Hunter
I am twelve years old and I’m in 7th grade. I still don’t bother looking both ways before crossing the street. And now I’m suffering a real chronic depression. The first girl who ever liked me dies the day we decide to go out. The confused boy I felt somewhat bad for was the one who shot her. I hate Joe. Completely and 100%. All I feel for him is pure hatred. After the shooting, I hide inside myself. I form a wall of stone around my heart. How can I ever open my heart again? I know I’m too young for depression. I’m supposed to enjoy life but these days fly by like a dream. The night of the shooting, all of Super Six slept together at Le Café. The next day there was a total of seven dead. One of them was Katy. I didn’t know anyone else who died. There are memorials and news reports all about the shooting but I ignore them. Now, I spend my days sitting in the kitchen watching Krys and Jenny roughhouse. I don’t work. I never did but now I don’t have the heart to wrestle.
“Katy’s funeral is tomorrow. Are you going?” Jenny asks me in the kitchen one day. I look up and just stare at her. “What’s the point?” I moan. “I’ll tell you the point! You can’t mope around everywhere. Do something already! Go to her funeral, visit her grave, put on a fake smile and at least try to be happy. That’s the strongest thing there is!” she cries. Her tone softens. “She was my best friend you know. But I know she’s in a better place. She wasn’t happy here.” She whispers. I look up at her and nod. She walks out of the kitchen and I think. Jenny is probably even more hurt than I am and she hasn’t even shown it. I’m not that strong though. So, emotionally weak and terribly depressed, I decide to skip Katy’s funeral. Instead, I lie on my bed and let Jenny’s words sink in.
I feel like it’s my fault Katy died. Joe wanted to hurt Super Six so he killed someone close to me. If I wasn’t part of Super Six, Katy might still be able walk on earth a little longer. She would be fine if I’d never been born. I don’t care about what Jenny said about her cutting or being suicidal. She deserved to live! Why did I have to hide in the cabinets like a baby while Joe took Katy’s life? Maybe I should just kill myself. Everyone would just be better off. I look out my window. A gray blanket covers the sky. It’s pretty early in the day but my eyelids feel heavy and my body sags. I drown in the covers and overwhelmed by grief, I fall asleep. And in my dreams all I hear is that one shriek Katy let out before she left me forever.
I wake up in the evening. My mom wakes me up. “Some of your friends wanted to see you. They’re worried about you.” she explains. “I am too.” she adds softly. “Can you send them in?” I ask. She nods and walks downstairs. I hear her mumble something. More footsteps creak on the stairs. “Hunter?” a voice asks. Steve, Krys and Jenny enter my room. “Hey.” I groan. “How was the funeral?” I ask Jenny. She rolls her eyes. “Depressing.” She replies. “I can’t imagine why.” Krys responds. “Are you okay?” Steve asks me. “I dunno. I feel like it’s my fault.” I explain. “Aw.” Krys coos. I scowl at her. “What?” she asks. “Don’t be a biscuit. He doesn’t want sympathy. He wants a way to cope.” Jenny insists sitting beside me. I never had a sister. But I know Krys and Jenny are the closest I’ll ever get. I nod agreeing with Jenny. “And if I were you, the best thing to do is go to her grave, do something cheesy like buy a rose and then be alone with her at her grave for a little longer. Remember her and then let go. She shouldn’t hold you down. She’d want you to move on.” She insists. We all stare at her. “That’s actually a good idea.” Steve observes. She just nods.
That’s how me, Jenny, Krys and Steve all end up walking to the cemetery hunting for Katy’s grave with our arms full of flowers. All the victims of the shooting were buried side by side. I find Katy’s grave and kneel down beside it. “You want a moment alone?” Steve asks. I look up at them and nod. They slowly step away and look at other graves. For a moment, I imagine Katy. Wavy black hair, big sparkling brown eyes that turned green in the light. She was skinny nowhere near curvy in any place. But I still fell for her. Not because she was attractive. She was in her own way but I fell because she was real. She wasn’t afraid to be herself which is exactly what she said about me. She didn’t let stupid comments like “emo” or “lesbian” get in her way. She had golden confidence at just twelve years old. For a moment, I can imagine her sitting on her headstone.
“What are you doing here?” Ghost Katy asks me. “I don’t know. I just can’t live without you. I don’t want to let you go. I never even got to know the real you.” I weep. “I know. But it doesn’t matter how long you knew me or liked me or how long we went out. All that matters now is what you’ll do when it’s time for you to leave this grave.” She insists. “I don’t want to leave.” I sob. She gives a small nod. “Do it for me. Do it for Jenny and the rest of Super Six. You’ll be okay. I’m in a better place now.” She smiles at me. She slides off her headstone and walks over to me. She stands on her tiptoes and her lips meet mine. I close my eyes and when I open them, Ghost Katy is gone. I look at the grave astonished. I set my white roses down at her grave and manage a small smile. My first one since the shooting. I hear a twig snap and whirl around expecting to see Krys, Jenny or Steve. I don’t see them, I see Joe.
“HOW COULD YOU KILL MY GIRLFRIEND?” I thunder. His eyes widen. “Girlfriend?” he asks wide-eyed. “Don’t be a dumbass! Katy was my girlfriend!” I shout gesturing to the grave. His face turns white. “Oh.” He mumbles. Did he really not know? I pull out my orange gem. “Wait! Don’t you want to join her?” he asks pulling out his red gun. His ears and red glow return. Suicide is still an option. I think about what Katy said. She was more than some hallucination. She was talking to me and I know it. I have to move on. I think of what Jenny said too. I can’t be depressed. I have to try. “No.” I say confidently. “Fine. Then we do this the hard way.” He says. I lift up my gem but before it’s above my head, I hear a gunshot. Joe shot the gem out of my hand. It lands yards away. I look at where it landed and back at Joe. He shoots at me again this time missing by a lot. I take off.
I hear gunshots behind me but none of them come near me. I run to my gem and lift it up. He teleports next to me. I shoot him with an orange beam. He falls to the ground. “You know I didn’t know she was your girlfriend.” He whimpers. “What?” I ask. He teleports away. As he does, I see Krys, Jenny and Steve run over to me. “What happened?” Krys asks. I smile at them. “I did what Jenny said. I let go.”
