He wanted to be seen. He wanted someone to notice him. James gave him that in a weird, twisted, disgusting way. James showed Gabriel how he noticed him by shooting him. Killing him, to be exact. Gabriel was dark. I noticed it on his last day. He was depressed and lonely. James took him from his misery. James pitied him because Gabriel had no one. People would have said James and Gabriel were alike but they weren’t. James had me.
I stare at the police tape in front of the library. They closed it up, not wanting the students to enter the place where 12 kids died. Months have passed and they still haven’t cleaned up. Lazy assholes. I push the tape away and walk through the door. I see body tapes on the floor. Images of their dead bodies push against my mind. Blood splattered all over the place. The school said cleaning this place up would be top priority. But it’s not. No one cares anymore. I walk towards the bookshelves all the way in the back. Gabriel’s scared face enters my mind as well as his dead body. I walk over Gabriel’s body tape. I skim through the books, all of them looking normal. But there has to be one. One that Gabriel wanted me to see. After a few minutes of skimming I finally find the book. It seemed full and well written in. The cover said DO NOT OPEN!! Which made me even more curious of the content in the book.
I open the book and see poems and entries. All written on different days from the past year. I skip to the last page and see it was dated the day of the shootings. I read it,
“Same old shit has been going on. Mom’s still a druggy. Dad never around. None of them bothering to see if I’m still breathing. I bet they wouldn’t even care if I died. Actually no one would care. The only friend I had, I betrayed. Stupid me. Idiot me. Why do I always mess shit up? Some kid came up to me today and told me no one would even notice I died. No one would cry for me. It’s true. Maybe James would care. No, he wouldn’t. I hurt him too much. He wants to kill me. I should just die and save him the trouble of killing me. I know it’s bound to happen. One more little thing and he’ll just snap. He won’t be able to take it anymore. Like me. I wish I can apologize. Because I am sorry. It wasn’t even m”
It stops there. That’s when James probably came in with the gun. It was after school hours. No one was there in the school besides us 13 kids. No one knew we were in the library. Not a teacher, not anyone. Our parents thought we were studying away. Getting ready for college. Little did they know that it was actually a killing fest. The parents didn’t know that someone else’s child was shooting their child. It didn’t help that he used a silencer so no one would hear the shots fired besides us.
I sit down in the empty library and read the story. Gabriel’s story because he deserved to be noticed.
After a couple of hours, I finally finish. I wipe away my tears and put the book in my bag. I get up and look around the library. So many people died here and yet I wasn’t weirded out at all. Maybe it was because I saw all of the killings happen. Or the fact that 12 people didn’t die here but 13 died instead.
I look down at my phone. This was the address. How could that possibly be? I stare at the mansion in front of me. This was Gabriel’s house. I drive in front of the gates and press the button next to the speaker. After a minute a voice is heard,
“McNaben residence. Who is this?” I look at the camera,
“I’m a friend of…” I stop myself. I wasn’t his friend. I never spoke to him before. The voice must have seen my pause and decides to let me in. The large black gates open up and I drive in with the mini cooper my parents bought me as a ‘Congratulations! You survived a shooting that killed 12 other kids!’ present. I park in front of the house and exit the car. I walk towards the door and knock slowly. A beautiful woman with blonde hair, green eyes, and high cheekbones opens the door. She smiles sadly at me,
