Joey's Depression

***

"Do you know how dangerous they are?!" Billie gripped, "They almost killed... "

He stopped to add up the number or people the 'weirdo-mafia' people had tried to kill.

"5 of our friends!" He finished.

"I'm not hiring them to KILL anyone," Alex corrected him, "Just to blackmail a person or two."

"Things can get out of hand. Especially when the hand is one of the weirdo-mafia dudes," Jason sighed, almost coolly.

"Err... a little help here?" Tre stammered.

"Comin' buddy," Jason mumbled under his breath, stepping into the cubicle and becoming out of sight to both Alex and Billie.

Billie Joe stepped one huge stride closer to Alex. They were almost face-to-face now, which was kind of weird from Alex's point of view.

"Now look here you. If I ever catch you having anything to do with the Weirdo Mafia, I am going to... " Billie Joe warned, but he was cut off when a middle-aged guy in a suit paraded through the door, and over to the nearest troff.

Billie Joe leaped back in shock. Alex took the chance to be free by making a desperate run for the door.

No luck.

The guy in the suit threw out his long, bony arm and grabbed Alex by the collar.

That guy in the suit was Shaun, Billie Joe soon discovered, as he looked up and met his eyes with the guy's.

He and Shaun exchanged evil glares from across the toilet, while Alex was caught in the middle, struggling to break free from Shaun's threatening grip.

***

"Joey, please... " Michelle defended, but Joey kept on going.

"C'mon, man. I want a fucking answer. This is something serious, and I'm not letting this case rest till I hear what I want to hear," He snapped.

The doctor laughed sarcastically, and continued to stare down at Joey.

"Fine then, do you wanna fight?" He then screeched, clenching his fists tight at his sides, before bringing them up to his chest.

"Joey, Too many people I love are getting hurt. I don't want another one added to the list. Just don't do anything stupid," Michelle said to him.

Joey still stood strong, shaking his head stubbornly.

Michelle chewed on her lip, trying to hold back the stinging feeling she was getting, that she usually got when she was about to explode with sullen rage, or just before she burst out crying.

And to be honest, she didn't know which she was about to break into.
So she did both.

She turned around and made a bolt for the main doors, just being able to break free from the sense of captivity she felt when she was in the hospital.

Ten minutes later, Michelle found herself still running as fast as she could, away from whatever she was trying to get away from.

Soon enough, she broke down on the steep, sharp rock mini-cliffs of a dried-out creek. She looked up at the nearby, graffiti-covered sign.

Fourth Creek Trail.
WARNING:
It has come to our attention that there have been reports of...

The rest was scribbled out with some sort of paint that someone has stupidly sprayed over it.

Michelle took a deep breath, and tried to pull her mind and soul together.

Her attempts were interrupted by the feeling that someone was watching her. She turned around, just for curiosity's sake. No one there.

She went back to her rehabilitating session.

She got the feeling again. This time, before she even had the chance to look around, she felt a cold, strong hand grip her throat tightly.

Using all her strength, she looked up to see who it was.

That guy?

Who tried to shoot Tre earlier?

It couldn't be.

Oh, yes it was!

It was Tony.

A main member of the Weirdo-Mafia.

Michelle tried to scream something out, but all that she could manage was a sissy little whine, and a husky,

"What do you want from me?"

Tony didn't reply. Instead, He forced his hand that was gripping Michelle's throat forward, slamming Michelle's head against the rock she was using to support her.
He did this a few more times, before dropping a bloodied, petrified Michelle to his feet, and making a run for it.

Slowly Michelle got to her feet, and stumbled unsteadily over to the sign. She grabbed a strong stick, and slowly started to scrape away the paint. Eventually, it uncovered the words:

abuse and strong violence towards locals. We advise, that if you are victim of this, to contact police immediately. A reward will be given to those who can uncover the culprits of these events. Thank you.

Now Michelle had two choices. To run back to the hospital, hoping that she'll make it in time before she looses too much blood, or to run after Tony and beat the crap out of him, again hoping that she doesn't collapse first.

"I've ran away from too many of my problems lately," She thought to herself, "Tony must die."

So she set off in the direction that she thought Tony had headed in, at a reasonable pace, compare to someone who's just had their head bashed against a rock multiple times, and is now bleeding like crazy's.

***

Peter was walking along one of the streets nearby the hospital, because he had gotten sick of waiting for Alex to clean up his pants.

He stopped in front of what looked an old, crumbling building. It was covered in graffiti-originated abbreviations and slogans, and an occasional distorted painting or symbol or something like that.

Now Peter wasn't one for adventure, being the reasonably innocent and quiet one out of all the people he was friends with. But you only had to take one glance at his friendship group to see that.

But this was different. It was a rejected building. There could be anything in there- weird alien-like people, gold, money!! Without a moment of hesitation, he stepped inside the building. It was cold and clammy- and dark, for that matter.

He felt his way down the hallway, which seemed to go on forever. But eventually the hallway widened and formed a small room, filled with nothing but a desk topped with paperwork. Peter tiptoed his way over to the desk, and picked up one of the pieces of paper. The crinkle it made when he picked it up echoed through the whole building. The crinkling of the paper was soon overtaken by some very sharp footsteps getting closer and closer to him.

Peter whirled around to see one of the mafia dudes he and Alex had met up with a couple of days beforehand.

"H-hey," He said in a woozy voice.

"Hey. You remember me, don't ya?" The guy asked.

"Err... yeah. Hey... Tony?" Peter stammered.

"That's my name. And you're Alex?" Tony guessed.

Peter shook his head, "Nah. Alex is my friend. I'm Peter."

"Oh, okay. Sorry. So where's Alex?" He questioned.

Peter didn't know whether or not to tell Tony about Alex's 'accident', so he just shrugged.

Just then, the sound of someone else running down the hallway was heard. In a moment, Michelle appeared, breathless and completely covered in blood. She tackled Tony to the ground and shouted out an incredibly desperate,

"Gotcha!"

"What the fuck? Peter, help me!" Tony gripped, trying to shake Michelle off. No luck. Whatever the cause Michelle was doing this for, she was extremely determined.

Peter didn't even try to do anything.

Soon enough, Tony had managed to wrestle Michelle off of him. He stood up, got one more glance at Peter, and then ran down the hallway.

"Hey. You okay? What was that about?" He questioned, offering a hand out to Michelle.

"Long story," Michelle explained, pushing Peter's hand away, but patting her hand on the solid concrete floor next to her. He sat himself down next to her.

"I ran away from Joey. He was picking a fight with this jerky doctor guy. I ran down to the Fourth Creek Trail to calm myself down, only to have Tony or whatever his name is come over and attack me! He just ran away after he noticed that the damage had been done, and I decided to run after him," She explained.

"I'm glad you did," Peter told her, "That Tony guy freaks me out. Who knows? You could very well have saved my life."

"I'm glad I did too. I had no idea where what direction the hospital was. I could have gotten lost. I could have died," Michelle sighed, placing a trembling hand over the main cut on her head. She brought it back down, took one glance at it- it was now completely red. She shuddered and then wiped it on her also bloodied pair of jeans.

Peter glared at her- he felt sorry for her. All the pain she's gone through. He'd never been treated like that. He was always accepted for who he was, unlike Michelle. The worst thing was that she had no idea what Alex had in store for her.

"She's innocent. She deserves to know the truth," Peter thought to himself.

"Michelle," He blurted aloud, "Don't go to the dance."

***

Desi sighed deeply, rubbing at her wet eyes as she walked around to the back entrance of the hospital.

"I'll look like an idiot if anyone I know sees me walking back through those doors. Better get in the back way," She thought to herself.

She stopped to pick up an old, rusty ladder. She walked on a few more metres, then stopping again at a window. She positioned the ladder directly below the window and checked that it was stable before beginning to climb up it.

It took about 2 minutes to get up the ladder. Without looking down, Desi pushed open the glass window, and eased herself in, legs first.

Once she had got herself on the ground, she realised where she was- the men's toilets. She stared up at Billie Joe, Shaun and Alex.

"Who's that guy?" She asked herself, eyeing Shaun uneasily as she got to her feet.

"And what's he doing here?" She then questioned, turning her attention to Alex, "And what's Billie Joe doing with them?"

The thing that puzzled Desi most was why Shaun was holding Alex by the collar.

But it didn't look like any of them noticed her, because they didn't stop doing whatever they were doing.

"Meh. Seh... Deh! Let me go you freak!" Alex gasped wriggling around a little.

"You know who I am, don't you?" Shaun asked in a slightly friendly voice.

"Err... yeah. But what do you want?" Alex questioned.

"Tony and I are expecting cash in advance. Before we lay out our plan," Shaun insisted.

Billie Joe's eyes widened, "What? What plan? I thought you were only gonna blackmail a person or two... or that's what Alex told me, anyway!"

"Yeah, that's right. But we need our victims in the right place at the right time, don't we?" Shaun explained, "Especially Michelle."

Desi and Billie Joe gasped in unison, which was lucky for Desi, otherwise they would have noticed her in a moment.

"I am not letting you go anywhere near that girl, no matter what!" Billie Joe cried angrily.

"This is our business, not yours! So fuck off!" Shaun exclaimed.

"No. This is my business. This is my son's girlfriend we're talking about here. Not just some stranger I've never met before in my life!" Billie Joe defended.

"Oh, really?" Shaun sneered, "Well it just-so-happens that she will soon be your DEAD son's EX girlfriend!"

It was then that Billie Joe reached breaking point.

It was then he did the unbelievable.

The unexpected.

The unthinkable.