"Grid, the presentation is bout to start, why are you so far away?"
Grid exsuded a strong anxiety, rubbing his hands together and bringing them to his face, blowing on them. Eyes closed, he sighed deeply and fell to the floor against the locker.
"I'm not going."
"Why? Why always do that? Why bleeding yourself like that? Every opportunity, you get anxious. Every chance you havr to better yourself, you let it go through the mud. Get up and do something with your life, this is actually pissing me off."
"I need this. I need all of the people around me to go somewhere else and live their life."
"You want to rot all alone?"
"Yeah, fuck off. I know I'm dead inside, I've got nothing to share with anyone, I'd bore you so much you'd stab me."
"I think I've...tried hard and long enough. I don't see what else I could try. If that's what you want..."
Grid had his head on his legs, arms wrapped all around. The lights went off to focus all power on the gymnasium that had a graduation party happening. All students had passed, including Grid who refused to participate.
Time went on and Grid had fallen asleep, awakened by a gunshot that blasted in the distance. In a sudden movement he rose in a deep pit of anxiety and reached the door, closed it behind him and hid beneath the teacher's desk.
For a few minutes he leaned back and forth like a psychiatric patient, gripping his legs ever so harder. The dopr opened in the static darkness and closed. Grid heard footsteps, a laugh, a grin, some incomprehensible words being spoken around his location, and the one talking to himself sat on the desk.
"What's this? He must have forgotten about it."
The man had grabbed the recorder device Grid generally uses for class, to catch every teacher's detail during lesson. He brough it to his lips and whispered in a personal manner.
"Are you listening to this, Grid? Are you hiding anywhere close? Do you feel my presence?"
He put it back in its' place and kept wandering outside. When he came back, the device was gone, and the window was wide open.
Grid ran away as far as possible. The window led directly to a hill of dirt outside, and a fence he quickly climbed. He was not, as one could expect, in a tunnel vision, rather a discombobulated one, shaky and uncertain. Bribes of memories fading instantly, as he looked behind, left, right, heart sent in a fit.
In a moonless night he reached a structure he could hide on for a while, next to his position was a bench upon which Influenza sat on. Grid climbed back to her and embraced her fully.
"You survived, I'm glad."
"He talked to me. He knew I was there, but didn't know where exactly, I..."
"Calm down. It's fine, you're fine. Relax. He won't come here. Do you know who it was?"
"His voice, I remember, I think. I think it was Helios."
"Our friend? From school? The dernaged psychopath?"
"Him."
"We have a terrorist who's now shooting our university? Why? Is he after just us both or everyone?"
"I don't know. I couldn't tell you right now."
"Regardless, we have to hide, we can't stay here and be sitting fucks. Get in the bushes."
Helios eventually walked the lane they hid in, sitting on the bench. For over an hour he talked to himself, right leg shaking up and down, unable to calm down.
The words kept pouring, the insults and the plans, left out in the wild for them to hear and know about.
He went on a rant, he was insane. Helios had lost his mind, with Agony next in line.
"I know you're here. Doesn't matter, though. I've killed so many already, you two can stay alive. Your university is gone, all the people you know are gone I killed them all."
Grid stood up and walked to him, finally facing him.
"Are you in theology? I'd see you in math, too."
"I was in history. Helios, what you've done is unforgivable and cannot be undone."
"I know."
"All those innocent people, and for what?"
"For my freedom, my hatred. They ran away from guns, knowing well it is a distance weapon. Don't blame me, I'm not the retard here."
"Helios. Why did you shoot them?"
"They're different. In every way they were different, so I've made them unable to keep going in Perseus. You know what they used to tell us, when we were kids? At every grade. "These are the best years of your life!" Lies. Look at what happened today. A tragedy."
"You did this. It's useless talking to you."
"We're not alone, Grid. There's more up there, looking at us, mocking us. And one day they might be the cause of my death."
"I hope so."
"Will you be there? To watch me die?"
"No, you deserve a lonely death in a cold, dark corner. I'll pick up your corpse, though. I'll throw it in a hole and bury it."
"How thoughtful."
"The most prestigious establishment in Perseus. Gone, because you have issues. From now on, this entire place belongs to me and Influenza. We'll be prepared, and if you decide to come after us, you'll die too."
"I don't think you meet the requirements to speak those words, son."
"Trust me, Helios. In the eventuality of a fight, I won't lose."
Grid and Influenza parted together, and coming back to the room he was hiding in, he grabbed the device and listened to it.
Nothing but screams and gunshots until Helios' voice in his headphones. And everytime he listens to it, he can feel the dread, the physical closeness to the killer.
Grid kept on listening. The shame, the survivor syndrome, the regret of not participating in activities with other people more. Now that it's all gone, Grid relies a lot on Influenza for emotional support.
As she does. All of the hundreds of friends she had remembered the names of, died in less than an hour, doors closed and windows shut. She relies in Grid for leadership.