The car's engine screamed into life, the revving shaking the air in the quiet parking lot. Damon wasn't used to a v-eight, the power was both intimidating as well as giving him a sense of control he so desperately needed.

For two days things had been getting weird in class, all around him people he knew stopped being social and became the model for a perfect class room. He had tried to talk to someone about it but they had made out like it was some kind of secret, like a club he was yet to become part of. That's what scared him the most, every time he spoke about it they all seemed to imply he would find out soon enough.

'Fuck that.' He thought to himself as he made plans about leaving. His parents were away, being seventeen he was deemed old enough to look after himself and in his best interests, he thought it best to leave now. There was only one person he thought to take with him and it wasn't like he was best friends or even close to the guy. Jimmy was a small fry when it came to social groups. Like most children, he had been considered an equal in primary years but as the time had passed, he had become more of an outsider. He had flown under the radar until he had dropped off it completely. It wasn't that people didn't know he was there, they even spoke to him on occasion, it was just that on a list of priorities he was somewhat at the bottom. He spent most of his time reading and when he wasn't head first in a book he was writing.

Damon was making him a priority now though, he didn't know why, he barely knew the guy. Watching everyone around him, turn into some kind of fucking automated robot had changed Damon's perspective as of late. Watching everybody all the time had its advantages and if he was sure that anybody was still themselves, after himself, it was Jimmy. The guy had looked terrified for two whole days now, he had given up on trying to act natural and now he looked like he just wanted to wake up from a nightmare. Well Damon wasn't about to sit around pinching his arm waiting for the wake up call. He was getting out now and if he wanted Jimmy could come for the ride.

As it turns out Jimmy didn't need much in the way of convincing, all it took was a quick angry word from Damon and he was in. He had been having his own ideas about leaving, in fact just that afternoon he had taken the keys to Brad's car. Brad had long been the spoiled, rich, rev head, whose father paid for whatever he wanted. No one was allowed to drive Brad's car, not ever. He parked in the teachers parking lot because he didn't trust the students to park next to the beast as he called it.

"It was the damnedest thing." Said Jimmy on the way to the car. "He saw me take the keys... He stood right there in the hall as I shut the door to his locker. He must have followed me as if he knew where I was going. He had to have seen me and then he just stood there." Jimmy shuddered. thinking about it.

"In ten minutes it's not going to matter." Damon replied.

They were halfway around the teacher's lounge when someone called out to them, causing them to stop and turn. The newcomer was a girl from the class above Damon. She had a spring in her step as she crossed the asphalt to greet them.

"Are you guys leaving?" she asked plainly.

"Yeah." Damon said while inspecting her face, she looked like she had been crying recently. "Your Nicole right?"

"Yeah." She replied. "Can I come too?"

"Sure, we are leaving now!" Damon said unlocking the doors.

"Isn't this Brad's car." Nicole queried.

"Yeah, we are borrowing it." Jimmy spoke like it was the most natural thing in the world. Stealing the keys had awakened something in him he knew was there, but never had the reason to use. Being with Damon, who was very self confident, was helping feed this new persona and it made the hairs on his neck stand up. Nicole took the front passenger seat while Damon drove which suited Jimmy just fine, he took centre back, the safest seat. Taking off fast on a cold engine Damon turned hard out of the school gate. Looking back as they drove away they could see teachers and students lining the fence watching them leave. No one spoke, they all stood facing the same direction watching as Brads beast speed away.

Damon woke to Jimmy screaming his name in the back somewhere, they were still in the car but it had stopped. Glass littered him and something else he couldn't quite make out. Trying to think was like doing a blank thousand piece puzzle and his head hurt too much to fit the pieces together now. Touching his temple he felt blood and he remembered hitting his head hard on the window. The memory triggered another as he recalled Nicole grabbing at the wheel. He couldn't have been out more than a couple of minutes, turning to look at Nicole he felt sick. The stuff that covered him, were bits of what was left of Nicole, something terrible had happened and he wasn't hanging around to find out what. She still faced him her face looking almost peaceful but the violence beneath it made it obscene. No one should look peaceful when their body is torn open like that, as if someone had come and gutted her where she sat. Her insides were peeled open and a stringy red substance spilled out covering everything. Damon's head swum as he fumbled for the seat belt latch but his fingers didn't seem to want to respond. Suddenly it seemed like too much effort to even move and all he could do was sit as the tendril like roots encompassed his head. Damon wanted to scream in terror as he was overtaken but his body wouldn't respond in any way, he was powerless and scared but the fear didn't last long.

***********************************

The door opened suddenly and Jimmy felt rough hands pulling him from the crash. He had seen it all from the back seat, Nicole pulling the wheel causing Damon's head to shatter the side window and the car to crash. He watched as she had peeled open like a banana and the plant had spilled violently out of her, covering the dash and spreading quickly over Damon. He had tried desperately to wake him and for a minute he thought they were going to make it but now he was being pulled from the car.

"Damon!" He shouted at the man in uniform wearing dark glasses.

"It's too late!" The man shouted gripping his shoulders like a vice. "He is with the girl now and I need you to listen. Can you do that?"

"Yeah." Jimmy replied still shaking uncontrollably.

"We are going to get on the bus now and I need you to be calm. I know your still in shock but I want you to sit straight and face the front. Don't talk and once I've dropped everyone else off I'll take you someplace safe. Okay?"

"Okay." Jimmy didn't know who the man was but the way he was smiling with a massive grin was enough proof for him. It didn't make him feel any better but he didn't know what else to do, so he tried to compose himself and followed the bus drivers lead.