xChapter 71 - Abandonment (Prologue)

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Back during the first day of middle school, a younger Ronnie Everst is walking towards his class when someone runs into him causing both of them to fall down. He looks to see that the person who bumped into him is a scrawny white kid with messy brown hair.

Embarrassed, the kid remarks as he gets up, "Oh I'm sorry."

Seeing the kid so flustered, Ronnie just chuckles as he gets up, "No, don't worry about it, I didn't see where I was going."

As the two stand there, Ronnie decides to add, "The name's Ronnie Everst. What's your name?"

"Oh uh- the name's M-Marcus, Marcus Veridan," the shy kid stammers out.

As Ronnie looks at Marcus, he notices something peculiar about him. Maybe it was the way he acted, maybe it was the fact that the backpack Marcus had was from the same brand Ronnie had last year, or maybe it was for some other random factor,

Whatever caught Ronnie's eye that day, well it was all the justification he needed to reply with, "Well nice to meet you Marcus, and just so you know we're friends and don't you forget it!"

"O-okay," Marcus remarks.

As Ronnie continues to walk to his class, he thinks of how for some reason, despite only knowing each other for just a little bit of time, Ronnie wishes that the two could actually be friends.

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In the present, Ronnie opens his eyes as he lies on the asphalt street. The stars in the night sky look a bit blurry, and standing over him, shaking him profusely, is Marcus Veridan.

Ronnie wonders why Marcus is being so silly, he's fine. And why is he crying so much?

The ringing in his ears causes him to not be able to hear what anyone is saying, he notices Elizabeth is also on the phone with someone with a distraught look on her face. She looks over to Ronnie and she tries to stop from crying but she can't help it.

Ronnie is confused by her actions because why would she cry when seeing him? He's fine.

That's when he notices that Alex has dragged that Cal Hound fellow out of a crashed car and is beating him senselessly. Ronnie finds him foolish, Alex always had a bad temper but to attack someone even when his hand is broken is a new low for Alex. Besides he's overreacting.

They're all overreacting.

"I'm....I'm gonna be fine," Ronnie manages to croak out as blood gushes out from his forehead, "I'm gonna be..."

However, Ronnie never did get to finish that sentence as he drifted into unconsciousness.

"Ronnie?" Marcus shouts, "RONNIE!"

Marcus tries to shake him, tries to stop the bleeding, do anything to wake Ronnie back up.

But it doesn't work.

Nothing works.

Finally, an ambulance arrives as well as some police cars, as the EMTS have Marcus step aside, he notices Alex shouting.

"Hey let go of me!" Alex roars.

Several of the police officers begin to drag both him and Cal Hound into the police car, both in handcuffs.

"I did it..." Cal Hound murmurs as a smile grows on his face, "I got my revenge."

He's shoved into the cop car alongside Alex and as the police car and ambulance leave, some more cops stay behind to ask Marcus & Elizabeth about what happened and to make sure they are okay.

And sure, physically speaking they were fine. But the words the paramedics tried to tell them didn't get through to them. Because they were still stuck in that moment.

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