Prologue

Sweat trickled down his face; his heart raced. He felt the cool gun pointed at his forehead.

I’m gonna die… I’m gonna die…

Sirens wailed in the distance. He felt a blow to his side; a kick in the chest. He tried to roll away. He tried to get up, tried to land another blow against the man’s face. But he felt his breath grow short and shallow. He listened as the sirens grew closer. With one last kick in the gut, the man turned and ran, leaving the now unconscious Zack and his dying friend helpless on the ground.

Zack awoke hours later, finding himself in the blinding light of his hospital room. The face of an elderly nurse appeared above him. He sat upright in the bed, with help from the delicate nurse.

“How are you feeling?” she asked, kindly. Zack let himself take a deep breath, wincing slightly. He laid his head back against the bed.

“It will be painful for a while. You’re a very lucky boy, you now.”

“Sean… where’s Sean?” Zack asked quietly. The nurse hesitated.

“Sean died a few hours ago,” she responded. She looked at him with pity in her eyes. Zack hated her. How could she tell him this? He bit his lip hard, trying to hold back tears of anger, hatred, and sadness.

“If you need anything, give me a call,” she said, indicating to the device next to his bed. She paused a moment, then turned and left the room. Zack chucked the device across the room, then buried his head in his pillow.

“Zack! Get the hell out of bed!” Zack rolled over, kicking his blankets off.

“Screw you,” he mumbled under his breath. He made his way downstairs and helped himself to a banana. Sean liked bananas. He glared at the fruit as if it was responsible for the events that happened two years ago. He finished the banana slowly, then began to gather his things for school.

“Bye, Mom!” he called. He heard his mother grunt a reply back from somewhere deep inside the house. He then made his way outside into the chilly March air.

He lit a cigarette as he trudged his way to school. He inhaled the toxic smoke deeply, and exhaled with a sigh. The events that killed his best friend played through his mind.

Fifteen and young. Fifteen and ready to have fun. Hanging out in the city, maybe a little too late in the night. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They passed by a popular bar; hell if he could remember what it was called. They heard a crash soon followed by gun shots. They tried to look through the fogged windows, but moments later the door swung open and men began to run in panic, one collapsing on the ground in front of the two boys. People all around began to scream and run in all different directions. Confused and mixed up in the mess, Zack and Sean bumped right into a large, buff man. His eyes were wide and bloodshot; clearly wasted, but what the boys didn’t fail to notice was the gun held in his hand.

Clearly upset by the two boys being in the way, the man began to chase after them. Zack and Sean ran as fast as they could, but the man ran faster. Soon, the chase brought them to a dead end alley where the man let off two shots, one just missing Zack’s head, the other hitting Sean square in the back. Sean let out a yell of pain, and Zack turned just in time to see his friend fall to the ground, blood spilling everywhere.

Zack snapped back to reality. He shivered, a chill creeping up his spine, and breathed in more of the toxic cigarette smoke. He forced himself not to think about it. He got enough nightmares as it was. Being fired at, watching his friend die, having a gun aimed at him. He didn’t know which was worse, but he never could play his favorite X-box games again. He felt pathetic; who was afraid of guns? Better question – who was ever actually threatened with one? He was. And the memory never left him; it haunted him day and night.

He walked through the front doors of his school where he found his girlfriend, Katelynn, awaiting him. She greeted him with a peck on the cheek and a smile across her face, as she did every morning, only this time her smile was followed by a frown.

“You’re smoking again,” she said.

“I never stopped,” he replied. Katelynn looked away in disgust and made her way towards her class, leaving Zack alone in the hallway.

The rest of the day went by in its usual way. Boring lectures, female drama, disgusting cafeteria food. But Zack did manage to get his hands on a quarter of a pound of cocaine behind the school during lunch.

At the end of the say, Zack found Katelynn waiting at his locker.

“You wanna hang out today? I finished my project so I got loads of free time,” she said. Zack shrugged.

“What’s been getting into you lately?” she asked. Another shrug.

“You said you would stop smoking,” she continued.

“I can do whatever the hell I want,” he yelled at her.

“You’ve changed. What happened to you? You used to tell me things.” Her expression turned sad and Zack said nothing. She turned and left him for a second time that day, alone in the now empty hallway.

Zack returned to an empty house, as he usually did. His mother most likely either out drunk or in bed with some random guy; maybe even both. His father hasn’t been home in fifteen years. He never really knew his father. His father left when Zack was two, and he never saw him since. Zack began to think about Sean again, and that horrible night. Soon after Zack was released from the hospital, his mother packed their things and they left the city. Zack never felt the same since.

Zack forced away more memories. Instead, he tossed his bag on his bed, and went over to his friend Tim’s house. There, he was greeted by the fresh scent of alcohol and Mary Jane, along with a few slutty blondes he never saw before.

“Zack, don’t look so depressed man,” Tim said, letting Zack into the warm house. “I picked up some girls for you,” he added, winking.

“Just give me a drink,” Zack said. Tim got him a bottle which Zack accepted gratefully. He then made his way to one of the prettier blondes, who really wasn’t that pretty at all. He greeted her with a smile.

“Hey!” she practically shrieked, then giggled so hard she snorted. She finished her bottle of what appeared to be Smirnoff. Zack noticed three other empty bottles on the table in front of her. She was clearly wasted. Zack talked with her as best as he could, before he began to feel slightly tipsy. Tim continued passing along beers, and they all continued to drink heavily. Before he knew it, his blonde friend was kissing him hard, and that was the last thing he remembered.