Listen

I hear the sirens of an ambulance passing by the street and moving towards some kind of accident two blocks down.

I try to take a peek at the situation from the window on my left but the truck turned on an alley and vanished from my vision.

And with that, the only exciting part of my day had met its end. Another uneventful day for my uneventful life...

"Happy birthday, Lance!"

Or not, I guess.

A boy wearing glasses and with short red hair comes up to me after passing by the classroom door and mutters these words while handing me a small box wrapped up as a gift of the size of my pencil case.

"Oh! Thanks, Kenny" I reply while I taking the gift for myself.

Right now, the two of us are in the middle of our classroom awaiting our teacher to come in and start his lesson. Everyone was just minding their own business and talking to each other, but his sudden words started to bring the attention of some curious gazes towards us.

I honestly forgot that my birthday was coming. It will actually be tomorrow so I wasn't expecting any present right now.

"Wouldnt you rather give this to me tomorrow?"

"I'm gonna be traveling with my family, unfortunately, my grandmother is getting sick so we will be visiting her in the hospital... so I wanted to give it to you before leaving!"

"I see... I hope she's okay!"

That's right... This week I'm turning fifteen. I wanted to hang out with Kenny like we always do but now I guess I'm gonna have to make new plans...

Maybe I'll go out for pizza with my family. I heard they have a new flavor that combines Australian and Chinese recipes.

That said... I feel like there was something important about this date that I was supposed to keep in mind, but it's been so long that I don't even remember what it was...

"So, can I open it now?"

"Suit yourself" he replies.

I take off the paper and see that his gift is actually a new set of headphones.

"Oh! Thanks, Kenny! I was even thinking about buying a new pair! My old ones were starting to go deaf in one side."

"No problem!"

Well... This will probably be the last present ill receive from anyone here considering how 'popular' I am. After Kenny returns to his seat behind mine, I pick up my phone and test out my present after putting one of the tracks that I added to my list last night. It was a theme from one of my favorite shows and I was dying to hear the full version.

I place it on my ears and start to let the lyrics flow into my head.

[Someone is watching you...]

"Eh...?" I gasp as I suddenly hear a strange female voice speaking.

[Be careful...]

I immediately freeze while holding my phone and pressing replay over and over again. I heard that song plenty of times before and not once have I ever heard the singer saying these words. Is this part of the full version?

"Lance, you okay?" Kenny asks after noticing my distress. He probably wants to know if there is some problem with his present.

"I think the new song I added has some glitch..."

"Really? Which song is it? If I have a copy I can send it to you."

I show him my phone so he can read the name of the track and he goes to his bag to pick his own phone and send me a version that he has.

After I download it for myself, I try to hear it again and-

[Youre in danger... We need to leave...]

I drop my phone on the ground and almost jump out of my seat. The whole class now looks at me as cold sweat drops from my face and my breathing starts to become heavy.

"Lance...? Lance, what's wrong?" Kenny whispers trying to quietly calm me down.

"I- I don't know... I think I'm having a headache..." I answer while rubbing my head and messing up my hair.

That was definitely not the song.

[We need to leave...]

I hear the voice again and my eyes start to move across the classroom. People are looking at me like I'm crazy.

My reflection shows itself in the window, a teenager with short black hair and grey eyes wearing a school uniform composed of black pants and a white shirt just like everyone else and looking pallid as if he had seen a ghost. I almost didn't recognize myself.

[Leave... Now!]

"Kenny!!" I shout at him while holding his shoulders, "Kenny, can you hear this?"

"Hear what...?" he replies before coming closer and talking in my ear, "Dude, people are staring at you, calm down..."

"I... ... ..."

I couldn't calm down...

The teacher arrived and I tried to return to my seat while also doing my best to just ignore the voice, but no matter how much I tried, the stupid thing wouldn't go away.

[Someone is watching...]

[You should leave...]

[Leave this place...]

[Youre in danger...]

[Leave...]

[Youre not safe here...]

[Leave!!!]

I wanted to scream and shout and smack my head against a wall to see if it would make the voice stop talking, but I'm pretty sure that would make people think I'm actually crazy, so I did my best to hold myself together.

Or maybe I am crazy... Who knows...

Lunchbreak had finally arrived and I rushed to get out of class and get some fresh air in the hopes that it would help me out.

It didn't.

"Lance...?" Kenny came one more time to check on me while I placed my head against the wall of the hallway, "The hell are you doing...??"

"I think I'm going crazy... I keep hearing a girl speaking in my head telling me to get out..."

"Dude, don't worry... I imagine girls asking me to go out with them all the time too!"

"... Wha...?"

"These things happen, man. I'm sure you'll get a girlfriend in no time, no need to be upset about it."

[Leave!]

The voice continued to speak.

I looked at Kenny to make sure he wasn't hearing it too, but he just kept trying to cheer me up while patting me on the back and saying a bunch of nonsense about romance, girls, and, something about first time...?

I could barely hear whatever the hell it was that he was saying as the stupid voice continued to ring its sound inside my head.

[You're in danger... You have to leave... Hurry!!]

We still had five more classes after the break. Should I try to just ignore it?

[Leave!!]

"I can't do this anymore..." I whispered before going back to my class.

"Where are you going?" Kenny came right behind still trying to help me out.

"I'm gonna grab my bag and go home... If I stay another second trying to pretend nothing is going on while everyone keeps staring at me I'm gonna lose it..."

"Dude, we have a test later today! You can't just bail!"

Aaahh... I forgot the test... Ugh... Whatever, there is no way I would be able to focus on it anyway...

"I'll just study more for the next one... No big... Deal..." I paused as the moment I enter the room I see a boy with short blond hair alone standing in front of my desk.

He was wearing the same uniform that we had but I didn't recognize him.

His hands were slowly caressing my desk as if it was... Actually, I don't even know what I could compare that to...

"Kenny... You know who that is?" I whisper while slowly closing the door.

"Not sure. I think he is from class 'B'...? But I'm not sure what he's doing here..."

[Run!! Run! Run!!! Run!!! Run!!] the voice started to speak once again, this time sounding louder than the sirens from before.

"Quiet!!!!" I shout while holding my ears.

The blond kid hears my scream and slowly turns around to look at us. He was holding a piercing gaze behind his long bangs and a soft smile that made me very uncomfortable for some reason.

It felt like he was slowly studying me.

"Good evening..." he said.

"Uuh... Hi..." I answered, "That's my desk... Do you need anything?"

He started to approach us while continuing to smile like a kid that was about to play a prank on someone and knew exactly how to avoid being caught.

"Just wanted to see you up close... That's all..." he commented.

[Lance!! Get the hell out of here, right now!!!] the girl spoke again. This was the first time that she used my name.

So this wasn't me daydreaming, someone really is talking to me.

"I see... Well... I'm about to leave, so if you want we can talk again tomorrow or something..."

"Sure! I would love to! I don't have many friends so I was hoping that we could get along with each other!"

He raised his hand for me to shake it. I don't really wanna see this guy again, but I rather leave as soon as possible so I'll just nod and pretend to agree.

"Name's Kurt! Nice to meet you, Lance!"

"Ah... Nice to meet you, Kurt..." I raise my hand to shake his but the voice suddenly starts screaming inside my head.

[DO NOT TOUCH HIM!!!]

My hand instantly freezes and I pull back by reflex, causing both Kurt and Kenny to look at me weird.

"Something wrong...?" Kurt asks while trying to show his wide smile again.

Why is this voice so concerned about this boy? Did he do something?

"Lance...?" Kurt asks again.

"... ... ...How do you know my name?"

"Oh! I heard about you!"

Heard about me? I'm practically a shadow in this school. Nobody talks to me besides Kenny and nobody talks to Kenny besides me. Today has literally been the most attention people have given me during my entire school life, and that's all because I was behaving like an absolute lunatic the whole time.

Kenny had already said he had no idea who this guy was so who did he heard about me from?

"From who...?"

Kurt tilted his head and started to grin, revealing his sharp teeth at the same time the wind of the window moved his hair out of the way to reveal his orange eyes.

The wind from the window...

From the window that was closed when we left...

And now was open...

On the second floor...

[Lance... I'm begging you... Get out of there!!]

Kurt finally opened his mouth and gave his answer.

"From your dad!"