headfirst

Sitting down in the near empty bus, Justin closes his eyes. Exhausted, his body screams for sleep, but his mind is still running its marathon. What am I going to tell Brian? How will I tell him that I’m… different? Will he even believe me? Or will he think I’ve gone crazy? He seriously begins to ponder his safety in a mental hospital. Could they still get to me if I’m locked away somewhere? Opening his eyes, he pulls himself up as the bus slows to a stop. A block away from the comic book store, Justin is mere moments away from his lover. Quickly exiting the bus, Justin stops at the busy intersection. He waits for the light to change so that he can begin to cross. Looking up at the signal, Justin knows that he can probably change it himself if he thinks hard enough. It’s then when he feels someone looking at him. Turning his head, he sees Brian walking down the sidewalk talking to Emmett, who Justin assumes Brian met with after dropping Michael off at the store. Grinning widely, Justin wills himself not to bounce on his heels as Brian smiles back at him and Emmett waves and calls out a greeting. About to take a step forward, Justin then hears the unmistakable shrill of sheer panic formed into his name: “Justin!!!” Turning back to the busy street, Justin sees a young woman, probably the same age of Justin, with long, flowing red hair, running quickly through the traffic. “Justin!” She screams again and Justin vaguely remembers her…it’s the red hair. The way it flows like it has its own life over the wind. “I can hold my breath longer than you can!” the red headed girl announces as they both hang upside down on the obstacle course. “I can hold mine longer!” the blond boy counters, though he isn’t looking at her face and instead at her hair. He loved the color of it. It seemed to spark life in the sterile whiteness of the walls they lived in. “Run!” She screams, dodging another car and making her way closer to Justin. And then he feels it before he sees it. A car near them, a window opening, and a gun. Arm outstretched in warning, Justin screams, “No!” and hears the horrible sound and see the pooling of blood making its way out of the woman’s chest as her knees give out and she drops to the ground. E1. Ducking fast, the next bullet misses him and instead hits the glass window behind him, shattering it into the store. Turning back to Brian, he sees his lover’s face one last time before running in the other direction.