Jesse turned his head and glared. His stare was like the knife cutting through my heart, the knife that had been sharpened and handled with care, for only one devious reason, to stab me. He didn`t say a word. His glare held and I melted under it. The heat was unbearable. I felt sweat pierce my forehead and my legs. It dripped down. I pictured myself melting in front of Jesse, an ice cream in the sun. I held my hand to my blazing head, afraid of it melting too. I could feel my soaking wet hair across my forehead. For the first time, I was aware of a group of kids gathering around us. The only thought that crossed my mind, crossed it with great speed, “Why isn’t anyone calling the police or something? I have a freaking knife in my stomach!!!!” Jesse was draining the energy out of me like a tub of lukewarm water being emptied down a drain. I felt the blood dripping, dripping, dripping out of my soul.



Jesse seemed to enjoy the extra attention. He smiled deviously and bore even deeper into me. I felt my breathe choke up in my throat and my blood running full speed through my body. There was an occasional “ouch” and “whoops” coming from the kids but other than that it was silent. The kids stared at me in deep, desirable interest. Some even pulled out their hand grabbing for a chance to help me. All of those kids were pushed back by Jesse’s three comrades. Holding back the kids wasn`t much of a struggle for Jesse’s friends. Those small children up against a pack of: mean, bullying, delinquents, was more than those little kids could handle. They half tripped backwards on purpose, so not to be pushed and handled so hard.
I held a picture of Jesse, before this happened, in my head. It was a beautiful picture. He was walking on the beach next to me and smiling. The sun glinted off his shiny hair and he was holding my hand. There was pure happiness in his eyes. He was staring into my eyes and suddenly pulled me down onto the sand. With a waft of passion he kissed me. It was the first and the last time we kissed and now this.

I heard a scream coming from nowhere and everywhere all at once. I tried looking around searching for where the scream had come from. It took me a few moments to realize that I myself had been the one who had been screaming. I felt my voice come back into my throat like Satan was giving me one last chance to sputter out my dying wish. I looked up through my bleared vision into Jesse’s eyes. I saw the hatred and anger encasing them and growing stronger but way inside I caught a vision of two more emotions, sadness? Or maybe hurt? I forced my jaws open as wide as I could. Jesse let down on the pressure in what seemed as shock. I heard running feet coming down the hall and I could just make out Mrs. Rosemarie’s high pink heels trampling along. Jesse saw her too. We both looked back at each other at the same moment. I opened my mouth once more and sucked all my energy into my arms as I lifted myself up onto my elbows. I bent over to his ear feeling his soft brown locks against my cheek and closed my eyes and whispered as quietly as I could the only thing I could think of that could save me, “No matter what anyone says I know you’re in there somewhere.” I let my head fall hard down on the ground just as Mrs. Rosemarie came up with two police officers behind her. The police officers tackled Jesse to the ground and she bent over to me. “It’ll be alright darling! Mommy’s here!” The last thing I saw was Jesse’s face being torn from mine. They had pried his fingers off my hair where he had been stroking it. There were tears in his eyes. Then everything went black.
Jesse and I sat on his house overlooking our entire neighborhood. He put his arms around me and even though it wasn’t cold out I shivered. I put my head on his shoulder and I could feel him smile. We said nothing for awhile just staring out beyond the neighborhood, beyond the country, and beyond the world. I was thinking about our future. We were both going to graduate soon and go on to bigger and better things but he was set on going to MIT. He had never told anyone this, expect me, to keep his bad boy reputation but, secretly Jesse wanted to invent the first robot with all human traits and emotions. I on the other hand wanted to become an artist. I already applied to three different colleges, each focusing on art directly, and each more than a day’s drive away from Boston. I didn’t know what Jesse was thinking but I guessed it pin pointed around the same topic. Finally he broke the silence and sighed. “I’m sorry...” he mumbled. I knew his smile was gone. “It’s…” I didn’t get to finish. His dad was yelling for him to come down and since his dad hated me Jesse thought I’d be better if we kept our relationship secret. We said goodbye and Jesse slid off the roof landing a few feet from his father. I had to wait on the roof by myself until Jesse got his dad away. It wasn’t the first time this happened though. In a matter of minutes I was off the roof and running down the street, my long blonde hair streaming behind me.

Then suddenly it was the next day and as usual I walked to school on my own. Jesse’s dad drove him to school because he thought that teenagers shouldn’t drive or walk through the snow. When I got to the front gates leading into the school I immediately knew something was wrong. There were a group of kids running away from the school and I could see more clambering against windows trying to get them open. I ran up the front steps and opened the doors. The hall was deserted except for one boy not far from it. He stood in the middle of the hall clutching a knife. When he saw me he smiled. He walked towards me and I watched as kids were peeking out of classrooms and closets. Their faces were laced with shock and horror.

I watched as the boy stopped before me and spoke through clenched teeth, “It’s time for the world to be emptied of everyone like you.” With that he held the knife over his head and lowered it down onto me. I saw the impact before I felt the pain shoot through me. “Jesse?”I whispered

Suddenly I woke up. I opened my eyes. Relief rushed through me. It was just a nightmare I thought to myself. I broke out in a nervous smile. It quickly disappeared though when my vision became clear. This isn’t my room I thought. The relief feeling I felt a moment ago disappearing.