Killing Chris

Graduation

   We are to the point now where you get to hear how it all went down. Lake...Margo...Derek... The things that were done to them. The blood on the ground left stains not only on the pavement that night but somewhere deep in my head. As summer faded into fall the town was licking its wounds as civilians fled the city in fear of being marked for death. My parents refused to leave and honestly, I didn't wanna run either. What's it called when you try to run from something you can't escape. Is it hope that drives you to feel like you have a chance to escape? Is it fear that motivates you to flee? Or is it an attempt to resist fate?

After Arizona's funeral, Margo took a break from Lake after the things he yelled at her. Obviously, we rallied back after lake apologized and margo forgive him for the simple fact that she had no other support right now. She had been driving forty minutes from her dad's house to hang out with us. We spent the time after the funeral trying to find ways to heal the wounds we could and find ways to hide from the tattered parts of us we could never mend. After a couple of weeks, we started bowling during the day and never at night... Bad things happened under the cover of darkness. When the sun went down we were all in our houses locked away from the dangers that could be lurking.

We never got back to doing the stuff we used to do when we hung out. We spent all our time together like usual reinforcing the bond we all shared, we ate dinner together, fell asleep at each other's houses while watching movies, and went swimming at the local lake. None of us were ready for the events that unfolded shortly after that. The school district decided to just cut out the formal ceremony and just have us walk across the football field under the lights as they announced our names and handed our diplomas to us. The school had the whole police force there serving as security for the "graduation". If only that could've stopped the killer or at least slowed him down, that might have saved one of my friends that day maybe.

I promise you right now that Lake and Margo didn't go down without a fight, they fought tooth and nail to survive. they are the only reason that I survived that night because I think I was the killer's final target. As the identity of the killer came to light shortly before the murder of my friends all the pieces of the puzzle fell into place.

The day of graduation started normal, It was almost too normal we had a huge family dinner and my grandparents came over. Margo ate with us too because her dad wasn't doing anything special. Lake was invited but his family was doing their own dinner. I know I haven't talked much about my family... or even really introduced them or talked about my siblings. there is a reason for this, nows just not the time for them. Don't worry, in due time you'll come to learn everything that you need to know.

At dinner my grandma was making jokes with me about my mom, she was like that, super cool and cared deeply. Margo talked to my parents and my siblings mostly. my sister practically thought she was her sister and not my friends who I had over at the house all the time. This was the last time my family got to see Margo alive. There was a funeral for her but I couldn't go I felt too guilty. Once you hear the graduation part of the story you'll understand. Even from the beginning, it was my fault.

Its been a long time since graduation but as the day grew further my memory of that day was burned into me like a brand. The ceremony started in our high school gym... the principal and the school board all sat in chairs on stage. My class sat in their chairs watching and listening as the principle explained how we had gone through too much for any graduating class. He told us how strong we were for choosing to keep pushing forward. That we were the bravest class he has ever had the honor of knowing. That wasn't true though, I wasn't brave, I was scared of what would happen if I gave up even though it would've saved me a lot of trouble.

This is where shit hits the fan. As the superintendent explained what we were going to do at the football stadium I looked around for Derek. We were seated alphabetically so he was like four rows behind me. I smiled at him and he smiled back warmly. I know it might seem like our relationship was weak and cold but it was quite the opposite. This just isn't a romance novel. Instead of write about how we kissed and were the star-cross lovers you see in movies I just decided it would be easier if I didn't have to write about the love I lost. That just has to be good enough because even after death a part of me resides with him.

It was like... six...no...seven pm in the afternoon, as my class walked to the field we passed officers patrolling the outside of the stadium and there were some officers on the field too. The security was hefty like I'm serious it felt like going through airport security. The ceremony was boring and you all went through it so ill spare you the nitty-gritty We got our diplomas as our "fans" yelled and cheered in the stands. It felt like I was seven again in the middle of my soccer game for elementary school and my family stood up and screamed when I did...anything. When we got the diploma we walked back to the school in pairs of two. I walked with Derek. Margo and Lake were a few minutes behind us so we waited on the field and watched them get their diplomas. At that point, we became part of their "fans".

"AYYYYY" Margo yelled in a cheerful tone as she approached us practically skipping.

Derek hugged her and then yelled "AYYYY" into the sky as if he felt too good for this earth.

Lake looked at me and made a kissy face, I gave him a sarcastic look and said "don't tempt me" winking at him.

"is that not a little sus to you?" Lake remarked.

Derek put his arm around Lake and I's shoulder and we talked toward the school.

"let's do something right now and ditch the school" Derek suggested

Now listen, it's been months since there was any killer action and I figured we all needed a little fun. No one could have guessed that the fun we were about to have was the cause of all of their lives. Margo suggested we pull a senior prank and spray paint MDLC all of our initials on the brick at the back of the school. I wasn't much of a rule-breaker but I said yes this time, it was time to loosen up a little bit. Lake, Margo, and I sat in the back of the school listening to music and looking at the stars. Derek offered to go buy the spray paint while we waited. Ever since the killer, our parents were all over us, so Lake and I told our parents we were pulling a prank so someone knew where we were.

It had only been like fifteen minutes since our group graduated some of the class was still getting their diploma on the field so it wasn't that late and the police were still surrounding the school. The buzzing noise of my phone broke the silence, I flipped it over and my mom was calling me... Naturally, I ignored it. Lake's mom also called him after that. That's when I got nervous. As lakes mom talked to him my mom texted me the most spine-chilling text message I had ever received "Please come to the field right now a pair of police officers were found dead outside the stadium".

   I flew off the ground grabbing Margo and shoving the text in her face. My hands were shaking so bad like I was pushing a lawnmower almost out of gas. Lake Margo and I ran for the stadium dead sprint. As we approached the back corner of the school a figure rounded the corner in front of us. This time though the killer wasn't just in amateur clothing, he like many classic killers had their classic outfit or at least mask. The killer wore a mask with glowing neon tubes outlining it. It looked like a neon sign outside of a restaurant. The center of the mask was an outline of a skull in dark blue glowing neon. On his hip, there were two glowing holsters but two medium-sized daggers. He took one out, looked at us, and breathed shhhhhh.

Chris logged off