Chapter Text
A tree branch periodically tapped against your window, the soft hum of the air conditioning soothing you as you stared up at the ceiling. Music softly echoed throughout the room as your speaker sat on your bedside table. You didn’t quite know what you were doing. You had school in the morning — actually, what time was it now? It felt like you had laid here for hours, just staring at the ceiling and pinching the fabric of your blanket between your pointer finger and thumb.
Whatever — the only clock you had in your room was a silly, cat-shaped alarm clock that was designed to be annoying enough to fully wake you up at the asscrack of dawn. You didn’t want to do math in your head to figure out the time when your brain was barely working to begin with.
You didn’t quite know what was up with that night. Usually, your music would lull you to sleep, soothing your nerves from the day as your eyes drifted close and you gave into sleep. But tonight was different. Instead of your music washing over you comfortingly, it seemed to only add to your anxiety.
You sighed. You had finally come to the conclusion that you couldn’t sleep. It was probably a conclusion you could’ve come to hours ago, but… shut up. You peeled the covers off of yourself and swung your legs over the side of the bed, shivering when the bottom of your feet hit the cold tiles. You slipped on a pair of socks and your shoes. Throwing on a shirt, zipping up your jacket, and grabbing your headphones, phone, and wallet, you unlatched the lock to your window as quietly as you could. Although you were sure everyone in the house was asleep at that time, it wasn’t a crime to take precautions.
Your shoes found the ground and you slowly moved out of your bedroom and into the cool night air. You stretched, popping a few joints, before turning around and closing your window as if nothing had happened. You just hope that, if your parents decided to check to see if you were asleep, that the lump you made to impersonate yourself was convincing enough.
It wasn’t all too often that you snuck out. It wasn’t a completely rare occurrence, no, but it wasn’t exactly every day that you did so either. You had never gotten caught before, you were much too careful to be caught, and it wasn’t like you did anything bad while out. You didn’t sneak out to smoke or drink or other kids your age probably did. No, you mostly just walked around, making sure to avoid patrol cars and any other type of car that drove by. Sure, you would stop by the neighborhood park occasionally to sit on the swings, or underneath one of the play sets, or stop by the 24-hour gas station that was a few blocks down— which, you were actually heading to now — but you mostly just walked aimlessly for an undetermined amount of time before deciding to head home.
The floodlights of the gas station brought you out of your thoughts as you approached the building, the door opening with a soft ding as the fatigued cashier spared you a glance. While you didn’t sneak out much, you still frequented the corner store during non-sneaking-out-hours ( times when it didn’t technically count as sneaking out ) and would manage to catch this certain cashier just as she clocked in. Her name was Jade ( you were actually pretty sure she went to your school, too. She was probably a junior, only a year older than you ) and the both of you had struck up friendly conversation before — so it was safe to say that you were on friendly terms with her.
You gave her a nod, letting her go back to resting her head against the counter before you disappeared into the aisles, skimming through the familiar shelves before grabbing your go-to snack. You moved over to the wall of fridges, chewing your bottom lip as your eyes danced over the possible drink choices. With a shrug, you picked up a drink your friend had gotten you hooked on. They had given it to you last time you went over to their house and it was probably one of your defaults at this point.
Walking over to the counter, you set your items down and dug into your pocket for your wallet as Jade started scanning the products.
“Hey, [Name]” Jade greeted you, offering a tired smile.
You returned the sentiment, getting out a ten dollar bill and handing it to the girl as the price rang up on the small screen in front of you. “Hey, Jade. I thought you had the afternoon shift?” You asked, tucking your hands in your jean’s pockets. Usually, you saw her here a few hours after school, when you’d be heading to your friend’s house to study— but you’d never seen her here this late. It was normal some other scrawny guy, probably in his mid-twenties (also, you were also pretty sure her working at this hour also broke a few child labor laws…)
Jade shrugged, getting the change out of the cash register. “My co-worker called out for a family emergency and the owner couldn’t find anyone else to cover his shift,” She explained as she handed you the change, “Besides, the more money I earn, the more I have for college, so I’m not complaining.”
That made sense, you supposed. Organizing the change back into your wallet, Jade slid you the bag with your stuff in it. “Well, don’t forget we have finals coming up,” You reminded, snorting when the cashier groaned and dropped her head in her hands. “Just make sure you actually get some decent sleep.”
Jade scoffed and you could practically hear the eye roll that came from her. “As if you’re one to talk, [Name].” She leaned her head on her hand, giving you a playful snicker. “I think the amount of sleep you get now could earn you a trophy for ‘ World’s Most Stubborn Insomniac ’.”She waved her hands in a half circle while wearing the cockiest grin of the century.
You grumbled under your breath at that, yet held the same smile from before. You turned around as you waved goodbye to the girl, pushing the door to the outside world open with your foot. “Whatever. Goodnight, Jade.” She managed to yell out a quick ‘ Goodnight!’ before the door closed behind you and you began walking down the street. You didn’t exactly have a set destination in mind — you just unpaused your music and let your feet carry you around the area. You took out your drink, opening it quietly before taking a quick sip.
It was oddly quiet, you observed. While, yes, it was the dead of night, things weren’t usually this silent. Not in your town. There was always a little bit of life bustling at every corner, whether it be obnoxious drivers blasting music with their windows down or a large group of people walking and talking — hell, even the bars that had yet to be closed were only swarming with crickets. It was strange.
You were drawn out of your thoughts by sobbing to your right. Your music — which had been playing quite softly in your eyes — paused before you put your phone back in your pocket and took off your headphones, hanging them around your neck. The cries continued, and you looked to the source to find a small silhouette hiding in the shadows. When you said small — you meant small. they were curled against a wall, their body shaking from the sobs that wracked through them.
You were frozen. While every alarm bell was going off in your head, telling you to turn a blind eye and keep moving god damn it — you couldn’t. The more you looked at the— let’s face it— small child in the dark space, the more you felt inclined to help. Fuck, you couldn’t just leave a kid out here alone, especially not when they were clearly struggling.
Hesitantly, you called out. “Hey, kid?”
The child’s body jerked and they gasped wetly. You could see their head lift to look at you, and, although you couldn’t very well see their features, they didn’t seem very pleased to see you. “W-What are you doing?” The child stuttered, “You’re not supposed to be here! You could get hurt!”
Well… that, admittedly, didn’t sound very good. Quite the opposite, really. However, if you could get hurt, that also meant that they could too, and you weren’t exactly too keen on standing by and letting a kid get hurt — and that’s exactly what you voiced. “Look, I can’t just leave you out here,” You said softly, face lighting up as you looked down at your bag. “Here! Uh, do you want a snack? They’re not poisonous — at least, they shouldn’t be ,” You mumbled the last part to yourself as you brought out your snack and held it out for the kid, who shook their head more adamantly.
“You don’t understand! They could find you — please, go away!” The kid pleaded with you, his voice wavering, which (very unfortunately) strengthened your want to help him. Although, you couldn’t help but be curious at who ‘they’ are.
“Who’s ‘they’?” You asked, inching closer to the boy. “If you’re in trouble — if they want to hurt you, maybe I can help.”
As you got closer, you could see the child’s features better. His eyes were red with tears, and he looked like he had clawed at his hair from the different angles it was sticking up in. He whined as you neared, but didn’t back up. Perhaps he knew he couldn’t convince you. “They’ve been after me for hours , but you can still run!” He whispered, his eyes darting around anxiously.
You felt a rush of sympathy for him as you kneeled down to his level, holding your hands out in front of you to show that you meant no harm. “Hey— hey,” You said in a calm and low tone, trying not to spook the kid even further. “Look, there’s a police station around the corner. I can call the police as we walk over there and-“ As you talked, you missed the way he looked behind you and his eyes widened in fear. Before you knew it, a rough hand was grabbing at your throat and slamming you into the ground.
You yelled out in pain, pinpricks of tears jumping to your eyes as the little boy cried out in fear, stumbling back from you and your attacker. While you weren’t able to make out much due to your ears ringing from the harsh impact, you were able to open your eyes enough to see the man pinning you to the ground point — what you assumed was, based on the shape— a gun towards the kid as he talked. Every siren was going off in your head, and even though you knew you should’ve been more concerned about your own situation, all you could think about was getting that kid away from here .
With what strength you had, you lifted your legs, braced them against the guys chest, and pushed. He fell back with a groan and you took a greedy gasp of breath. Without much thought, you immediately got on top of the man and attempted to grapple the gun out of his hands — if only to stall him for enough time to let the kid get away. Speaking of which, you turned around to face the child, whose face was frozen in fright as he watched the small brawl.
“Go, kid!” You shouted, snapping him out of his stupor and making him look at you with big eyes. Gods, he couldn’t have been older than ten — and it both fueled the protectiveness you felt for him as well as the anger you felt for the man under you. When the kid didn’t move, looking between you and the man, you grunted as you felt what little power you had over the attacker slipping. “ Now!”
With another look between the two of you, he scrambled up from the concrete, running the opposite direction as you continued to wrestle against the man. Now that the kid was out of harm's way (for you) you could turn your attention to the guy under you (honestly, you were surprised he hadn’t managed to flip you over yet. You knew you were pretty strong for a 14 — almost 15 — year old, but this felt like pushing it).
Any hopes of making it out of this conflict alive disappeared as soon as you heard the gunshot go off and a searing pain flared through your abdomen.
You were pushed off the man as he grasped at your throat and squeezed tightly, cutting off your airways. You clawed at his hand, tears falling down your flushed cheeks as you became more aware of the blood that was spreading through your shirt and the hole in your stomach. This was it.
You were gonna die.
“Stupid fucking kid,” The man snarled. He had wiry hair that hung over his face, along with a black face mask. The only part of him that was clear to you were his threatening blue eyes that narrowed at you angrily. His grip on your neck tightened and you sobbed. “You could’ve stayed out of this. You should’ve listened when you had the chance.”
Right — like hell you were gonna leave a kid to deal with this freak. Fat fucking chance.
Flailing your legs, you garnered whatever strength and spite you could muster and spit in his face. That only angered him more.
“This is taking too long,” He growled, pulling away one of his hands from your neck and taking out a switchblade from his pants pocket. “I need to be going after that brat, not occupying myself with another one.” He pulled it on your neck and your eyes widened. You struggled more, kicking your legs and whining pathetically.
Unfortunately, you felt the pain before you registered the act of him pulling the knife across your neck. If you had the ability to scream, you would’ve, but all that came out was a strangled gasp.
Without another word, the man stood up, barely sparing you a look before he took off in the same direction as that kid. You could feel blood drip down your throat as more leaked past your lips.
You thought people were overexaggerating when they said their lives flashed before their eyes when they thought they were gonna die. But now, as you recalled painfully happy memories of you and your mom, you and your best friend, you realized it was true.
Your mom always warned you about the dangers of being out late at night because, although she didn’t know you frequently snuck out, she still cared about you and your well being unlike your father and brother. More tears welled up in your eyes as your vision began to darken. You wondered who would find your body the next morning — wondered if that boy was okay, wondered if they would catch your killer.
Most of all, you worried how your mom would react. You whispered a small apology that was carried away by the wind. Foolishly, you hoped it would make your way to your mother.
Closing your eyes, the last thing you heard was the sound of you choking on your own blood