I've been a pretty good kid all my life. When I was in elementary school, I had a lot of friends and we always had innocent fun. In middle school, I had my first boyfriend, but he dumped me in front of the whole school at the dance. That night I was devastated, like a part of me was ripped away. My soul was heavy and I didn't go to school the next day. After the incident, most of my friends left me for people who didn't "embarrass" them. I was alone. When I started high school, I thought I could get a fresh new start. New friends, new reputation, new person altogether. I could get that part of me back. The first few months I had a small group of friends. We all hung out often, and I was happy again. I felt whole and like everything would be easy-breezy from here. I was invited to my first party when I was 15. There was drinking and smoking, but I just danced. One of my friends offered me a drink of alcohol and I thought, It's just one drink. I'll never get hooked on it or anything. But I did. I had quite a few drinks that night and it continued on after the party. My habits caused me to feel depressed and like no one could really understand me. Friends left me again because of my problem, and I dropped out of high school. After a few uneventful weeks, I met some guys on the street and joined their gang. At first it wasn't a big deal; we stole from stores, caused mischief, and all that. But it started to escalate. One of the guys wanted to kill someone. I didn't participate. They called me wimp and chicken, but I didn't care. I wasnt about to kill someone. After a few hours that night, they came home with a full body bag, but the body inside was still alive.
"This one's feisty, eh?" They all splurted out drunken laughter.
"We decided not to kill her, Red." Red is what they called me. I never could figure out why, but it stuck.
"Why did you bring a live human being here, Gunner?" I was shocked and a bit scared we would get caught. Muffled screams were coming from the struggling body bag.
"Shut up!" shouted Peter. He was the only one of the three who didn't have a nickname. They all laughed again and dropped the body on the floor. A cry of pain came from the bag, but it only tried to escape more.
"We thought you would do the honors," said Dip, sluggishly.
"What honors?" Dip put his pointer finger to his head and flicked it upward, making his head fall the opposite direction.
"No. I'm not killing anybody!"
Gunner pulled the bag open and the screams became louder than before. Peter and Dip held her still and duct taped her mouth shut. Her face was red and splotchy from tears, and I realized, she was about twelve.
"You took a kid?!" I looked at them all with dagger eyes, but they didn't seem to flinch at my threat. They all laughed again. Peter tossed me his gun. I caught it.
"If you shoot her now," Peter had a sly smile creeping across his face. "We can run away to the other side of the country. Live a free life, never get caught." The thought sat with me. He did have a point, if we did it now, we could get away and live our lives somewhere else. I couldn't think of a downside. I held the gun up, aiming at the girls forehead. But something was bothering me.
"We should do this outside, blood can't stain wet dirt." They all agreed. The girl was kicking as hard as she could, but she was getting worn out. She hung over, her shoulders heaving with tears. It reminded me of how I felt the day of the dance in middle school.
They pushed her up against the wall, hard. She banged her head so hard, she almost passed out. I was surprised she wasn't passed out already, what with the shock and kicking and being thrown around in a bag.
I held the gun up to her forehead. My hands were shaking. I thought I was gonna drop the gun. The night sky was lit up brilliantly with billions of stars. We didn't usually see this many in the city. As I looked up though, something odd was happening. Something impossible.
"What the heck is happening to the sky?" Dip whispered. Even the girl was looking up.
Each star was going out. The sky was getting darker and darker. How is this happening? I dropped the gun. The whole sky had gone dark. Not a star in sight. It was a new moon too, so nothing lit up the sky. I shook my head and thought I probably had too much to drink again. I picked up the gun and aimed at the girl one last time. I looked at the worry in her eyes, the pleading beg of wanting to live. Her eyes were shining with tears, and she looked like she was going to drop dead anyways. Hesitantly, I pulled the trigger..