A/N: So, I couldn't sleep and ended up spitting this out. Honk if you like it! I've also updated my profile.
Steve flung open the door, and him and Johnny tumbled inside rather ungracefully. Soda glanced up.
"Hey, guys. Is it raining out?"
"Huh?"
" ... You're all wet."
The two boys looked down and realized that they were, indeed, drenched in a cold sweat.
"What happened? You look like you've seen a ghost."
"Well ... something like that," Steve gasped out.
Darry walked in from the kitchen. "That you, Steve?" He stopped and looked from one petrified teen to the other. Nobody seemed to be hurt. "Parents, or Socs?"
Johnny shook his head wordlessly as Ponyboy entered the room, brandishing a completed sheet of math questions. "Darry, I'm do-"
He stopped when he saw Johnny and Steve.
"What-"
"Okay, enough," Soda said, cutting his little brother off. "Just let them talk."
He looked at their two friends imploringly. Steve took a deep breath and collected himself best he could. He began to explain, Johnny tried to jump in once in a while, but his voice seemed to falter a lot.
Darry listened intently through the whole thing, determined to find a logical explanation, wearing that set look that hid what he thought. Soda looked worried as Steve went on, possibly fearing that his best buddy had finally cracked. Pony had his eyes screwed shut, although what help that did him, nobody knew. He jumped, though, as Johnny spoke up.
"The eyes ..." he mused quietly, "They were just ... so ... black ..."
His eyes were wide enough to give the Grand Canyon a run for its money. His voice was oddly detached and his eyes were staring right through the people facing him, as if they weren't there.
Johnny didn't say anything more, so Steve picked up again with the telling of their encounter. Yet nobody forgot that haunted look that had passed over Johnny's features.
When the story had been told, everyone was silent for a minute. Then Darry sighed, "I don't know, guys. That's just too unnatural to be true. How could you have been sure of what you saw? It was already getting dark out. For all you know, he could have been wearing sunglasses."
Steve blinked. Of course, Darry would come up with an explanation ... but that didn't mean Steve was going to believe it.
"Well then, explain how there were two of them," he declared, then added, "Maybe more."
Darry was growing impatient. "Look, Steve, maybe they were part of a history group, re-enacting some event. Or maybe they were drug dealers. Identical twins. Gang members. There are just so many possibilities. So, let it go."
Both men were glaring at each other like cowboys. You could have cut the tension with a knife.
"I don't want to let it go!" Steve shouted. "I know what we saw!"
Darry's would-be reply was cut off by a sharp rap on the window. Everybody froze.
A small cloud of fog appeared on the glass, as if something had exhaled in front of it. A pale finger drew an 'x' in the cloud. The boys shuddered at the wet squeaking sound it made.
They could not see outside, but they all knew just what had made that 'x'.
"What does that mean?" breathed Soda, breaking the silence.
"Search and destroy!" wailed Ponyboy as he threw himself face-first onto the couch. His now cushion-muffled voice announced: "We're all gonna die!"
Well, I s'pose it coulda done without that last bit, but oh , I'm not going to beg for reviews, but I mean, it would be nice. Well-rounded critique, or just tell me if you like it.
DHF out.