Goodbye Midnight

~1~

The night was cold as Jace made his way through the abandoned streets. Breath clouded in front of his eyes as he passed frosted windows and the occasional street lamp that illuminated his way. With so many thoughts, now swirling through his head as he padded across the frozen path, one would not return to the swirling mass hiding behind his face. Rather it stayed put, vivid in his imagination like someone had glued it between his eyes. A single tear slipped down his cheek, the moonlight making it shimmer as it desperately tried to peek through the low hanging clouds. It was then that Jace picked up the distinct sound of footsteps echoing of the brick walls surrounding him; he was being followed.

*****

She could see him ahead of her and, just like every other teen in the small town that she lived in, knew who he was. Frosty blonde hair, eyes like tiny galaxies and skin dripping with the melt of the snow, she saw him every day at school from her middle school days to her senior years. Although having never really talked to him she, along with everyone else in the town, knew him like the back of her hand but somehow, right now, he was different. The teen turned his coat collar up to keep out the cold as another gust of wind swept more sleet and snow across the narrow alleyway. The boy slows to glance at a pristine looking timetable before continuing on. You see, the town of Tesna is small, so small it is astounding that anyone even lives within. With only around a few thousand people or so, only one bus was needed to carry the towns people to their places of work and education. Nobody in the town ever used the time table, for only the thick headed wouldn't know that the bus circuits the town only twice a day: arriving at its main stop on the corner of May Avenue and Evergreen road at precisely 8.00am and 5.37pm and not a minute to early or to late. But as the boy glances across the dimly lit street she can see frozen tears glinting on his eyelashes and cheeks. And so she questioned, why is the school jock, one of the most popular kids at Northington High, walking down a street at 3am, waiting for a bus that, at this unearthly hour in the morning, seems it will never come?

*****

Not knowing what was to be done with the person so indiscreetly trailing him, Jace hastily turned on his heel and faces what looks to him like a girl and grimaces. It wasn't that she wasn't attractive, rather she quite the opposite in a strange yet interesting sort if way. Was it the way her brown hair framed her face and brought attention to her murky green eyes. Or maybe it was the way she held herself with a sort of bold posture that screamed 'if you test my patience I will not hesitate to break you'. She was strong, in a delicate sort of way and this intrigued Jace, so he said what any normal, pubescent teen would say, "Damn". She smirked, looking down at the ground shaking her head. "Not bad yourself" she replied, once again placing her attention back on Jace. "I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't have..who are you exactly?" He asked the brunette. "Eliot". "Eliot?" Jace questioned. "The one and only" she replied.

*****

"Now its my turn" Eliot said. "Oh right, I'm Jace" he smiled outstretching his hand to shake. "I know who you are, idiot" she snorted batting his hand away. "What I want to know is the reason your outside catching a bus that isn't scheduled to come for another four hours?" The boy sighed. "Oh... I see.. I was just going to ride to the next town over to visit my grandparents, my nan is kinda sick at the moment so I thought she could use with some cheering up." He replied. Eliot let this linger for a few milliseconds before answering with a simple "bullshit". The boys expression paled before twisting into that of anger. "What did you just say?!" He gasped mockingly at her 'bad word'. "You heard me" she said matter-of-factly."I call bullshit. Everyone knows the bus doesn't leave town. Heck no one leaves town! This shithole has sucked up enough money that the only way out is hitch hiking with truckers 'cause the petrol here is so damn expensive that you can only afford a 2 miles of gas before your broke". Eliot pushed.  "Wow... I bet your fun at parties.." Jace replied sarcastically. "What did you say your name was again" he asked. Of course, she thought. Of course he's to stuck up to  remember me. He smirked slightly and nodded his head in indication for her to answer his previous question but all Eliot could think of was him kissing his girlfriend Ashley Montague at Joe Whitethorn's party a few weeks ago and how ten minutes ago he couldn't care less who she was. She sighs, mumbling something along the lines of "never mind" and "just forget about it" before shuffling off leaving Jace staring quiz-idly at her before resuming to study the bus schedule.

*****
"It's been over a week now since anyone, including his parents may I add, has seen Jace. Ashley, his 'oh so sexy girlfriend' is in hospital and got there at around the same time as Jace was reported missing."  Andy gossiped as she picked through her cafeteria, mystery lasagna.
"Sounds pretty dodgy, her getting admitted at the same time Jace got reported" Wade stated, pointing his fork at Andy. "Well that's the thing. No one  what exactly happened to her, only that it rendered her legs permanently useless. Rumour had it though that it had something to do with Jace, like some kind of drunk, psychopathic jealousy act".
"Sucks for her. I assume she won't be making the cut for the cheer squad next year"  I shrugged, smirking at my friends as I placed my lunch tray on the table.
"Rude" Wade said flamboyantly.
"It has some truth I guess. Police were interviewing students and staff last break." Andy continued. "It was around whether they had seen any suspicious activities in the days prior to the incident. Whether it true or not it forced Mr Lero to lecture his students about safety and alcohol consumption". It well known at our school that students were not required to pay any attention to him. Every student at Northington knew he's a crack head. If the smell of marijuana clinging to his clothes wasn't enough to give him away then the continuously found 'mysterious' bag of weed, hidden in the empty locker in the boys change room, was. To most he was the most pathetic teacher known to man, seeing he has no shame lighting up a bong and mooning over the art teacher, Mrs Langson while his class are left to solve advanced algebraic formulas while slowly getting high from his intoxicating fumes. I, just as most, found it depressing seeing the tenth graders pile out his class as high and uncoordinated as a moth to a flame.

But it was at lunch, a week after Andy's gossiping  that something impossible dawned on me. Everyone knew that Jace had been distant, isolating all his friends before hitting the road. No one knew why, as it had stared occurring a week before her encounter with him in the ally. But suddenly two pieces of the puddle joined together and it dawned on her.

I was the last person to ever see him...