Author's Note

In celebration of Amazon Prime Video's newest series Panic, I am thrilled to be teaming up with Amazon Prime Video and Wattpad to write this exclusive chapter that puts my characters from this story into the world of Panic!

I hope this chapter intrigues and inspires you to learn more about Panic. Visit the #PanicWritingContest on Wattpad for the chance to put your creative writing chops to the test and learn more about the show!

To find out more about the contest, prizes, and how to enter, check out the #PanicWritingContest here: wattpad.com/AmazonPrimeVideo

Don't forget to watch the series premiere on May 28th, only on Amazon Prime Video, here: http://primevideo.com/

Just for clarity, for this chapter, the only thing of Solar Flare I kept was the characters themselves. No werewolves, no Solar powers, none of that. Just the characters you've grown to love placed in the town of Carp, Texas, where a very dangerous but irresistible game is about to be played.

-Luis's POV-

Panic is just a game. Finish the challenges, impress the judges, win the prize.

But it sure doesn't feel like just a game.

To me, it's as exciting as the futból world cup. Intrigue, adrenalin, the potential for glory. Since I first heard about it, I never imagined actually competing. I always pictured myself sitting alongside Josiah and cheering for my classmates as they defied death in search of riches that could take them out of this small town. The cash prize certainly called to me, but people no older than me have died or suffered horrible injuries because of Panic. Even this year's prize of an incredible fifty thousand dollars isn't worth it to me.

Then I met Rowan.

I thought I knew what love was before I met him.

I didn't.

Every moment we spend together is a gift. Watching the sunset, going for walks, doing homework together. Even just watching TV feels magical. I think the thing about him that makes me happiest is the fact that we aren't perfect. We bicker. We annoy each other. But those little spats always end the same: with apologies and kisses that make me understand that I was put on this earth for him.

Rowan Arti, the love of my life, will play Panic. He wants out of this tiny town. He wants to change the world for the better. He wants to spend his life helping as many people as he can. Here in Carp, he can do none of that. He has to get out to have the life he wants. But there are no jobs in Carp, no way to earn money, no way to establish a resume to get hired in a bigger city where he can make a real life for himself. Most disastrously, there are no opportunities for college. Rowan is brilliant. He would excel in higher education. He just can't afford it.

Rowan doesn't want to play the game. There is only one thing on this planet that truly, completely panics him and it is very common in the challenges set by the judges. Heights.

It makes sense from the point of the judges. Tall heights are abundant, easy to spectate, and terror-inducing in some of the best of us. In other words, they're perfect tools for the game.

Rowan will play the game. He's brilliant, determined, and so very brave. But the moment he looks down from a height of more than twenty feet, I know that his bravery will snap. His hands will shake and his heart will race to the point of pain.

I have faith that he can overcome his fear. I think he will steel himself to shove through the challenges so he can have a future, but I know he will cry his tears of terror against my shoulder afterwards.

And that- Rowan's pain- is my own worst fear.

The first challenge is announced in code, kept secret from the Sheriff, who has made it his personal mission to shut the game down. I didn't find the code myself. Josiah did. He gave me the information to do with as I pleased. He won't play the game, but he doesn't have the motivation I do.

Rowan's hands are already shaking when I pick him up from his house. His jaw is locked tight. I can practically feel the dread coming off of him in waves. He knows where we are going, and he knows that there is only one Panic-worthy thing to do there.

"You're going to be great," I whisper as I drive out to the lake.

Rowan's mood is beyond sour. He isn't in the mood to let me cheer him up. "Bury me in that black shirt we got the other day."

My heart pangs at the thought of anything happening to him. It fills me with an almost insane agony. Rowan is as precious to me as life itself. He must stay safe.

The air at the lake is one of a party. With the sky black, the deep water of the lake looks impossibly dark. The speckles of the stars and full silver glow of the moon reflect atop the water, providing some illumination for the excitement on shore. Music throbs. Our classmates chatter, laugh, and shout excitedly, many of them drinking or smoking substances they legally can't for another three years.

Of the two of us, Rowan is by far the friendlier one. This year's highschool graduates- the only ones allowed to play or spectate- don't pay me much mind, but smiles and compliments are passed to Rowan. Someone offers him a cup of something. He declines because he hates intoxicants.

I take the cup instead and chug it. It's just beer, so I don't even feel the alcohol. I just wrinkle my nose at the taste and try to avoid burping from the carbonation. I fail at battling the bubbles and burp. Rowan laughs at me and swats my arm teasingly.

Dressed in swim shorts and a muscle tank that has been cut down the sides to reveal his slim abdomen, my love looks fantastic in the moonlight. Low lighting makes his Indian heritage shine through beautifully. His skin and hair look alluringly dark, but seem to glow at the same time. His tall, lean body shows off his incredible grace, even as anxiety consumes him. He looks like a young buck frozen in the act of racing through a forest, his attention tightly focused on his surroundings before his muscles unlock again.

I made him smile.

"I don't understand why people drink beer voluntarily," I say.

A girl sitting at a collapsible table gives a smile that is far too bright considering the fatality rate of this game as she reaches for Rowan's hand. "Good to see you, Rowan," she says, her eyes sparkling up at him. She marks his hand with a "3" and hands him a flare. "Break the top of that before you jump. The sparks won't hurt you."

Rowan nods, looking down at the flare. But the girl doesn't let go of the other end of it. "Good luck," she says, cocking her head up at him.

Rowan looks down at her for a moment. He usually makes jokes about his sexuality to rebuff the flirting of girls and women, but in the state he's in, I know he can't think of anything to say.

"Thanks," he says awkwardly, his mouth twitching in an attempt at a friendly smile. The girl lets go of the flare and Rowan walks back over to me with self-irritation in his eyes.

I raise an eyebrow. "You were really into that, huh?"

"Shut it," he orders me, poking me in the belly with the flare. Neither of us are particularly driven to stay in the closet, but we don't flaunt our relationship in public. There aren't many worse places to be a man in love with a man than a small Texas town.

"I thought I was the bisexual one," I tease.

He glares at me. "Keep annoying me and I'll go get her number."

I laugh. "And do what with it?"

He opens his mouth to retort, but he's cut off by Diggins, this year's emcee for the game. The emcee is the connective tissue between the players and the judges, whose identities are kept a secret. He also guides us through the challenges.

"Hello, seniors! Welcome to PANIC!" Diggins says into his megaphone. Shouts and whoops meet this statement.

Diggins grins and points across to the lake, where the other shore stretches tall above the water in a series of cliffs that look almost like the side profile of a staircase. "Tonight's challenge is an easy one. Light your flare, jump into the water, join the game and earn a hundred points." He shifts his finger to the next "step" up on the staircase. "High jump will bag you 125 points." Then he points to the last stair. "And if you lack self-preservation instincts, do the Suicide Leap for 200 points, or 100 points and immunity in any of the following challenges."

I look at the people holding flares. Some are calm. Some are stony-faced and anxious. A few are hard-hearted athletes are moaning for Diggins to hurry up so the fun can begin.

If this challenge involved anything but heights, Rowan would be in the last group.

I reach to squeeze Rowan's hand. "You got this, baby."

He gives me a weak smile, but begins the trek around the lake as though he was walking to the gallows.

I stand apart from everyone else so my love can see me as he jumps.

All of us go silent as we see the first flare start up.

"State your name!" Diggins calls.

"You know who I am!" the contestant calls back.

I roll my eyes. Ray Hall. I think he must have been held back several years because he's as tall and developed as a fully grown man. Rowan and I are tall and athletic, but we look like eighteen-year-olds. Ray looks like he's thirty.

Ray shouts something obscene before he whoops and jumps into the water.

Come on, baby, I think to myself, wishing Rowan could hear me. Show him up.

The next contestant is a girl. She hesitates for a bit, looking down at the water. I hear Diggins click his megaphone, trying to think of a way to gently encourage her to jump, but before he can say anything, she gets a running jump and leaps, her flare falling toward the water beside her.

Come on, Rowan. You can do this, I plead with myself.

I see him. I hope he sees me, even though we are the size of beetles to each other.

"Name?" Diggins calls.

"Rowan Arti!" Rowan shouts back. Cheers go up. My love is a handsome, friendly soul. He's already a favorite of most of the spectators.

I think I can feel his fear.

"Come on, Rowan," I mutter. "Come on. You can do it."

He shifts a bit. I think he's walking backwards. For a moment, every single one of us thinks he's walking off of the cliff and giving up on the game.

Someone laughs. Others join in. My blood goes hot.

Then a light shape moves among the shadows of the brush atop the cliff, leaving behind angel wings of sparks from the flare, and Rowan jumps into the water. I hold my breath until his head breaks the surface of the water and he begins to swim to the shore.

My love.

Cheers break out, even among those who just laughed at him.

I walk up to the girl who handed out the flares and assigned positions. I don't say anything, but she knows what I am doing. She writes a "24" on my hand and gives me a flare. I think there's something in my gaze that keeps her from wasting my time like she did with Rowan.

Rowan did it. And I have faith that he can do the rest. But I can't let this weigh solely on his shoulders. I can't let him face down this gauntlet alone.

I want to double his chances.

I want him to have the life he deserves.

I want him to have a way out of this little town.

He's probably looking for me on the shore with the spectators. He will think I left him. But he'll understand soon enough.

One boy changes his mind atop the cliff. Three opt for the twenty-five bonus points.

Then it's my turn.

With everyone else gone, the world is mine. Everything is still and quiet as I walk to the second step, the High Jump. It isn't as big of a statement as the Suicide Leap, but that spot has earned its name. Love has made me stupid, but not that stupid.

I take off my shirt. I hear whistles as I stand on the edge and snap the flare. It shines like the sun, nearly burning my eyes with its brilliance. I look at the flare, at the crowd, at the sky. Just not at the water. Not the water.

"Name?" Diggins calls out, the megaphone helping his voice reflect off of the water, making it clear even from here.

"Luis Delgado!" I shout.

I see Rowan. He is staring up at me, frozen, still wearing just his gold-colored swim trunks.

I swallow to brace myself and look down. I need to get a running jump so I have plenty of depth to cushion my fall or I will smash against the rocks closer to the shore.

I don't think. I don't give myself the chance to back out.

I don't give myself the chance to be afraid.

I back away, holding my flare high, then get a running jump and leap.

I fall for just enough time to wonder if I have made a terrible, terrible mistake.

I hit the water. The jolt is unwelcome and jarring, but I don't feel any pain as I swim through the cold blackness to the surface. If anything, I feel a rush. That was exhilarating. I'm flying high as I swim to the shore. Diggins is giving farewells to the spectators, telling us to watch out for the signs of the next challenge. I watch him as my feet touch the silty bottom of the lake and I begin to walk, distracted, up to the shore.

Then something slams me back into the water. I go under before I catch my footing again. Someone's hugging me.

It's Rowan.

"Luis!" he hisses, furious but grinning widely. "You're-"

"If I win, I win for you," I say, grabbing his shoulders. "I'm not your competitor. I'm your ally."

I see tears well into Rowan's eyes as we stand, everything below our waists still underwater. I know we are being watched, but I don't care. Neither does he.

My love's face stays calm as tears join the lake water on his face. He swallows, completely overwhelmed.

"You couldn't compete against me, anyway," he says in a low voice.

I shove him. He laughs and shoves me back. We end up hugging again, both of us smiling under the moonlight. I have all the reward I could ever need in my arms.

If we win, our lives will change. I can give my soulmate a future.

As I hold him, I try not to think of the fact that the kids who died last year probably felt this confident after the first challenge, too.

Hope you enjoyed! Guys, I'm so excited for this series to launch. I feel like this is going to be one of my absolute favorite shows.

Stay safe and stay sane!