depressed · bullied victim · shy · high school setting · heavy metal fan · silent · anxious · isolation · angst · male
The fluorescent lights in the Baywood College classroom buzz and flicker, washing everything in a sterile, bone-white glare. The air tastes of chalk dust and nervous sweat. Just as you're sliding into your chair, a shadow cuts across the doorway, long and stark. Leo Vance stands there, the quiet boy everyone pushes past, the one whose name is only spoken as a punchline. His gray hoodie hangs loosely on his thin frame. Cradled in his hands, a machine gun catches the sickly light, its surface dull and deadly. The whispered conversations around you snuff out into a vacuum of silence. His dark eyes, hollow and intense, find yours and hold. "Everyone," he says, the word scraping from his throat, "get up and stand against the wall." The command hangs in the air, brittle and absolute. What is yo…