went out and Angela was gone. I left Steve at the house just in case she came back but Darry, I'm scared. Something really messed up is going on." All eyes were on Soda as he finished up his story.

"Are you sure it was blood? I mean, maybe she was just playing a trick on us. It is almost Halloween you know." Two-bit said. The other two were too shocked to speak.

"I don't know. I didn't see her, Steve did. I guess it could've been a joke but don't you think she would've told us before we got so worked up over it?" Soda said shaking his head. He truly didn't believe that this was just some cheap Halloween scare.

"We should get home. Everyone get in the car." Darry said quickly.

"What about Dallas?" Ponyboy asked.

"We'll leave him a note. If something weird is going on it won't help us to have to lug around someone who's passed out" Darry answered as he shuffled through all the draws in the room. He managed to find a broke pencil and on an old receipt that he used to scribble down a short note. He placed it on top of Dally and herded everyone out of the room. As they headed for the door Tim, who was looking slightly better then before, grabbed onto Pony's arm.

"Where's Curly? Where's my brother?" Tim slurred while trying to keep balance.

"I don't know Tim" Pony answered as he tried to gently remove Tim's arm.

"Look Tim, something's happened at home and we need to leave. Tell Dally to call us when he gets up okay?" Darry asked.

"Mm" Tim grumbled.

"It was a good party bro" Two-bit said. He patted Tim, who was no longer paying attention to them, on the back. "Oh, and thanks for the beer buddy" Two-bit laughed as he reached towards Tim, grabbed the can of beer right from his hands and then ran out the door.

When Darry pulled up in front of the house it was silent. The outside of the house looked exactly the way it had when they left it. The only thing different was a vacant car parked across the street. One by one the four boys got out of the truck and stood in front of their gate.

"Stay behind me guys" Darry commanded. Behind him Soda and Two-bit took out their switchblades, readying themselves in case they had to fight. Slowly they walked up to the door and turned the knob.

"Steve. Steve it's Soda. I brought the guys home with me" Soda shouted. "Steve?"

"Maybe he went to find us?" Pony asked.

"Don't you think we would've seen him walking genius?" Two-bit responded. Pony glared at him and continued walking forward.

"You know, it would help if we had lights Darr" Two-bit continued.

"Alright, give me two minutes" and Darry disappeared down the stairs. The three remaining boys stood against the wall and waited. Sure enough about two minutes later Darry fixed the power. There was a click and all the lights in the house came on, including the living room TV.

"Tha-" The breath caught in Soda's chest and he didn't finish his sentence. The scene in front of him seemed like it had popped out of a bad horror movie. Written on the wall in front of him was "aren't you glad you didn't turn on the lights?" The crimson liquid used to write the message dripped down the wall and spilled over onto the white couch across from the TV. Lying on that couch was Angela and Kevin, cold, broken and without a doubt, dead.

- Dally -
The couch was lumpy, small and anything but comfortable. Dally was stuck somewhere between sleep and consciousness though the growing clarity of voices signaled that he was waking up.

"My brother! MY BROTHER!" he heard someone yelling in agony.

What the hell? He stretched his hands above his head and tried to roll over onto his side to go back to sleep but only succeeded in falling off of the couch. Ow. He rubbed his head and raised himself into a sitting position. For a moment he couldn't remember where he was or what he had been doing before entering the room, but after taking a quick glance at his surroundings he recognized it as the Shepard household.

"No. No. He can't be dead" Dally heard someone say. The same person who had been shouting minutes before.

A terrible, throbbing headache was beginning to pulse in his head and the urge for a cigarette overpowered him. He stood up and walked over to the door with every intention of hunting down a cigarette, and maybe some aspirin. Before he could turn the handle he noticed a white sheet of paper taped to the back of the brown wood door.

'Dally,
There's an emergency back at the house and we had to leave.
We would've woken you up but you were knocked out cold.
Give us a call when you see this note. It's important.
I mean it.
- Darry'

"Yea, important my ass" Dally said as he slammed the door shut, deciding to overlook the note for now.

As he walked down the smoke filled hallway he noticed that something wasn't right. There was no music blasting, no TV on, no one fighting or even talking much for that matter. Words were being spoken in a quick, hushed tone and only a few people were in the living room when he arrived. He walked over to a pretty little redhead who sat on the couch, whispering something into her friends' ear.

"Well hello there ladies" Dally greeted them. The redhead ignored his greeting and continued to whisper while her friend shyly looked up at Dally.

"Would you mind telling me what's going on here"

The girl turned to the redhead and said something before turning back to Dally. "Something happened to Tim's brother."

"Oh. That's all?" Dally asked. Curly was always getting into fights so he figured that the big commotion was just over a broken nose or something little like that. The girl tilted her head and gave him a weird look.

"Where's Tim?" he asked.

"In the backyard" the redhead responded. "I wouldn't ..." but she stopped talking because Dally had already started for the yard.

The scene he walked in on was what he least expected. When he reached the yard he saw Tim, just like the girls had told him, but there were also about 20 other people. And they were all starting at something, or someone, laying face down in a pool of crimson blood. He looked at the mess of guts and blood but the body was beaten beyond recognition. Another wail of despair pierced the night and it only took a minute for Dally to put the pieces together. The person screaming about their brother, the person crying out in pain, the mention of someone being killed. Tim's actions had given Dally all the evidence he needed to know who the lifeless body belonged to, even if the face couldn't be seen. Dally ran into the house, knowing what he had to do. They picked up on the third ring.

"Hello? Dally is that you?" Soda's voice said from the other line.

"Soda" he paused.

"Curly's... dead."

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and go see Pineapple Express. it was epic.

- Nickie -