"You can cry from any emotion. Emotions are chemicals levels in your brain and body that are constantly trying to maintain equilibrium. If one emotion skyrockets it is flagged which opens tear ducts as an exit to release that emotion carefully packaged into tears."

"Funny, that's exactly what the opening to Mr. Greg's Phyc class was. Do I know you?"

"That's not usually what people say."

"What do they say? Help, someone's trying to kill me?"

"Yeah, pretty close."

~

"Please, make it stop. Make it stop," I sobbed. I felt a cold hand against my arm, pinning it to the floor. People I didn't know speaking in languages I didn't understand screamed in my head. Memories that weren't mine flashed in my mind. War, famine, hunger. Screams and conversations and songs blurred into one.

I seized the hand with a vice-like grip. My vision blurred. Black spots crept across my sight. They shucked my hand off their arm and returned to what they were doing.

"Please, please, please," I begged. a sudden pain spiked through my body. The voices combined the melted away. The assault of images faded. I gasped for air. The hand tilted my face to the side.The cold floor felt nice against my burning face.

"What- What was that?" I slurred. I could almost make out the face of a Caucasian, or maybe Hispanic, person. The face blurred back into the background. They put their hand on my face. A gentle, comforting act.

"Shh, just sleep," He coaxed. I felt a tiny pinch against my exposed neck. "It'll all be over soon."

I grasped at the floor, but the tile gave no E. The hand left my face. I strained to move, but he just nudged my face back.

"Please," I whispered. My eyes drifted shut. My mouth ghosted the plea. The world swirled away from my grasp. I was... I was...

~

You would never expect a speech that starts with "Hi, I am your Valedictorian." to end with gunshots.

~

"They're never going to find you down here," He said with a breathy whisper that made her shudder. She whimpered as his nails dug deeper into her arm.

She watched the shadows pass through the slim cracks in the floorboards, unable to call out. To be so close to freedom, yet doomed to never reach it was worse than any torture he could inflict.

~

A smile spread across his face as his bullet found its target. His blood ran cold as she turned to face him, digging the small piece of metal out of her chest without so much as a wince.

"Nice shot, but bullets don't kill me," She sneered.

"Yeah, but the silver 'll hurt like hell," He shouted back.

~

He stood outside the doorway, centimeters from the door.

"Um, hello." The woman said with a twinge of confusion. The man just smiled.

"Do you need something?" She asked. She noticed oddly ordinary he seemed. He looked like anyone else in this perfect neighborhood. Maybe it was his clothes or the fact that his face was perfectly symmetrical, just like everyone else. 

"Hello ma'am. I noticed that you are new to this neighborhood. I wanted to welcome you." He said in a recited spiel.

"Um, thanks. Have a nice day." She said as she started to close the door. It stopped abruptly. Fear spiked in her heart. She looked up. The man had his hand on the door, still smiling politely at her.

~

"The alter needs a sacrifice," A booming voice called. The sea of red robes shifted uncomfortably.

~

"I remember the days when I was afraid of the monsters in my closet, under my bed, in the night. I wish those fears had stayed as crazy as they seemed. Now I was afraid of the monsters in my head, in other peoples head. Do you have any idea how hard it is to look at people, people you love, and worry if they are going to try and kill you." Her voice cracked. She looked at me with tired eyes. Eyes that hadn't seen sleep in days.

"I mean, my bedroom door is never locked. I eat food and drink water like normal people. Accidents happen. Bleach, certain poisons, a knife. All so accessible. We are just so fragile. So breakable. Did you know it only takes four Jules of force to rip of an ear?" She rambled. I scribbled notes on the paper. The gun folded in my skirt seemed a little heavier.

~