Show Me

1

The red and blue blend together into a beautiful mixture of hot and cold. My heart aches as the wailing sound reminds me of my baby brother, Ryan. I want nothing more than to see my family, even if only for a minute. As I begin to regain my focus, I take in my surroundings. A complete mess, as far as the eye can see. Wondering what happened, I try to move out from under what appears to be an extra heavy fireman's coat. While I try and try to pry it off of my legs, I feel a black, gooey substance spilling on me and realize there is still a man inside the coat, missing his hat and boots. I begin to cry, my frantic wails matching the sounds of the nearing sirens, as I rip his melted body and uniform from my now raw flesh. I set myself free, and begin to run. To where, I'm unsure, as I make my way through the rubble and stones. As I trip over a newspaper, I catch a glimpse of a band playing at a local arena, with part of the headline reading "Rocks the Nation".

As I limp up to the nearest emergency shelter, the source of the sirens I saw before, I begin to panic. What actually happened here? Where even is here? And more importantly, where is everyone else?

"There! It's her!" calls the booming voice of a police officer.

"Help! Please!" I call back, hoping they recognize me from my family's history.

"Put your hands where I can see them!" He screams, raising his gun.

"But- wait... what?!" I turn and run, sprinting faster than I have my entire life. I run through the whole town square, past the electronic billboards over the old newsstands and the high end stores. The sirens are left in the distance as I cross the street and turn to the steps of the subway. This is just great, I think, jogging down the crumbling stairs.

"Fan freakin tastic!" tumbling down the rest of the steps, I see the all of people that should be above, hovering around the city, gathered here underground. They all stare at me in my disheveled state, and I stare back.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I hear from a voice in the back. The crowd begins to part, making a path for the mystery voice.

"Holy Jesus, our lord and savior," I mutter, as the most gorgeous creature I've ever seen comes into view. The first word that comes to mind is tall, taller than anyone I've ever met here in the city. Blonde, dirty yet not-so-dirty blonde. He doesn't look that much older than me, maybe eighteen. He even has those icy blue eyes you see in the billboards, capable of the piercing look that could melt you or murder you in a split second.

"Who- why- what the- ay dios mio," I stutter, trying to find the proper way to address a human of his intensity.

"That's not important; because I do what I want, and really? Spanish? What century are you from?" says the sassy noodle boy as he awkwardly cocks his hip and turns his head to the side. I look from left to right, blinking rapidly as I try to form my answer without mentioning his undeniable beauty.

"I'm from now!" I respond excitedly. "Wait no- I mean yes, but that's not what I meant, I, well, anyway, why are the cops chasing me?" I glare at the people dressed in fancy suits and work attire, still gawking at my appearance.

"Well, there's a criminal on the loose that looks just like you, and sounds just like you. But, lemme guess, you're completely innocent, right? And you've been out with the boyfriend all night, so there's no way you could've done it, right?" the mystery boy says, dripping with sarcasm.

"Done what? I don't even have a boyfriend," I nearly slapping myself for saying something so lame. I could have just lied and played along, but of course not, I just had to go be a good girl. I guess daddy was right; now I see why I'm his favorite.

The boy throws a phone at me, hardly suppressing a laugh at my startled expression. It's opened to an online newspaper, and on the cover, there's a picture of a girl who looks just like me on the bridge, right near where I woke up just a few minutes earlier. There's an article about me, supposedly stealing band merch and pulling a fire alarm to make my getaway over the bridge. Unfortunately for everyone else, that fire alarm being pulled was also a distraction for a new group of rebels to attack. They had planted bombs beneath the nearby buildings, which only went off in the event of an emergency. As much as I hate the fact that they literally blew up entire masses of people, I do think they were smart to set their system that way, considering most normal people would consider the explosions part of whatever other disaster was in motion. I continue reading, and towards the end of the article I'm shocked to see a reward is being offered for my capture. $50,000, enough to survive the rest of the year if I could receive the bounty. As I glance again at the irritated faces surrounding me in the subway entrance. Every single person looks like they already have way more than $50k, so that's one less thing for me to worry about. I close the article and place the phone next to a backpack on the floor. I slowly realize it's the backpack I've been wearing the entire time, and there are items still neatly packed inside. I collapse to the floor by the area where the trains come and go, and begin to empty the bag. I pull out a notebook filled with plans of sneaking into a concert hall for a band I've never even heard of; "5 Seconds of Summer". Their merchandise is that I'm seen "stealing" in the news article, and I even find the shirt and poster with their little tally mark logo inside a smaller pocket of the backpack. How strange.

After looking through the contents of the bag, I'm left with a water, a small bag of goldfish, a vanilla flavored Softlips chapstick, and random hair ties. I chug nearly the entire water, and quickly tie my hair up and apply some of the vanilla chapstick. I squeal and whip my head around as I feel another bottle being thrown at me from behind, and am greeted by a smirk from the blue eyed boy.

"I thought you could use another, considering how long we could be stuck here. Also, because you seemed a little thirsty," he teases, his smirk growing with every word.

"Actually, I was just leaving," I smirk back, shoving the random items back into my black backpack. I try standing up, only to fall right back down. I try again, but this time I groan as I feel an intense pain in my ankle. I must have hurt it as I so gracefully descended the stairs. I continue attempting to stand and walk away, but I don't get far by the time the boy grabs me around the waist and forces me back to the ground.

"You obviously can't walk on it," he says, taking off my shoe and checking my ankle. "The good news is, its just a sprain; it's not broken."

"How would you know?" I fire back, trying to push him away from me so I can leave this dump.

"Because my mother happens to do exceptionally well with injured children. I happen to hurt myself a lot too," his cheeks turn a slightly darker shade of red as he pushes his hair back and rolls his eyes. "It's not exactly an easy thing, being this tall. Anyway, I'm going to need something to wrap this. How about that shirt you had?"

"You saw me? What the hell! Were you watching me?" I ask in awe.

"Had to make sure little miss criminal wasn't going to pull out a weapon and shoot up the place, didn't i?" he responds coolly as he reaches for my bag. He takes the shirt out and undoes the neat folds as he examines the writing and his hands begin to shake. "Where did you get this?" he asks, his voice cracking in the process.

"I honestly haven't a clue, and I don't even know who those boys are. I don't mind them being there, though, they're pretty hot," I trail off, looking at the boys on the shirt.

"Have you seen them? Are they okay? Where are they?" He asks question after question, as if I'd know every answer.

"I already told you, I have no idea who they are or where they're from! Wait, is he your brother?" I point to the one named Luke, who shares the hair color and amazing eyes.

"Uh, yeah, my brother. Those are his best friends, too. They're like family, and I need to find them. Where were you when you found this?" he says with an unreadable expression.

"Near the bridge, but I'm not sure what building. Everything's a mess out there," I reply, pointing up towards the destruction. "Why?" I ask, suspicious as he quickly wraps my ankle and helps me stand.

"I need you to show me."

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*an: k so i started writing this & im not sure if i should continue it or not so if anyone wants to give their input that'd be gr89