Oh, wow. Wow, wow, wow. I really truly am sorry that I forgot about this story for months – I made you wait for the ending! Ackkk!! Well here it is. Enjoy.

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Yes, the future is a strange, terrible thing.

We're in the waiting room for the third time since being a gang as a whole. First with Angie when she carved that little V into her hand, the second time with Corin for being nearly killed by Big Brother. The third time for the same reason as the second time, but we weren't sure if Big Brother had really nearly killed Corin this time.

Was it all Big's fault for taking on Mr. Daily's vendetta and getting everyone wrapped around his skeletal little finger? Or was it all Corin's fault for getting wrapped up in an idea too big for his pretty little angstry head?

Whether it's wrapping around or getting wrapped up, it's never a good wrap.

The way we're sitting in the waiting room, it's like a classic soap opera on the screenvision. Dem is sitting hunched over in a plastic chair, his face buried in his hands; Mal is pacing around, pale-skinned and twitchy-fingered; Dov is perpetually staring ahead, barely blinking or breathing; Angie is sitting in Val's lap, Val's arms around her from behind as she holds his hands at the same time, both of them motionless and white-faced with dread; I'm just sitting here, observing everything and holding tears in.

The last thing I said in Corin's presence was "He's cold". But it wasn't only Corin – everything else was even colder. Every room you stepped into, every glance you got on the street, every piece of fabric you touched, every speech you made, every drop you consumed, it was cold. The world was a cold, cold place.

But maybe Heaven was even colder.

Gazing around the uncomfortable sterile room, I caught Dov's eye. He stared at me for a second and then looked so far down that his eyelashes touched the very tops of his cheeks.

Without Dov around, some big disaster like this would have happened a lot earlier. He was here to stall us with brains until that time came. He really was the spine of our gang, our little shoulder angel that reminded us what was wrong and what was right. But of course, we never listened to him.

Shut the fuck up, Dov, that's all we said. And that's all that Val said.

And Val had come back to us, blind in one eye.

When Big let go of Angie's hair and stepped aside, Angie walked up to Val and looked him up and down, her lip quivering. Then she slowly folded herself into him and he held her like only a lover would. It was enough of a reuniting for all of us.

We told everyone that the rally was over and that they should all go home to spare themselves some unwanted tension; we'd get the news of Corin's condition out to them somehow. Very slowly they all departed from Town, either shocked or disgruntled with the day's events. But Big Brother and his Spike City angstries stayed. And so did Val.

We asked Val all the questions on the way to the hospital. Why did you leave us? Where did you go?

"I left because I felt unwanted," he said quietly, playing with his fingers in his lap. It was rare that we saw Val this quiet and settled, if not seeing him at all. "I went to Spike City, because I felt like I would fit in there. I did a lot of real eyelacers, not the fake ones we used to test for. We got shipments from Dremsin. And you guys all know how I have bad eyes." He pointed to his right eye. "So this one is blind now." When we all looked closer, we noticed it was a little bit cloudy.

Angie nestled closer to him in their seat. She closed her eyes and mumbled, "Don't go back to Spike City. Stay with us."

"Only if you marry me," he murmured back.

She smiled.

That was the only happy current event in the past few hours. Everything else has just been tension, tension, tension.

When everyone, meaning the teenagers and the cameramen, was gone from the rally and only us and the Spike City angstries and Val and the cops remained, Angie went up to Big Brother.

"Why did you just admit all of that?" she said, watching as two policemen hooked Big's arms behind his back and handcuffed him. "Why did you just commit your own political suicide on SV? Look, they're arresting you now. Why did you do it?"

"Why did I do it?" he repeated, looking back at Angie as the cops quickly forced him forward. Angie followed on their heels as the rest of us followed from a short distance. "Why did I do it?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Because everybody needed to hear it. Everybody needed to hear the truth."

As the lawmen ushered Big Brother into the police car and tucked his head inside for him, they stood back for a moment to let Angie take a good look at him. Angie then reached inside, ripped the bandage from his nose, and gave the scab a good hard tweak. Big yelped in pain but it was cut silent as Angie drew back and the cops shut the door. We saw him leering from the back window as the police car sped away down the desolate Town road.

And that was the last we saw of Big Brother. Thank god for that.

He'll get an adult charge for this. Not juvee hall or anything; no, he'll get the real deal. The real barred-cell, bread-and-water-meal prison will be waiting for him with a smile. But that was the only thing that was right in this world.

You see, what's fucked up about this future is what's become of us. If you thought everything was in deep shit in the millennium, then just wait for the time of now. You'll have angstries, gangs, riots, corruption, and eyelacers. Everything to look forward to, I know from experience.

But at the same time, nothing has changed. The world will always be the same, no matter how you look at it. Whether you're an ancient Egyptian or if you're Middle Eastern in the seventeenth century or British in the sixties or an angstry at this time, nothing will ever change. The only thing that changes is the clock and its continuous tick-tick-tick, the heartbeat that moves us all but keeps us put. That beat of time, kept within us all.

Thank god I still found that beat in Corin when I put my ear to his chest.

I think I first found it when I saw the six of them playing cards in that little inn within walking distance of my house. If I had not seen those jacks and aces and spades and hearts, I don't think I'd be the same person I am today. Back then, we were playing the game.

Now, it seemed like the game was playing us. We were just seven cards in the game, passed around from hand to hand, sometimes smacked down and other times raised, but yes, always passed around. Sometimes we were thrown in a pile. Sometimes we were stacked on top of each other. But no matter what we did, we were always passed around.

But now that we've gone through all this mayhem, just because of what happened today in the middle of broad daylight-turning-to-dusk, I think the whole game will fall apart. The game has fallen apart in our circle all ready, at least. Dem and Dov are going back to school; high school for Dov and applying to college for Dem. Mal is going to get a job and try to find a wife. I don't know what I'm going to do.

Val and Angie are getting married.

I got a call from my parents on my techter while sitting in the waiting room. I didn't pick up, but I heard the message: they said they were worried about me and that they were sorry they hadn't contacted me until now. They told me to come home. They hoped I wasn't hurt. They said they loved me. They said Ariel was home from college and was looking for me, too. They said come home, twice. Again they said they loved me. Bye.

Maybe I should go home as a start. Then I could figure out what I wanted to do with my life, now that being an angstry wasn't an option anymore. Perhaps I could become a no-name again, just a regular teenage girl. I could try to forget the fact that the one I first truly loved had overdosed on heroin liquidized in eyedrops. I could have other crushes; fool around, eventually go to college and then get a job, get a husband and get married and all that other usual shit. It wouldn't take much effort, I could tell.

And that's what was so appealing about being an angstry in the first place. Just a chance to rebel, a chance to be something different than what was expected. A chance of a challenge and an exciting one at that. A chance at a revolution.

But now we all knew what happened when you tried to bring revolution to teenagers.

So maybe we wouldn't go down in history and have our names printed in school textbooks; so maybe we wouldn't bring more rights to teens than we all ready have. So maybe we would be regarded as the foolish teenagers just doing what they did best – bringing more tumult to society than what was needed. Just being adolescents.

But maybe we would be heralded as pioneers in young citizens' rights; maybe teens will look up to us with shining faces for our fruitless but effective efforts. Maybe someone will acknowledge what we tried to do. Just maybe.

And who was Corin? Was he a wonderful, fearless young leader, one who led his supporters with a strong hand and changed them for good? Or was he just an arrogant young boy who let the angstry fame inflate his head to dangerous proportions, almost enough to destroy him?

It was speculative.

You see, even I couldn't say what I thought. Neither could anyone else in the group. Hell, we didn't even know if we'd see Corin again at all. We hadn't gotten any news yet, all of us still sitting or pacing or paling in the waiting room.

But that was about to change soon.

A nurse was coming towards us, swinging open the door with the clear square window and striding in our direction, a clipboard tucked under her arm. As she went up to us, we couldn't see anything specific in her face to suggest some certain report; no smile of relief but no frown of worry either. It was the only time when we simply couldn't tell.

She opened her mouth to tell us the news.

Thank you for reading this, whoever you may be. I hope you appreciate the time in the millennium that you still have to spend.

And even if no one is reading this right now, it felt good to write it all down. Thanks for listening, whether you're real or not.

So if you're reading this right now, send me a response. Please.

I'd really love to hear from you.

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Thank you so, so, so, so, so, so, so, etc. much for taking the time to read and review my story. If any of you have the extra time, I'd love for you to just answer a few questions that I have about the story as a whole:

1. Do you think Corin died at the end? Why or why not?

2. Who was your favorite character and why?

3. What was your favorite part and why?

4. What was the best thing about this story?

5. What could I still work on doing as an author?

6. How was the character development?

7. The plot?

8. As a whole, did you enjoy reading this story?

That's it. Again, I can't thank everyone (mostly you, multiples of six, my most loyal reader/review) enough for reading and reviewing. Happy Easter and I'll try to post something new again soon!