Darling

King Park

⚠️Murder⚠️

Ponyboy was the first to wake up. He sat there against the fountain, waiting for his vision to come back. His face felt tingly and his hands were numb. He looked ahead of him to see Darlene laying on the concrete, her temple bleeding and her eye black. He looked farther ahead. Johnny was sat in the grass. The boy holding his switchblade, hands bloodied. Then just to the right of Ponyboy, Bob layed, surrounded by a puddle of blood.

"I killed him." Johnny's voice was weak and shaking. "I killed that boy, I killed him."

Darlene began slowly regaining consciousness.

"I think I'm gonna be sick." Pony said, just as much a nervous wreck as Johnny.

"Go ahead, man. I won't look at you."

Pony crawled to the other side of the fountain and vomited up all the water he swallowed.

"Oh sh*t!" Darlene yelled when she woke up to Bob's body in front of her. She quickly moved backwards away from Bob, her shoes and tights covered in blood. Her ears were ringing and everything looked foggy.

"You really did kill him." Pony said, not wanting to believe his own words.

"I had to. They were drowning you. They could've killed you." His voice broke. Darlene moved towards Johnny.

"They were gonna beat me up." A tear ran down his cheek.

"What happened to the other guys?" Darlene asked, her voice weak and the boys had to strain to hear her.

"They all ran. They all ran off when I stabbed him."

All of them were in shock. Johnny couldn't believe he took someone's life, Ponyboy almost died and his best friend would soon be wanted for murder, and Darlene was staring at a dead body surrounded with a growing pool of blood, and her little brother and friend were now in a horrible situation.

Darlene stood on her wobbly legs, she avoided looking down at the blood that soaked up in the tights. "We need to go."

"Yeah, but where." Ponyboy asked, helpless.

"We need to find Dallas." She said, and began walking towards Buck's place, the boys following close behind.

---

They got to the front door of Buck's, a party happening inside.

Great.

Pony knocked on the door, hard enough so that Buck could hear it over all the noise. Thankfully he did, and cracked the door open, sticking his head through.

"What do you guys want?" He asked.

"We gotta see Dallas." Darlene said.

"He's busy." Buck said, shutting the door, but Pony blocked it.

"Tell him it's Ponyboy, Johnny, and Darlene, man. He'll come. Come on." Pony begged.

Buck shut the door. The three were prepared to give up saving their asses right when the door opened again.

"What do you guys want?" Said a deep, New York accent.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

"Johnny killed a soc." Pony explained.

Dally's eyes widened. "What?"

He quickly looked behind him, then back at the three.

"All right, good for you. Let's go." He grabbed Johnny and Pony's arms and led them inside. As they walked through all the people, they stared at Darlene's bloodied shoes and tights.