Trenton

“We’ve already seen him,” I tell Kylie. I couldn’t sit still. I paced in anguish, not wanting to remain in the same spot for too long. We need to be searching for the note.

“When?” she asked, her voice quivering.

“Right when we got in,” I said through clenched teeth. I strained my eyes to see beyond the light of the fire. No way was I sleeping here. Slender has got to be ten times stronger in his home territory.

 “Oh,” she whispered, then huddled into a ball on the ground. “At least the stars are pretty here.” I stopped pacing long enough to look up, then back at Kylie. She patted the ground next to her. I shook my head.

“Why not?” she asked.

“I… I can’t,” I say.

“Why?”

“If something happened, I would never forgive myself. I need to be ready at all times.” She shook her head, then stared out into the darkness. I turned to look at her. Even through all of this, she still looked pretty. Her green eyes, dirty blonde hair. But something was wrong. She wasn’t moving. I walked over to her and waved my hand in front of her face.

“Kylie?” I asked, putting a hand on her shoulder. Her figure turned a light gray, then a breeze swept through, blowing her into ash. In seconds, she was gone. So was everyone else at the campsite, including the fire.

“What?!” I exclaimed. I looked around. Nothing. Everything had faded. I blinked, and I stood at the mall. It was an average day. Balmy, as shown through the tall glass windows that acted as the ceiling. People strolled around, talking on cellphones, or with their friends. A couple walked by me, staring at me the whole time. Another group of college aged students walked, all of them staring at me. I looked around. People were starting to slow down and stare at me. Did I have something on my face? Slowly, the came to a stop. They started murmuring to each other, in whispers at first, but slowly growing to shouting.

“Trenton is such a bad leader. Look at how many people he killed,” I heard one voice say.

“He doesn’t look attractive at all,” another girl voice said.

“He can’t do anything right.”

“He’s worthless.”

“What’s wrong with him?” Slowly the voices changed into those I knew. Serena, Eric, Kathryn, all of them. Even Riley and Megan.

“He let us die. He didn’t even try to save us.”

“He’s gonna get us all killed.”

“He will never amount to something.”

“He should die.” That last one came from Kylie. I turned to see her standing there, a grisly snarl on her face. I turned and saw the crowd pressing in on me. I wanted to cry. I wanted to get away. I turned and ran, but I tripped and fell. Everyone laughed. I hated being judged. It scared me so badly. When would this torture end? I looked up from the ground. At the sliding glass doors to the mall, a small envelope was sitting on a bench. I raced towards it, but I was going slowly.

“He’s so slow.”

“He can’t even run.” I kept running as fast as I could, constantly hearing insults being flung at me, pointing out my every flaw, everything I hated about myself. Finally, after what felt like hours of running, I grabbed the envelope. I opened it and grabbed a slip of paper from inside. Everything instantly went black, and I felt weightless.