1       

 April, 2004     

As it drifted upon the clouds of cotton candy, the big blue bunny threw loads and loads of candy at the children. But Sam wasn’t going for the candy. He wasn’t interested. 

Instead, he was going for what was behind the bunny. 

BAM! 
A loud shot fired out among the crowd. 

The shots just kept on firing, like fireworks on the 4th of July. 

He ran and ducked under the big red table next to him. 

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! 

And then it hit him. 

EEE! EEE! EEE! EEE! 

He hit the buzzer on his alarm. That must’ve been what was affecting his dream. 

“Sam!” His mother hollered. from the kitchen. “You’d better hurry up if you don’t want to miss the bus!” 

He jumped out of bed and hastily put on his clothes. He picked up his backpack, only to remember that he had forgotten to charge his computer the night before. He put it in the bag anyway, and he’d be able to charge it at school. He took one quick look out his bedroom window, and the bus was already pulling up on his street! 

He raced down the stairs and snarfed down his hashbrown. He downed his orange juice and sprinted out the door. 

As he opened the door, he couldn’t find the bus anywhere; He had already missed it. 

He walked back inside with a feeling of dread inside him. He was secretly hoping this was still his dream. As he turned slowly to his mother, she gave him one quick look. 

“Sam, why are you still here? Shouldn’t you be on the bus by now?” 

He kept his head down, shaking it back and forth. 

She already knew what was going on. 

She sighed.  

“Get in the car, I’ll be out in a minute.” 

He trudged out the door, into the front seat. He turned on the radio and tuned it to his favorite station. 

“...And that’s the podcast. Thanks for tuning in, I’m your host Mike, and I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

“Darn it!” He exclaimed. He had just missed it. But there was still radio silence. He turned the dial until he heard a voice. 

“...This just in, school shootings in Ohio up 40% in the past year!” 

He turned off the radio. 

What? 

He played it back in his head, repeatedly, like a mantra. 

“This just in, school shootings in Ohio up 40% in the past year!” 

He lived in Ohio. 

CRACK! 
His mom opened the car door and turned on the engine. 

“Don’t turn on the radio when I’m not here. It wastes the battery. Now let’s get you to school.” 

School. He was going to normal, shooting free school. 

2 

April, 2004 

As he pulled up to the drop-off area, he could hear the morning announcements going off. 

“Gooooood morning, Yellow Springs Middle School! Today is a C Day. C for... Creative! Stay creative today...” 

 He thanked his mom for the ride and ran into the school. 

As he walked into his homeroom, the whole class froze. You could hear the rustling of the students all turning to him. Even the teacher stopped to look at him. 

He quickly took his seat and opened his textbook. He knew it was stupid, that he feared school shootings in such a safe school, but it was still a fear, and it was there. 

As the bell rang, he went from period to period, class to class, on edge the whole time. By lunch, the fear had died down, and he was too busy eating to care about it. 

“Let’s play who’s most likely!” Sam’s friend, Kate, said. 

She went first. 

“Who’s most likely to... Die in a horror movie!” 

She placed down her bottle and spun it around. There were 7 people at the table, him included. The bottle seemed to go forever, before slowly landing on his other friend James. 

They kept spinning the bottle, asking some funny, some scary, and some weird questions. 

Finally, it was Sam’s turn to spin the bottle. 
“Who’s most likely to...” 

He thought for a moment. 

Then, he blurted out what came to his mind. 

“...die in a school shooting!” 
He put his hand over his mouth. 

What is wrong with me? Why would I say that? 

He spun the bottle anyway. 

All his friends looked at him like he was crazy. The bottle spun and spun for what seemed like an eternity, before finally, dreadfully, landing on... 

He looked down at the bottle, the cap pointed directly at his stomach. 

He didn’t know what to do, or how to respond. Suddenly, the bell rang, and lunch was over. He walked out of the cafeteria, not speaking a word. He could hear the people around him whispering. 

What is wrong with him? 

Why would he say that? 
Sam is such a freak! 

As he approached the end of the day, he couldn’t wait for it to be over. It had been a terrible day. He let out a sigh of relief when the loudspeaker turned on and Mr. Larone’s voice filled the building. 

“Good afternoon, Yellow Springs Middle School! We have some announcements to make: Modified tennis, football and soccer have been canceled. You can take your normal bus route. Chess club and Cheer Squad have...” 

 Aww, man! He thought. He was in modified soccer and was really looking forward to it. But it didn’t matter at all. What mattered was what happened next. 

“...and we will also be doing Class Presidents. If you would like to run, please meet me in my office after scho-” 

CRASH! 

“Hey!” 

BOOM! BOOM! ACK-ACK-ACK-ACK-CK! CK! 

What was that? Sam thought. But then, it hit him, harder than he had ever been hit before. 

His worst nightmare was coming true. 

BOOM! BOOM! 

It was really happening. 

SHING! “AAHHHH!” 

There were intruders. With guns. Attacking the school. 

A school shooting. 

3 

April, 2004 

The teacher hid under her desk. 

“COME OVER HERE! 

The students, including Sam, piled into the crammed space under the teacher’s desk. Once he got down, he could feel his heart pounding, and he couldn’t breathe. 

“Sam...” 
It was his friend, James. 

“Are we going to be okay?” 

“I don’t know! We’re in the middle of a school shooting!” 

Suddenly, the door burst open, and shots rang out in the classroom. 

“ACK-ACK-ACK-ACK!” 

A deep voice filled the classroom. 

“I guess we have!” 

Tears were streaming down Sam’s pale face. His throat was tight and clogged, and he could barely even think. 

Suddenly, the teacher, Ms. Willows, opened the top drawer and pulled out a gun. 

“BOOM!” 
One of the men screamed, and the other stood there. 

“EEK! BOOM!” 
The other one hollered and fell to the ground. 

The teacher signaled to follow her, and then she ran out from under the desk. She led them behind the door, and Sam could hear painful screams coming from all the other classrooms. 

He saw, from the corner of his eye, one of the men start to move again. 

He tapped the teacher on the shoulder, but there was no response. 

Then, another shot fired out. 

“BANG! AAGGHH!” 

It was directed at the teacher. 

She fell to the ground with a hard slam, before screaming again. 

“Run... Run while you can... Go down to the basement and use the back door...” 

She let out a long sigh, before not breathing again. She was dead. 

Sam took his chance. He darted for the door, sprinting as fast as he could. Then, he heard another bang. 

“BOOOM!” 
This one was a longer shot, and it sounded deeper. But that wasn’t what was on his mind. Rather, he was focused on the pain. This time, he wasn’t looking at who had been shot. 

It was him who was shot. 

He fell to the floor, retching in pain. He couldn’t move, he couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t even think! 

"SAM!" It was James.

The shooter immediately shot him, too.

As he watched the rest of the class pile out the door without him, he noticed the blood surrounding him was his blood! 

At that moment he felt dizzy, and the pain seemed to become milder. The lights began to dim, and he felt his eyes shut as he fell to sleep. But before he got the chance, he heard a buzzing noise, and the familiar iPhone ringtone coming from his pocket. The lights began to brighten again, and he felt the pain come back almost at once. 

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the cell phone, which was indeed ringing. It was his mom. He groaned and clicked answer call. 

“Sammy?!” It was comforting to hear his mother’s familiar voice again, but it didn’t take away from the pain. 

“Sammy!? Are you there? It’s Mom! Is everybody okay? I heard about the shootings!” 
Sam tried to respond, but nothing came out. 

“Sam?! SAM!? Oh god...” 
Suddenly, he felt his voice returning to him, and managed to mutter out a few words. 

“...Mom?” he croaked. 

“Oh, Sammy! It’s so good to hear your voice! Is everything okay? You sound hoarse!” 
He felt tears forming in his eyes. 

“I... I got... shot.” 
No response. 

“...Mom? Are you... There?” 
“Yes, I’m here, baby. But... why? How did you get...” 

Sam could hear his mother begin to tear up as well. He wanted to say something back, but his voice seemed to leave him again. His mom continued rather quickly. 

“...Look. I’m going to come to the school right now, and you’re going to stay exactly where you are. Okay? Don’t move.” 
 

He didn’t know what to say, so he just continued to breathe into the microphone to show signs of life. Then, he managed to get his voice back, and this time, it felt like it was going to stay, and he could speak clearly. 

“I love you, Mom.” 
“I love you too, hon.” 
Then, she hung up. 

4

April, 2004

Sam wanted to be able to stand up and leave the school, but he couldn’t. He could feel his body slowly breaking down. 

He heard police officers in the distance – that was good news. He would be saved soon. But he was still hopeful that his mom would make it there, because there was nothing he wanted more than to be safe in a hospital with his mother. 

His father was at work during all this. Same wasn’t sure he even knew any of this was going on. He could only hope. 

Suddenly, he heard footsteps racing down the hallway. The door burst open, but there weren’t firefighters, or cops, or anyone that could help him. 

In fact, it was quite the opposite. 

There were more intruders with more guns. 

He quickly ducked down and tried to look dead. He even held his breath. But there was one thing that he couldn’t stop: 
His pulse. 

He knew they would be able to check his pulse to see if he was alive – and if they did, he was dead. 

As the people – 2 men, 1 woman – walked into the classroom, Sam realized that he didn’t have to hold his breath – he couldn’t breathe anyway. 

“Now this – this is the opposite of what we want. I mean, we got two kids, but we lost two men” 
The lady scoffed. 

“Josh, get a grip. Those two were holding us back anyway. We’re probably better off without them!” 

Sam tried his hardest not to move, but suddenly, he felt something. Something deep within him. For the past week, he had been recovering from a cold, and he was still coughing. But he hadn’t sneezed in days. 

Not until now, that is. 

He felt it building up inside him, slowly inching closer and closer to his nose. 

Without thinking, he took a deep breath in, and let it out... 

“AAAAAAAAHH CHOOOOOOOOOO!” 

It was the biggest sneeze he’d had in weeks! 
All three of the intruders turned to him. He continued to play dead, but it was no use. He had already blown his cover. 

“Hey!” 
The man, who he had figured out was Josh, cocked his gun and pointed it directly at him. 

The woman turned to him and put her hand over the gun, slowly lowering it down. 

“Josh, you really don’t have to do this. He’s just a kid! I mean, I didn’t even want to do this job in the first place!” 
Josh turned to her. 

“Now where is this coming from? It seems you’ve had a change of heart!” 
He turned to the other guy, who had suspiciously not said anything this whole time. 

“Greg, you hearin’ this? Sarah’s had a change in heart!” 
Greg didn’t move a muscle. 

“Greg?” 
Josh lowered his handgun and walked over to him. 

“Buddy?” 
Sam noticed Greg was shivering, and water was dripping from his forehead. 

Suddenly, Greg fell to the floor with a hard slam. Sarah screamed, and Josh burst into tears. 

“He... he was my brother...” 

Josh put his head down to the floor and continued to weep. This whole time, Sam was somehow still alive, but in retching pain. Suddenly, the door burst open, and this time, there weren’t more shooters. It was the police. 

“EVERYBODY DOWN!” 
Josh and Sarah both put their hands up in the air. Sarah shook her head. 

“I knew I never should’ve joined you guys! Now we’re gonna get arrested!” 

At that exact moment, Sam's mother also ran into the room. 

“Sammy! Oh, my sweet Sammy!” 
She looked down at his wound. It was bleeding bad. 

“Oh my god, how are you still alive?” 
Sam tried to speak, but he still couldn’t. He just shrugged his shoulders. 

The officers handcuffed Sarah and Josh and brought them out of the room. As they did, what seemed like a business card fell from Sarah's pocket. Sarah Bouvier.

Now, at least he knew her full name.

“You’re both going to be in jail big time for this. Let’s say – Life sentence?” 

Suddenly, Sam felt an urge. 

“Not her.” 

He pointed at Sarah. 

“W-What?” 
He took another deep breath in 

“Don’t arrest her.” 
The police officer looked at him like he was crazy. 

“Boy, this woman tried to kill you. She’s going to jail, whether you like it or not.” 

“No, she’s not.” 

But this time it wasn’t Sam. It was his mother. She was sticking up for him. 

“My son is the best child I could ever ask for. Today, he was ruthlessly shot in the leg, after seeing his teacher die. In the past 30 minutes, he has gone through more trauma than I have ever experienced in my life, let alone yours. Now if he’s asking you to let that girl go, you do not have the right to tell him no.” 

The policeman shook his head. 

“Actually, mam’, I have the full right to take this woman to jail – and a lot more.” 
“That does it!” 

She ran over and tackled the police officer, throwing punches and kicks. 

“...stop...” 

Sam could only mutter out that one word, but he was still too quiet for them to hear. 

“...Stop...” 
Still nothing. 

“Stop.” 

“Stop!” 
He was in tears. 

“Mom, please! I love you, more than anything in the world, but this is just too far!” 
Suddenly, she stopped. 

“I... I love you too, Sammy.” 
“If you really love me, then stop fighting that policeman!” 

 Instantly, the officer took advantage of it and rolled her on her stomach. He pulled out a pair of handcuffs. 

“You have the right to remain silent.” 
Sam stopped breathing. 

“Anything you say can and will be used against you in the courts of law.” 
“W-W-What!?” 

5 

April, 2004 – September, 2013 

Sam wanted more badly than anything to go save his mother, but he was put on a stretcher and taken to the hospital. The only thing he could do was wait and hope that his father would come to the hospital. 

As he was loaded into the ambulance, they started asking him questions. 

“What was the last thing you remember?” 
“Have you ever experienced this kind of physical trauma?” 
“Where is your dad?” 
Sam tried to answer a few, but they quickly put him on

medication so that they could try to stop the bleeding before they got to the hospital. 

And if he knew he’d be there for 9 years, he wouldn’t believe it. 

9 YEARS LATER – 2013 

When he woke up, everything felt different. He felt taller, and there was a huge TV in the room he was in. 

There were 2 other children in the room, and they both looked at him like he was an adult. 

“W-where am I?” 

Suddenly, he realized his voice was completely different, and deeper. 
A doctor walked into the room, and when she saw him awake, she froze in place. 

Where am I? Who are you? What is going on? Where are my parents!?” 

She sighed and walked over to him. 

“...Sam, I'm about to give you some news that might be... shocking, to say the least.” 
Sam was confused, but went with it. 

“O-Okay, what is it?” 
She looked down. 

“Sam, you’ve been in a coma.” 
Sam stopped breathing for what felt like the 12th time that day. But... was it still that day? How long was he in a coma? 

“...For how long?” 

“About 9 years, Sam.” 

 His heart stopped. 

He didn’t know what to think, what to say. How old was he? Where was his family? Was he going to be okay? 

“Where is my family?” he asked while holding back tears. 

The nurse looked at him with confusion. 

“Your parents? Didn’t you- oh, right...” 

Sam let one tiny tear shed, before his face erupted with sadness. 

“Your parents... well, your mother is at mental facility. She’s receiving treatment to get back to normal. Your father...” 

Sam knew it. He was sure he was dead, somehow. But the truth was much worse. 

“...He’s dead, isn’t he?” 
The nurse shook her head. 

“I’m afraid it’s much worse. He got addicted to drugs when he found out that you were in a coma, but at that time, we all thought you were dead. Currently, he’s gotten a new wife, but it is a very abusive relationship. I know this is a lot for you to take in, considering you still have the mind of an 11-year-old...” 

Sam was devastated. Everything he loved had been ripped right from his grasp. His friends, his family, his education, everything. 

The nurse walked out of the room to get more doctors and tell them the news. 

The kids in the bed next to Sam look at him. He could tell that they felt bad for him. 

“So why are you guys here? What happened to you?  

Both the children looked at each other, and then back at him with confusion. 

“Hospital? Why are you in hospital?” 

They tried to signal something to him, but he just couldn’t figure it out. 

Suddenly, a hoard of doctors barged into the room in shock, unable to believe the news. 

“Oh my god, she wasn’t lying! He’s really awake! Ha!” 

Sam was still scared and confused. The doctors immediately contacted his family and school. 

The nurse looked down again. 

“What’s wrong?” Sam asked. 

“Your father still thinks you’re dead, and the facility that your mother is being housed in is not responding to our calls.” 

Sam was still confused. “So what are you saying? 

She sighed. “I’m saying that the only way to contact either of your parents is if you see them in person.” 
But Sam was determined. 

“...Then that’s what I'll do.” 
The other doctors stopped what they were doing and looked at him with disbelief. 

“W-What!? That’s impossible! We don’t know where your father even lives, and your mother is locked away in a mental institute! There’s no way you’ll get to either of them!” 
Sam smiled. 

“Not alone, I won’t.” 
He looked at the two children next to him. 

“These two children – do they speak English?” 
“I’m afraid not.” The nurse replied. “They only speak French.” 
Sam chuckled. 

“Well, then I guess we’re in luck. Because nous allons avoir toute l'aventure!” 

The children looked at him in awe. Then, they grinned. 

“Cmon, let’s go!” 
Both children hesitated, but then they agreed it was better than staying in the hospital. 

It was probably the most ridiculous thing Sam had ever done, but for god’s sake, he hadn’t ran in 9 years! 
When they got to the exit, Sam jumped out and felt the fresh, fall breeze for the first time in years. 

Security immediately came running, but for not moving for such a long period of time, Sam was surprisingly flexible and could run pretty fast. 
He kept running and running until he couldn’t anymore. By the time he stopped, he was miles from the hospital 

But then, out of nowhere, he heard a voice. 

“Sam.” 

It wasn’t his voice – but it definitely sounded familiar. 

“Sam!” 

It was louder this time. 

“Sam, Sam, Sam, Sam!” 

Suddenly, he was back in the hospital. 

He looked around, and both children were still there, looking at him and laughing. 

The nurse looked at him nervously, and then explained that he was dreaming. 

Sam thought it was funny how he could be dreaming so real, in a way that he could smell, taste, touch, hear and see everything so clearly. 

Yet he was far, far away from ever escaping this

nightmare of a day – or should I say, a decade. 

6 

September, 2013 – October, 2013 

His father obviously wouldn’t respond to any of the calls from the hospital, and the mental home didn’t even care. 
“...So, why is my mom in a mental facility, anyway?” 
The nurse stopped what she was doing. 

“S-Sorry, I didn’t realize I hadn’t told you. She... well, she kind of lost it when she was released from prison and found out you were... well, we thought you were dead, so that’s what we told her. We even held a funeral service for you."

Sam chuckled. "Anybody show?"

The nurse frowned. "Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure it was just some distant relatives of yours and your homeroom teacher."

Sam shed a tear. How could so many people pretend to love him and then not care at all? 

“She ended up trying to kill herself, but luckily, she was still with your father at the time, and he managed to save her. But in the process, he broke both his legs, and was in a wheelchair for months. He claims it was the hardest period of his life, and constantly blames her for it. Ever since then, people and doctors have been working with her to get rid of her suicidal thoughts.” 

Tears were streaming down Sam’s face. If only I didn’t make a run for it at the school, then maybe this wouldn’t have happened... he thought. 

“It’s probably going to be at least a week or two before we can let you go. But even then, you’re going to have to go back and finish your education, get a job, a home... There’s a lot that’s going to have to be done before you’re going to be able to live a normal life again.” 

Not a single balloon. 

Not a single gift. 

Not even a single card. 

It became apparent to him that everybody had accepted his death years ago and had forgotten about him. 

“No, I’m okay.” 

She tried to smile and walked out of the room. 

“Also, what would you like to eat for lunch?” 
He looked down again. 

“I don’t really have much of an appetite, actually.” 
She frowned and went into the hallway.