Eccedentesiast (Brandon Darrow)

#Prologue

[#DunbarRakes]
Every thought is a battle, every breath is a war, and I don't think I'm winning anymore.
–Unknown
*****

I stared at the party around me looking for the one person who asked me to be here. "Excuse me have you seen Dunbar? Dunbar Rakes?" I asked some random girl.
    "Who?" She asked shaking her head.
     "Never mind," I answered walking up the stairs. I had moved back to my hometown a couple months ago after being away for almost three years. That's when I bonded with the new kid Dunbar Rakes. He'd just moved here as well. I walked around the corner and heard people yelling. That's when I walked into a room to see Dunbar holding a gun to his head, and Rowan, a girl from school backed against the wall.
     "Dunbar!" I yelled causing him to swing around toward me.
     "You!" He yelled pointing the gun at me, "You don't even remember me either!" He yelled waving the gun around.
     "What's going on Dunbar? I-I thought we were friends?" I said moving around him to where Rowan stood. She latched onto my hand and a sob escaped her.
     "How could we be friends, you don't even remember who I am, nobody does," he said putting the gun back to his head.
    "Dunbar please just put the gun down and explain it to me then," I pleaded gripping Rowan's hand.
    "No this is your fault," he said and suddenly a shot rang out. It was so loud my ears were ringing from it. I felt something warm, and wet hit my face.
    "No!" I yelled lurching forward seeing him fall to the floor. That's when I saw a monkey mask fall to the ground next to him. "I-I don't understand, I-I," I broke off into sobs as I looked at Rowan.
    "Come on Aspen," Rowan said grabbing me as a bunch of people gathered around the door. I blanked after that only remembering the sound of the gunshot and the way the blood felt on my face. I sat in the back of an ambulance staring blankly at the trees in front of me. "Are you okay?" Rowan asked sitting down beside me.
     Two girls from school sat down next to her. It was elisia and hailey. "I just, I don't understand," I muttered looking at them with tears in my eyes.
     "Did you ever get any messages from someone named monkeyman?" Elisia asked and I shook my head turning back to stare blankly at the trees. They sat in silence before a ping sounded from someone's phone.
Elisia opened her phone as all of us looked as well. Elisia had a terrified expression on her face as they looked at the message. It was a bunch of people wearing animal masks and a caption saying,
From: King_Cobra
We finish what we started
I was even more confused at that moment as I looked at the others. "Can someone explain what's going on?" I asked looking at the three of them. That's when Rowan launched into an explanation about how Dunbar was posing as someone called MonkeyMan and how he was trying to hurt them.
"Why did he want you there? At the party?" Elisia asked. Hailey had yet to talk at all. I just shrugged and stared at nothing waiting for my father to come pick me up.
—•—•—

Aspen Carter
(Maia Mitchell)

Rowan Fricks
(Lulu Antariksa)

Elisia Brown
(Katelyn Nacon)

Brandon Darrow
(Lukas Gage)

Ash Franklin
( Timothy Granaderos)