Sure to Shine

The last thing that Eric wanted to see so soon after the incident at school was Skylar waving him down as Eric drove up a road close to his house. He contemplated not stopping, but then he realised that Skylar not only knew where he lived, but was also a complete psychopath who somehow had got his hands on guns.

Eric was still reeling from the dread and guilt over the fact he had brought a gun into school, unwillingly or not, so it was with much reluctance that he pressed on the brake pedal and slowed to a halt next to where Skylar was standing on the sidewalk.

"What?" he demanded, but Skylar didn’t answer. He just invited himself into Eric’s car. Once he had got in, he turned and looked at Eric expectantly. Growling in frustration, Eric squeezed the gas, and pulled back out into the road.

There was long silence, where the only sound was the muffled noise of the tires on the road.

Eventually, Skylar turned to Eric, wearing a strange expression.

"If you go to the cops," he said softly. "I’ll kill you. You hear me?"

Eric glanced at him quickly in surprise before turning his eyes back to the road again.

"What?" he asked. "What are you on about?"

"If you report what I’m doing to the police," Skylar said dangerously. "I will kill you."

Eric glanced at him, fear rising in his throat.

"Why would I report you to the cops?" he asked. "I didn’t say I was going to. I simply said I would if you brought the gun into the school. You can’t expect me to let you do that if I knew about it."

"Oh, but you would know about it," Skylar replied softly, and Eric found himself becoming increasingly nervous.

"Skylar, you’re not going to do it, are you?" he asked softly.

"See, that’s why you would know," Skylar replied. "You would have to ask, and I’m not going to lie."

Eric swallowed and tried to keep his concentration on the traffic around him. He didn’t want to know the answer, but he knew that he couldn’t just sit back and not know.

"So," he asked quietly. "Are you going to?"

Skylar looked right at him and smiled.

"Yes," he said simply. "I am. And you’re not going to say a word about it to anyone."

Eric felt sick.

"No," he said. "You’re not going to, Skylar. Do it anywhere but there. I know too many people there; it’s already been done there. Fuck’s sake, the anniversary is in a few days. You can’t do it."

"Don’t bother, Eric," Skylar said. "I’ve told you all ready that this is something I’ve always wanted to do. If you get in my way, I’ll kill you."

"Why are you telling me if you don’t want me to get in your way?" Eric demanded. "Do you think I’m just going to ignore what you’ve said? You think I’m just going to stand aside and let you do it? I don’t fucking think so."

Skylar snorted.

"Listen to you!" he barked, making Eric jump. "You think you’re still so good, don’t you? You think that you’ve got it all, and that you actually care about these people. Eric, I’ve been teaching you a lot over the last few days, and I know more about you than you will ever know. You hate them all, don’t try and bullshit me."

"I don’t hate them," Eric said angrily. "But I don’t like them much, no. It is possible to be neutral towards people, Skylar. It’s not like or hate all the time. You can just be indifferent."

"You hate them," Skylar said simply. "And you know why?"

"Why?" Eric demanded loudly, thumping his fist on the steering wheel of the car. "Tell me why, then, Skylar. If you know fucking everything about me, tell me, why do I hate people who haven’t even looked at me before?"

"There you go," Skylar said softly. "You just answered your own question."

"What?" Eric snorted. He was getting angry, the same way he always did when he was nervous of something. "I hate them all subconsciously because they don’t pay any attention to me? What am I, an attention whore? Grow the fuck up, Skylar."

"Secretly," Skylar said quietly, in a menacing tone that Eric knew was the voice of a potential school shooter. "You wanted them to realise how much like Ben you looked. Secretly, you’ve always wanted their attention. Secretly, you’re yearning for it. You felt great when they realised who you looked like. I saw it in your face, heard it in your voice when you told me. You want their attention and their approval, to make up for the fact that Mommy left, and Daddy has to work all the time. You’re lonely, Eric, you’re lonely and you’re lost, and you want any sort of attention to make you feel like you belong somewhere. Anywhere. For those first few years in high school you didn’t really care that no one paid any attention to you. You weren’t one of the popular kids; then again, you weren’t hated on like the loser kids. You had your nice safe standing. But as you grew, and everything changed around you, you hated being invisible more than you would hate being hated. You felt like you weren’t there anymore and that’s why, deep down, you wanted all of this to happen. But they didn’t notice. They didn’t call you names when you always came top. They didn’t bitch and moan about you behind your back. They didn’t realise you looked like a school shooter at first, and when they did, it all died down within a couple of days. You hate them, because they have their secure lives, they’re in tune with everything, and you don’t fit in at all. You don’t fit in more than the loser kids who are picked on. You don’t fit in so much that they can’t even waste their time slagging you off, and that’s why you hate them."

Eric’s knuckles where white as he gripped the steering wheel with all his strength.

"You know fuck-all," he spat. "Quit thinking like you know everything, Skylar! So what, you shoot up my school. You’ll either kill yourself, the cops will kill you, or you’ll puss out and go to prison. If you’re so intelligent and superior, why not do something with your life? You’re not in school, you skulk around dressed like some Columbine shooter, going on about how smart you are and how you’re better than everyone else. Well, you’re not. You’re fucking not, you know that? You’re a useless waste of space, and you really need to get help with those delusions of yours."

There was a long silence. Eric had never said anything so cheeky to Skylar, and now he was nervous. Eventually, Skylar spoke, and his voice was like ice.

"You’re exactly like me, Eric," he whispered. "You’ll soon see."

"I’m stopping the car, Skylar," Eric hissed. "And you’re getting out. And I’m not letting you do that to my school. I’ll fucking stop you, even if I don’t go to the police, I’ll find a way. What you’ve taught me might just backfire."

"What I’ve taught you will make my life easier," Skylar muttered.

"Will it?" Eric asked.

"Yes."

"How?"

"Because," Skylar said softly. "Now, even if you don’t realise it, you want to do this just as much as I do."

"Bullshit," Eric spat, but Skylar didn’t reply.

Eric kept his eye on the road, breathing heavily with the anger. The last thing he was expecting was the steering wheel to suddenly jerk violently to the right. Instinctively, he pressed his foot down hard on the brake, but it was already too late. The car veered off of the road, skidded around, and slammed sideways into first a fence, and then a tree.

Because of the car skidding around, the driver’s side took the full force of the impact, and Eric felt himself thrown violently to the right. His seatbelt locked, stopping him suddenly, but he took a severe knock to the head as he snapped back into place.

There was a horrible silence, during which Eric felt blood running down his face. He stayed completely still, slouched in the seat, breathing heavily. It took him a couple of seconds to begin to question what had happened.

Everything looked blurry, but he forced himself to turn his head and look at Skylar. Skylar was unbuckling his seatbelt, seemingly uninjured.

"What –?" Eric began groggily, but Skylar turned and looked at him with mad eyes.

"I was never here," he hissed.

"What do you mean?" Eric asked thickly.

"You lost control of the car," Skylar told him firmly. "I wasn’t here."

Eric blinked, confused, as Skylar pushed the door of the car open.

"And if you ever mention fucking up my plans again," Skylar hissed, his voice like poison. "I really will kill you. Let this be a fucking lesson to you."

Eric watched Skylar turn and disappear up the dark road. Night had just fallen, and there was no other traffic. Eric leant his head back against the seat and closed his eyes, breathing heavily, adrenaline still rushing around his system.

Skylar really had tried to kill him. He hadn’t been in control of if Eric had been killed or not, and it terrified Eric. Skylar knew he could have easily died.

Eric didn’t know how long he sat there for, but he could feel the blood gradually drying on his face. He guessed he was in shock, because he wasn’t functioning properly. It seemed like years until he saw headlights on the road. They slowed as they picked up the car, and for a second Eric thought they would drive past. However, the car stopped, and the doors opened and two people got out of the front of the vehicle.

"Is there anyone there?" a voice asked. It was female.

"Not sure," came the reply. "Get the flashlight from the trunk, will you?"

A minute later, Eric was blinking into the harsh light of the flashlight. He weakly lifted a hand and shielded his eyes.

"Call an ambulance, love," the man called to the woman, and she nodded and headed back to the car. "You all right, son?" the man asked, looking at Eric closely, lowering the flashlight slightly.

"I think so," Eric replied thickly.

"How long have you been here?"

"Don’t know," Eric muttered.

"You remember what happened?"

"There was ..." Eric swallowed. "A dog. A dog ran out and I swerved, lost control of the car and hit the fence."

Eric’s head was throbbing by now, and all he wanted to do was close his eyes and sleep. He had never been in a car accident before. It seemed, since meeting Skylar, he was going to be involved in a lot of things that he had never experienced before.

He was, in a way, glad for the blood on his head. Everyone automatically assumed that he was dazed by the injury, and therefore didn’t pressure him too much to say a lot. Eric wished with all of his heart that he could tell everyone what had really happened. When the police arrived, he wanted to scream at them to find Skylar Mitchell and arrest him, because he was packing guns and planning to shoot up Jefferson High. But Eric was too terrified of Skylar. He got the feeling Skylar even knew what he was thinking right now, and he knew that if he mentioned anything to the police, somehow, Skylar would find out before they got to him. He didn’t know how he knew, but he just got the feeling that Skylar knew everything about him.

So he stayed silent. He would have to deal with this himself.