Trick or Treat - The Annual Teen Massacre

Chapter Two - Recovery

Part Two - Chapter Two. 

It took at least half a day more before David was able to sit up straight and use his left arm to drink something with his own strength. His right arm was still recovering from all the blows it suffered from the Halloween night. His vision had returned fully and he found himself on the edge of town on a small hill. He had been here before once. Going down the hill on his sled, charging down and hope someone stopped him. It was one of the more fun times in his life. Those days were without care. Before he came aware that his life might just end prematurely. They were taught at school about that night from when he was seven. First about once a month, and as he proceeded further in the school years, the more they were reminded that it could eventually all be for nothing. 

But now he was away from all that. He would not become a survivor that would be gratefully take on every chance in life to become a productive citizen of the town with possible dreams of living in the most expensive and highest apartments. Neither did he now lay in a shallow grave with no markings except for 'Trick or Treat 2012' on a stone tablet.

It frightened him. It felt so unknown. What would become of him? Would he be like a mere ghost drifting through the town? Just living a life of loneliness, grabbing food from the stores that would never  notice anything actually missing? It felt stupid.  He felt grief over himself. A sadness he couldn't really place. He was still there right? 

David watched how Vanessa was walking into one of the stores he could see from the hill. There were about three streets he could partially look into. They were all connected to a road that surrounded all of the town itself, except for a few small hills on the side. David knew that behind the hills there was nothing but barren waste. there were also no roads leading outside. But this were all things David knew very well. He walked around here, he played here. He went into those shops Vanessa went in to buy clothes. But it all felt kind of eerie now. 

From time to time there were cars passing them often and there were people walking on the sidewalk. But they didn't notice David, Vanessa and Morgan at all. David felt like a ghost, even worse perhaps because he couldn't move freely just yet. He checked his limbs one by one. his feet were tingling on the legs who gave nothing more than a shudder when he attempted to move them. His left arm he could almost lift.

His right arm was bound by a piece of cloth to his neck. It was very poorly done, but still better than nothing, David thought. He imagined how his arm would actually look like if he was able to roll up his sleeve. It had suffered burn marks, got cut a few times by thorny bushes, it had sustained quite a blow when he and Billy, his companion for the last two hours of the Halloween night, glided off a roof. His right arm then scraped most of the way down against the apartments they descended from. It wouldn't surprise him much in hindsight if he finds his arm infected, rotting or both. 

David saw Vanessa walking from the shop with lots of bags. She only set a single step on the sidewalk before she was knocked down by a talking couple who entered the shop she just had left. All the pieces of food and clothing she had in bags were rolling over the floor. 

The people seemed to have lost their balance a little, but they ignored Vanessa completely, as well as the bags that fell off the floor.  Vanessa carefully evaded the cars and the other people that were passing by her, while she bagged the goods again that were scattered all over the street. 

A few minutes later she reached the hill again where David was. He looked around for a  bit but couldn't spot Morgan anywhere anymore. 

     "Good morning sleepy head", Vanessa said. She said it in a very childish way, but David could tell from some of the tones in her voice that she was relieved.