It all began one snowy December afternoon. Jason Fox was at his house arguing with his mother. “I am not a kid! I am eighteen!” Exclaimed Jason.
“Your behavior is very childish! Go to your room!” Sophie (Jason’s mom) exclaimed.
“Yes ma’am,” Jason said sarcastically and stomped to his room. Ethan was in an alleyway, making a phone call that would change the rest of his life.
“Ethan, I want you to break into that car at the Fox families’ house, and sabotage the lock mechanism and the engine function,” Maverick (a criminal in jail) whispered into the phone he had hidden in his jail cell, “Remember if you don’t do what I say, your parents will get it!”
“ On my way there now, Maverick!” Ethan replied into the phone boldly, (but feeling so nervous and upset on the inside that he had to do this since he would never want to hurt anybody). Ethan headed over to Jason’s house and sabotaged the lock mechanism and the engine of the Fox family’s car.
            Jason got in his car on his way to the coffee shop for his date with Harmony (his girlfriend). He was driving over the train tracks when all of a sudden, his car stalled. The barriers on the train track went down and the train was almost there. “Oh no, oh no! I can’t believe this!” Jason thought as he tried to open his doors. “I knew the lock was acting funny earlier! What am I going to do?” He thought to himself as he realized the doors were not going to budge.  He picked up the wrench that was in the back seat and started banging on the windows, but they wouldn’t break, since, after all, they were bulletproof. The train started blowing its whistle trying to stop. It couldn’t stop fast enough and was heading straight for him! Ethan was sitting behind a bush watching this, unsure if he could go through with this.
“I can't just watch him die! I can't believe this, but I am going to go save him!” Ethan thought to himself. Ethan ran to the car with a metal pole in his hands and started banging on the window. After what felt like forever, he banged a hole in the window, and the glass shattered everywhere. He pulled Jason out of the car, through the window, and out of the way right as the train hit Jason’s car! Jason sat on the ground beside the tracks, but far enough that he couldn’t get hurt. Ethan was wearing a hoodie and a bandana across the bottom part of his face so that Jason couldn’t see more than his eyes.
“A-r--re you o-o-ok?” Ethan asked with a terrified expression in his eyes, and his voice trembling as he thought about how much worse this could have been.
“Yes, thanks to you though! If you hadn’t shown up, I would have died!” Jason exclaimed.
“Y-y-your welcome!” Ethan replied nervously hoping that Jason wouldn’t ask any questions.
“What’s your name?” Jason asked him.
“Uhm....” Ethan was still in too much shock to give a proper answer, so he decided to just run, “I gotta run!” Ethan replied as he started to run away.
“Come back!” Jason yelled as he began to run after him. Ethan ran as fast as he could but eventually got cornered by Jason in an alley. “Why are you running? You just saved my life! I am not going to get you in trouble. Please just tell me your name and take off the hoodie!” Jason shouted at him.
“I…I… can’t tell you! I am already going to be in enough trouble for helping you if…finds out!” Ethan said leaving the blank in the sentence. “Just let me through! I don’t want to hurt you!” He exclaimed while pulling out a sharp knife. Jason’s phone started ringing. “Turn it off, don’t answer it or I will use this!” Ethan exclaimed pointing the knife at Jason threateningly.
“Ok, ok!” Jason exclaimed as he declined Harmony’s call.
“Now, promise me that you will not call the police, let me pass, and I will put the knife away,” Ethan replied sternly still grasping the knife tightly.
“I-I promise!” Jason replied stepping back. Ethan put the knife away and ran past Jason into the dense fog that had enveloped the city. Jason went and stared at what used to be his car and shivered.
“That could have been me! I could have been wrecked along with the car! I need to find this guy and repay him for helping me!” Jason thought to himself. Ten minutes later, when Jason arrived home, he explained what had happened to him. Harmony had been sitting with Amy (Jason’s sister) trying to figure out what had happened to him.
“Jason! I was so worried about you! I could not find you anywhere and I started hacking camera footage (since she was a detective) throughout the city with Harmony!” Amy exclaimed as she hugged Jason.
“I am fine thanks to that guy in the hoodie, I just wish I knew who he is,” Jason said thoughtfully.
“Jason! We were literally about to have our first date! No more almost dying! Ok?!” Harmony exclaimed as she hugged him.
“OK Harmony, I’ll try!” Jason replied jokingly as he hugged her, unaware of the fact that he would be in another similar situation soon.
 “I am just going to run to the restroom,” Harmony said. When she got to the restroom, she called the police and told them the area where Ethan was. This was not good…
            Ethan was running through the different alleyways trying to find a place to spend the night when he heard the police sirens. He ran as fast as he possibly could and went inside a broken-down mansion that was abandoned. “I can’t believe he called the police after all that! I saved his life! I could have let him die, but no, I had to save him! He stabbed me in the back!” Ethan shouted into the lonely old house. The mice scampered around, frightened by Ethan’s shouting. He started planning his revenge with an icy-cold heart full of hurt and sadness. He was already extremely hurt by Maverick. When Ethan was 8 years old, his parents went missing, and Maverick had found him. Maverick raised him and then (when Ethan was 15) told him that he had kidnapped his parents and the only way he could ever see them again was if he worked for him. Ethan had never felt so betrayed. Even now, he had risked his parents’ lives to save Jason and then Jason had gone and called the police on him after he had promised he wouldn’t! It was not right! This world was never fair or nice, so why should he be?
            Harmony came out of the restroom and tried to convince Jason not to go look for the guy who saved him (since she thought he would be in jail by the time Jason went out), but Jason wouldn’t listen. He went out into the night to search for the guy who saved him. He searched alleyway after alleyway until he came upon a broken-down mansion in the woods. Jason opened the creaky door and walked into a huge cobweb. The huge mansion was eerily silent. It appeared as if no one had been in there for years. However, Ethan was peeking out from inside one of the closets with a knife in his hand waiting for just the right moment. Jason walked around the house climbing up the stairs as the stairs creaked. The creaking of the stairs sounded almost like they were warning him to leave. Upstairs there were four bedrooms all broken down and dilapidated. Ethan had gotten out of the closet and was sneaking around behind Jason as quietly as possible. Each creek of the stairs from Jason sounded so loud to the silence that was otherwise super thick. Jason entered into one of the rooms and just then Ethan jumped out with the knife. Ethan had Jason cornered and had a knife in his hand! “I should never have saved you in the first place! You stabbed me in the back and called the police!” Ethan exclaimed with a dangerous glint of rage and anger in his eyes while pointing the knife at Jason. Jason stood there in the corner confused, scared, and unsure what to do next.
 “What are you talking about?!” Jason exclaimed very confused, “I never called the police.”
“Sure, you didn’t. Then why were they there ten minutes after you left!” Ethan exclaimed back, shifting the knife around in his hand. He stood there staring at Jason with rage burning in his eyes. Jason stood there staring blankly at Ethan with his face as pale as a sheet. “Well? I am waiting! Where is your brilliant explanation, or your excuses?” Ethan ranted as he folded his arms and stuck the knife it in his pocket while waiting for an explanation. Jason didn’t want to let Ethan get away again and certainly didn’t want to get stabbed, so, not knowing what better to do (since he had become very impatient and scared) he rushed at Ethan and tried to take away the knife. Jason knocked Ethan down to the ground. They were rolling around on the floor fighting over the knife
“Give it to me!” Jason shouted losing his breath.
“Never! I need it!” Ethan shouted back. While they rolled around Jason had finally gotten the knife in his hand, but at the same time (since Ethan was on top of him), the knife stuck deep into Ethan’s shoulder. “WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?! I HAD THE KNIFE THE WHOLE TIME AND DIDN’T STAB YOU!” Ethan exclaimed through clenched teeth, trying not to look wimpy.
“I-i-it was an accident! Ahhhh… what do I do?!” Jason exclaimed as he ran over and stared at the knife uneasily.
“DON’T YOU DARE TOUCH ME!” Ethan exclaimed as he held the knife that was in his shoulder. He wasn’t going to pull it out since he knew better. Jason grabbed his phone and was about to call 911.
“Don’t call the police! They will take me to jail since you broke your promise and called the cops!” Ethan shouted at Jason.
“How many times do I have to tell you? I never called the cops!” Jason exclaimed while thinking. “Uhm... who do I call?” “I got it! My mom is a detective, she will know what to do!” Jason exclaimed as he phoned her. While he was calling her, he grabbed a dusty first aid kit and took out some alcohol wipes. “This is going to burn a lot, but that knife of yours looks very rusty, and that cut is deep!” Jason said as he rubbed the alcohol wipes on the wound.
“AHHHH,” Ethan screamed. Jason’s mom didn’t answer the phone, so Jason called his sister Amy instead. Amy answered the phone.
“Amy, I-I-I messed up big time and need you and Harmony to come help now! I was impatient and...knife…blood…help…mansion!” Was all Amy could hear over the phone as she and Harmony raced to the car and started driving there.  Jason sat there in shock at all that had happened. Ethan’s shoulder was bleeding badly and had begun to hurt even worse.
“What are we going to do? If you don’t mind me interrupting your peaceful relaxation time, I have a knife in my shoulder and am bleeding a lot! I kind of need your help, and kind of judging how this is all your fault maybe you should get over here and help me!” Ethan shouted at Jason.
 “Sure, it is partly my fault, but not fully my fault! You are the one who jumped out of nowhere with the knife in the first place!” Jason shouted back.
“If you hadn’t called the cops, I wouldn’t have brought out the knife in the first place!” Ethan exclaimed.
“But that’s just it! I never called the cops! The only ones who know about what happened are my sister and my girlfriend,” Jason exclaimed back. “Maybe it was one of them, I don't know, and don’t think so! But it wasn’t me!”
“I guess I believe you. Now please if you don’t mind, I could use some of that gauze in the first aid kit for my shoulder,” Ethan said as calmly as anyone possibly could while having a knife stuck in their shoulder. Jason took the gauze and pressed it tightly on the wound. Ethan flinched in pain. “I guess I should be saying thank you for helping me with my wound since you could have just left me here,” Ethan said thoughtfully as he clenched his teeth due to the pain.
“It is kind of my fault that you have a knife in your shoulder in the first place. I came here to thank you for saving my life and ended up hurting yours! How ironic! How is your shoulder feeling now?”
“About as good as a shoulder that has a knife in it can feel!” Ethan said sarcastically.       
Just then, Amy and Harmony arrived. “I’ll wait in the car, I don’t like blood,” Harmony said to Amy. Amy ran inside with a stitching kit.
“Are you going to fix him yourself?” Jason asked Amy full of disbelief.
“Yes, I learned with Mom how to deal with situations like these,” Amy replied as she opened the kit.
“How old are you?” Ethan asked judgingly.
“I am 16, and if you have a problem with that let me know. But if you don’t want to end up in jail or dead from blood loss, I am your best and only option,” Amy replied boldly.
“YOU ARE ONLY SIXTEEN! I am eighteen, and would never trust myself, how am I supposed to trust you?” Ethan exclaimed.
“For one, I am not you, so you don’t have to worry about anything. Second, I am your best option, so let’s hurry up and get this over with. I have no pain medication, so this is going to hurt… a lot,” Amy said boldly as she grasped the knife. She then pulled out the knife.
“AHHHHHHHHHhhhh!” Ethan screamed in pain as the knife was removed. Amy had to take off Ethan’s hoodie and t-shirt. Amy then used the kit and stitched up Ethan’s wound fast. Ethan lay there in indescribable pain as he tried to be brave but couldn’t take the pain anymore.
“You are going to be ok, come with us to our house where we can help you get some food, water, and a soft bed to sleep on,” Jason said to Ethan. Amy and Jason helped Ethan up. Ethan went with Jason, Amy, and Harmony back to their house. They gave him soup to eat and water to drink (since he was so skinny and in desperate need of food). Amy and Jason told their mom that Ethan was a friend from school, and never told her about his wound. Nobody ever figured out who had called the police. Ethan and Jason went on to become good friends. Amy and Ethan went on to possibly become more than friends.  They all decided that they would help Ethan find his parents and put an end to Maverick and his plots. But, for now, Ethan just needed a soft bed, some nice sheets, and a good night’s sleep.

© Stacy A Parker