Chapter 1
“Without thinking, Chei darted into the open and sprinted into the dark undergrowth, dodging a heavy barrage of bullets. As he crawled over to where Payne had fallen, the hail of deadly ammunition stopped and an eerie silence rocked his eardrums from the intense noise that had abruptly ceased.
'Find him!' An angry and slightly intoxicated voice sounded. 'I wan’ him dead!' His annunciation was slurred somewhat but his words still fairly clear.
At that Chei hurriedly crawled over to Payne whom he could barely see in the dim light cast by the moon. Chei lifted one of Payne’s arms over his neck and realized just how badly his friend was hurt. Blood was seeping through his jacket and his whole left shoulder darkened with the crimson fluid. Chei was slightly impressed though; Payne wasn’t making a single sound and his facial expression was just as stolid as always.
'Do you need help wrapping that?' Chei asked after they had managed to get away from Captain Blue and his gang of bounty hunters. He tried not to grin but it was pretty funny to watch Payne bend and struggle to wrap his shoulder with one hand. To ensure he wouldn’t laugh Chei diverted his attention to the small embers, which had scarcely begun to spread on the firewood. The fire was small and didn’t give off too much light, or heat for that matter, but it was enough to last them the night.
Payne was still having difficulties wrapping his shoulder that a bullet had grazed, but when Chei offered to help again, Payne only peered up at Chei for a moment or two with an unreadable expression and kept on at his work.
Chei rolled his eyes, wondering why he even bothered, and reached over for his canteen. Taking a swig, he looked up at the stars for a moment, thinking he could handle it, but then looked away as memories of grief slowly began settling on his heart like dust on a table.
'When is all going to stop?' Chei asked, watching the small embers that seemed to slow down as soon as he said those words left his lips. Everything feel silent, even the trickle of the creek, and a shiver drove up Chei’s spine. His skin tingled because of his boldness to speak about it openly.
Payne surprised him by answering. 'I don’t know,' he said. 'As soon as the—
A hand covered the blank page; the index finger stopped my pencil from writing down the next word. With a sigh, I didn’t even bother looking up at my teacher, Mr. Crock, as I leaned away from my journal which was swiftly taken from my desk and set at the bottom of the chalkboard.
Kids turned around in their chairs and stared at me, some with the I-can’t-believe-it-this-is-the-second-time-this-week look while others gave me the classic I’m-so-much-more-superior-than-you-you’re-lame stare.
And the worst part of it is—Jason ogled at me like I was some sort of alien who had rabbis or something and was foaming at the mouth.
Normally I didn’t blush because this sort of thing happened on a regular basis, me getting caught writing a story during class and whatnot, but I could feel the intense heat mercilessly scorning my face more so than when I ate red peppers. My guess was probably because Jason never acknowledged my existence until for some odd reason this particular moment, which wasn’t my most glorious to say the least, though it was routine.
I made sure to avoid Jason’s gaze as I sent the other kids a look-away-or-else¬ glare.
