Sure to Shine

Eric couldn’t sleep. He had been trying and trying for hours, and as the clock ticked over to three in the morning, he gave up. He quietly let himself out of his bedroom and did the only thing he could think of when he was bored – he went onto the computer.

He wasn’t going to try and kid himself that he wasn’t going to look up Ben Murdoch, because he was. He was determined to look him up until he found something which definitely set him apart from the school shooter. They couldn’t have anything else in common, they were much too different. So they looked the same? That didn’t prove anything at all.

Eric deliberately avoided all of the pictures, instead looking at personality information and school-related things. He soon spotted that they were much different when it came to grades – both of them were smart, but Ben was an unrepentant procrastinator. He achieved C grades, occasionally a B, whereas Eric was a straight-A student.

Ben had an explosive temper, too. Eric had never been like that – he would take a step back from the situation and calm down by himself. He rarely shouted and he never resorted to violence. Ben had been prone to vicious outbursts and had kicked holes in many a wall in his frustration. Ben lived and breathed anger.

Eric found himself staring at that familiar handwriting again. He felt strange to think that this very same handwriting was sitting in his bag in his bedroom. It looked like Ben hadn’t reserved his hate-filled comments for just the textbooks, either. One of his notebooks for school had no school-related stuff in it. Rather, it was a journal of all the people who annoyed him.

Eric couldn’t help but read about what Ben thought about his Politics class, seems the textbook was so full of hatred.

I don’t know how these people got this far in school, Ben had written. The teacher can’t ever get anything out of them. They just all look at each other and giggle stupidly. I can’t believe this is the future of the fucking country, I’m being serious. You’ve got the little sluts over in the other back corner putting their make-up on and giggling about whoever they shagged on the weekend. I’m sorry, but who cares? Then there are all the jock bastards at the front whose only value in life is kicking a ball around. What do they care about Politics anyway? They probably don’t even know who the fucking president is right now.

It’s always the same. The stupid kids get their hands held all the way through school and then you get smart kids like me who are just ignored at the back of the room. Fucking discriminated against because I have more than two brain cells! Unbelievable.

Eric frowned. Some of the things Ben was saying sounded very familiar. Eric clicked another few links to see if it was just a one-off.

You’ll never believe what happened today, another paragraph read. I was in the study room and this total idiot next to me was confused because she didn’t know how to get her essay onto the school’s email system to send it to her teacher. I turned around and said to her, “Why don’t you just copy paste it?”, and she looked at me like I was God and she were Moses. It’s not hard, is it? Seriously, how do these people get out of bed and dress themselves, let alone actually turn the computer on? It makes me fucking laugh. I can’t wait until I get rid of some of these stupid assholes.

Eric suddenly realised why Ben’s rants seemed so familiar. They sounded exactly like the sort of thing Skylar would come out with, what with his idea that he was better than everyone else.

Eric felt slightly comforted, however. Even though they may look like the double of one another, that seemed to be where the similarity between the two of them ended. Eric had a calm and open-minded personality; Ben was violent and rude and couldn’t tolerate anyone who seemed stupider than him. Eric got straight-A grades and pushed himself no matter where anyone in his class was; Ben gave up because he never got recognised for anything and wrote hate-filled rants in the back of class.

Eric didn’t know why it comforted him so much, considering he had no intention of shooting up his school, but it did make him feel batter, and he was grateful for that.

Eric went into the living room and glanced outside, remembering the other day when Skylar had frightened the life out of him. If anyone was like Benjamin Murdoch, Eric thought, it was Skylar Mitchell.

Eric’s mind flicked back to what his father had said. His mother had wanted to name him Skylar. It still freaked Eric out, but after he had had his hopes raised a little by his research a few minutes ago, he was now thinking rationally enough to put it down as another coincidence.

Talking of Skylar, Eric had spotted him. He was walking up to the park again, his hands shoved deep in his pockets, for the first time not looking as though he hadn’t a care in the world. Eric frowned, squinting closer, confident that Skylar wouldn’t be able to see. It was too dark, and the window would reflect the street, rather than show whoever might be inside.

Skylar had stopped, only just in Eric’s line of vision, standing quite still beside the gate to the park. He took a hand slightly out of one of his pockets then, and Eric felt his stomach drop.

He could have sworn that Skylar was holding a gun in his hand, hidden slightly by still being half in his pocket. Skylar seemed to be looking at whatever it was, anyway, and Eric gulped and took a step back from the window, wondering what he should do. Should he go on what he had seen and get the police down here? Should he ignore it and go back to bed?

Eric did neither of those things. For some reason, he found himself shoving his feet into his shoes and pulling on a jacket, before quietly letting himself out of the house. He abandoned any evidence of stealth after that, and leapt over the fence and sprinted the short distance down the street. The cold air bit at his exposed face and hands.

Skylar was already facing him, watching him calmly.

"I told you you’d be coming to me sooner or later," he said, but there was now a stark difference in his voice. Eric would have expected Skylar’s voice to be teasing when he said a comment such as that, but the boy seemed to have changed dramatically. His voice was dull and monotone and it caused Eric to frown.

"What’s wrong with you?" he asked. Skylar gave a thin, strained smile.

"Why do you all of a sudden give a crap?" he asked.

"I’m wondering what you’re doing skulking around," Eric told him. "I doubt you’re up to any good."

Skylar seemed to beam at the comment, but Eric wasn’t sure if he were imagining it. All of the streetlights were broken here, and so it was very dark and almost impossible to tell what Skylar was doing. Eric realised he had got himself into a very dangerous situation.

"You saw, didn’t you?" Skylar asked calmly, and Eric decided to play stupid.

"Saw what?" he asked.

"The gun," Skylar replied calmly. "That’s why you ran out here. Why? Why would you run towards someone with a gun?"

"I –" Eric began, but it was a good question. Why had he?

"Idiot," Skylar suddenly spat, and Eric felt the blood drain from his face.

"Why have you got a gun?" Eric asked, his voice cracking slightly.

"Why not?" Skylar fired back. "You never know when you’re going to need it around here, do you? If someone pulled a weapon on you right now, you wouldn’t have a chance, would you?"

Skylar moved suddenly then, and before Eric could react, he could feel the barrel of the gun being pressed into his chest, right over his furiously beating heart.

He squeaked.

Skylar laughed.

"Fucking pathetic," Skylar muttered, as Eric frantically tried to bring his breathing back under control.

"What’s got into you?" he asked, trying and failing to sound calm. His breathing was too erratic; his heart beating too obviously fast. He felt light-headed, as though he were going to pass out. He had never had a gun held to him before, and it was terrifying.

He thought about all the times on movies where the characters would have guns held to them, and they would come out with some wise-ass comment. Eric realised just how stupid and unrealistic this was. If any normal person had a gun held to them, it would be all they could do to keep breathing, never mind come out with a witty comeback.

"I’m not scared of killing someone, Eric," Skylar said softly. "So you’re going to listen to me and you’re not going to try anything funny, all right?"

Eric nodded, desperately trying to put across to Skylar that he had no intention of messing him around. He prayed that someone would see what was going on and call the police, but he knew that the chances were slim.

"You need to realise a few little things, Eric," Skylar told him. "Tell me, why did you run out when you saw I had a gun, eh?"

"I – I don’t know," Eric spluttered. "I didn’t think it was real, I thought you were messing around, I don’t know –"

"Not real, eh?" Skylar laughed. "I suppose you get some pretty realistic replicas these days, don’t you? No, trust me, lad. This is pretty damn real."

"Why do you have it?" Eric asked again. "You’ve never had it before, why would you think you needed it now?"

"Because I’ve never been walking around in the middle of the night in this neighbourhood before," Skylar shrugged.

"Why are you out so late?"

"I was hoping I’d see you."

"Why would I be out this late?"

Skylar laughed and gestured with his free hand.

"You tell me," he grinned.

His free hand was his right hand. Skylar was left-handed.

"You knew I would come out if I saw you had a gun?"

"I didn’t know. I hoped," Skylar shrugged. "I was right. Anyway, we’re going on a little walk. Come on."

"If my Dad notices I’m gone, you’re doomed," Eric told Skylar, and Skylar only smiled.

"I don’t think so," he said. "Anyway, we’re not going far. Come on, or I’ll start giving you a few smacks."

Skylar jerked the barrel of the gun into Eric’s chest for good measure, causing Eric to jump.

"All right, I’m coming," Eric told him. "Just take the gun away, God please!"

Skylar chuckled and brought the gun away from direct contact with Eric’s body, but kept it out of his pocket,

"Makes me feel kind of hardcore, you know?" he asked, and Eric rolled his eyes. He got away with it in the dark.

"I’m real worried about you, Skylar," he told the strange young man. "I really am."

"You should be," Skylar said casually. "Come on, hurry up, or I’ll start shooting at your feet."

Eric trusted Skylar to keep his word. He hurried up. Skylar laughed again, and seconds later Eric felt him press the gun barrel into his back. He tensed again, hearing Skylar still sniggering.

"This is hilarious," he muttered.

Eric didn’t dare say anything.