caracco

There won't be any chapters for several weeks, and this is kind of cliff, so if you have problems with that wait for when I will start posting again before reading.

<MJ pov>

Walking in the night, on the familiar streets of Queens, feeling the fresh air of a September night, I can't not think of what happened in the last couple of hours.

The homecoming ball was going on as planned, boring as fuck, with people living their daily crises trying to prove they didn't.

In truth, everyone was waiting for someone to do like in the movies and spike the punch or start something, but it seems that everyone was going to be disappointed by reality.

As people keep arriving, the situation starts getting even more boring, as people start forming grips with their friends, swaying out of time clumsily, unsure of what to do.

It didn't take long before Ned, and some of the others from the Decathlon club gathered, prompting me to join them.

Taking a moment to weigh the benefits of doing so, I decided to reach them, hoping to reduce the boredom of the evening.

The boredom that unequivocally doesn't get relieved, even if for a moment I hoped so when I see Sig and Peter entering the gym.

Seeing them, I am surprised for a moment, enthralled by their beauty, a pang of jealousy assaulting me. A feeling that I try to keep down, as it wouldn't be right to envy what they have and their happiness.

Putting a strained smile on, I start waving a finger at them, trying to put up a facade of coolness that I didn't have.

Unsurprisingly, a moment before they join us, something happens, and they disappear, as they always do since they started dating, disappearing whenever they have the chance.

If I didn't know better, I'll say that they have a second life...

The party then keeps going, as boring as before, with nothing happening till we hear the sounds of several sirens speeding near the gym, causing a bout of panic in the other students.

Soon enough, we start moving out of the building, seeing a trail of firefighter trucks, ambulances, and police cars speeding toward the seaside. Unsure of what was happening, the organizers seemed to think that ending the party was the right call, ending the ball.

As we start going home, I get stopped by Ned, that asks me, "Do you need a ride home? My parents will be here in a bit..."

"Thanks, Ned, but my father is already coming..." I lie, unwilling to be in his family's company for more than a minute. 

They are too friendly and gentle... It's plain wrong... It's better to be around people in crisis, at least they don't make you feel inferior...

"Oh, fine..." Ned says, seeing that I wasn't interested in either his offer or a conversation.

It doesn't take a lot for the place to clear up, between worried parents and seniors with their own cars, and less than twenty minutes later, I am practically alone in front of the gym.

Seeing there is no one to spot my lie, I start walking home, putting my earphones on, fully aware that no one will come for me, and that at this hour my father would probably be already wasted on a bar counter.

As I keep thinking of what happened, I don't notice that the streets are emptier than they usually are, with no trump or vagrants sleeping in an alley near the street.

But all of this goes unnoticed as I walk on autopilot, moving down a street I cross every day.

I don't even notice when a van from the other side of the street makes a U-turn, following me a couple of hundred feet behind.

I notice something is wrong only at the last second when the van steers in front of me, and a couple of masked men jump out of the back of the rear doors.

I can only scream for a second before they are on me, poking me with a cylinder that injects something into me and covering my mouth to stop the shouting.

I try to wiggle out of their arms, but as seconds pass, I feel my body becoming unresponsive, becoming harder and harder to move until I can't anymore. Until I can't even blink. Until I stop feeling anything and I lose consciousness.