This is a story I had to write for journalism class. I really liked how it turned out, so here it is. :>

"We're sorry," the woman said, "but it's
necessary." She pressed the needle against his neck and then he couldn't see or move, but he could still hear.

"It's for the best, James," said a raspy voice of a man from his right. And then James lost all his senses.

                                                          ~~~~

James woke with a jolt. He was in his room, dressed in jeans and a blank, white t-shirt. He got up, and searched the house for his parents. James called for them, but he heard no response. Everything was quiet... Too quiet...

"MOM?! DAD?!" He yelled, but again, silence. James went outside, but as soon as he did, he realized something was off. He walked around for a few minutes. It was the same city. Same buildings, same street...

But there were no people. Not a soul in sight.

After a few more minutes of wandering around, he finally found a person. It was a young girl, no more than five. She was crying on the street, hugging something tightly to her chest. James walked closer, relieved to see he was not alone.

He walked closer, and said, "Hey, little girl? Are you alright?" She looked up, her face was dirty, and her red hair tangled. Her dark eyes looked through him, at something past him, and she revealed what she was holding: a gun. James took a step back.

"Woah, woah," he put his hands up in defense. "I'm not going to hurt you!"

The little redhead reached for the gun and stood up, not crying anymore, only sniffling, still looking past him. "It's for the best, James." And as he was about to ask what she meant, the little girl pulled the trigger, and shot him, just below his heart. James screamed out in suffering.

He felt pain. Excruciating pain, and that was, of course, to be expected. James was still alive, bleeding out, paralyzed by shock and agonizing discomfort.

The young girl had already left, but he knew he wasn't alone. He heard growling, and the loud barks of dogs. The dogs had only come into view when they started attacking James's paralyzed body.

They began to tear at him, at his arms, his legs, his hair. The beasts finally left James, leaving him practically in pieces. James was sure he had never felt greater pain in his life. As his last moments approached, he remembered the young girl's voice again.

It's for the best, James.

The words seemed oddly familiar, as if he'd heard them before. The world darkened around him and suddenly James was numb.

~~~~

He was standing. At his high school's boys' locker room. Which was strange, considering just a minute ago he was on the verge of death.

James turned to the mirror behind him, and stared at his reflection. Did he really die? Or rather, almost?

He splashed water on his face and dried his glasses afterwards. He examined himself; he bore no marks, no scars, nothing to prove what might have just happened. James rubbed his eyes and walked out of the locker room.

He'd half-expected the school to be empty for some reason, but, much to his surprise crammed with people, all of them students at his school. They were standing by the lockers, which was perfectly normal, except it wasn't. They weren't talking at all. They weren't moving. Instead they were standing in front of the lockers, next to each other on both sides of the hall, facing each other but not quite.

Ding!

A text message. It was a sound most people wouldn't hear in a crowded school, but at the moment, it was a thunderous noise, in the eerie silence of the hall.

James reached for his phone from his pocket, his hands trembling slightly.

It's for the best, James.

He looked up, and saw that everyone had their eyes glued to him. Actually looking at him, not past him like the redheaded little girl. James walked through the hall, his eyes darting left and right.

"Worthless!"

James spun around, trying to find the source of the voice.

"You're pathetic." It was a girl this time, from behind him. Again he attempted to locate the person who said it, but there were just so many people.

"Deadbeat."
"You'll never amount to anything!"
"You're nothing more than a disappointment."
"Freak!"

The derogatory comments and insults kept coming from every direction, and each seemed to be louder and nastier than the last. James felt a knot in his throat, and suddenly he felt very feeble. He wanted to cry, but he wasn't going to. At least not in front of this crowd. He scampered away and outside of the school. But even then, the offensive names persisted.

The streets were full of people, and all were acting the same way as the students. James resisted the urge to break down and cry most of the way home, but a few tears did escape his eyes.

When he got to his apartment, he shut the door quickly behind him. His parents were standing there, and, like everyone else, staring at him.

"Mom, dad... Everyone's been calling me names and insulting me and... I... Just don't know why... And I mean everyone... And-" James's voice broke and quavered.

"Weak," His father said as if it were completely normal, "I thought we had raised you to be a man."

"You've disappointed me, James," continued his mother, "Although I'm not surprised. You always have."

James was speechless. He shook his head and locked himself in his room. He buried his face in his hands and sighed.

"What is happening?"

His phone buzzed. James reached for it and it buzzed again. And again.

He read the messages. More insults! James felt a knot in his throat again and tried to swallow it down, but instead he just found it harder to breath.

The phone kept vibrating, receiving one text message after the next, all from blocked numbers. James, not knowing what to do, threw his phone across the room as hard as his . It smashed into the wall, which left the phone destroyed. James thought he had stopped it, that he was safe in his room. But he wasn't.

Only seconds after demolishing his phone people started shouting from outside his home.

James gasped and screamed. From desperation rather than fear. He felt miserable. He pulled on his hair and rubbed his face.

This kept on going for three more days. The rude remarks never stopped, and James, instead of wondering what was going on, just drowned himself in tears. He couldn't sleep or eat or do anything. He didn't even leave his room. Until on the third day he decided that he'd had enough.

He stomped out of his home receiving remarks from his parents. James ran through the city trying to find the place. When he did, he climbed up the many staircases up to the top floor. People were yelling at him now. He made his way to the roof of the building, which towered over the rest, and stood on the ledge. James peeked down and his stomach did a somersault.

He swallowed, squeezed his eyes shut and put one foot over the ledge. And he fell. James could feel the wind in his face and he thought, this feels kind of nice.

He waited for impact, but he felt nothing.

~~~~

James finally got the courage to open his eyes. And when he did, he realized he standing in an alley. As if nothing had ever happened.

Strangely enough, instead of wondering why he was standing there, he assured himself it was all just some wicked, twisted nightmare, one that people would actually want to hear about. All of it, including those two near death encounters.

And then James had a thought that didn't belong to him.

It's for the best, James.

WHERE WERE THOSE WORDS COMING FROM!

I'm not insane, you are.

Look at the mess you got yourself into.

Such fascinating creatures humans are!

James turned around. He heard different voices, but they weren't coming from the outside. They were coming from inside his head.

Shut up!

It was as if the different voices were fighting. He held his head in his hands. He started to get a slight headache. James had learned nothing from his past two experiences, so he did nothing about it.

Suddenly James saw a woman, with brown hair, maybe 22, 23. She beckoned him to follow her and disappeared around the corner. James, feeling curious and oddly dumb, did as told.

The woman was running, her blue dress flapping behind her.

"Hey! Hey, miss!" James called after her. She stopped dead in her tracks. She slowly turned in a circle. Or rather... He?

It wasn't a woman. It was a man , in a BLACK tuxedo, with BLONDE hair.  James took an involuntary step back and rubbed his eyes. He was gone. The area had suddenly gotten an eerie feel to it. It was suddenly dark and gloomy. Then a white cat walked in front of James, it's eyes red and glowing. He knew better than to get near it, so James started taking steps back.

The people in his head were still yelling, noisy as ever.

There was a sound of bones snapping; it was the cat. The tiny white feline was somehow taking the form of a bigger, more dangerous one. And it started charging towards James, who was simply standing there, dumbfounded. He wanted to move but he couldn't.

James had an idea. He closed his eyes, thinking that the feline would be gone. Once he opened them again, he saw that he was right, but then he was stupid enough to shut them again.

He felt he was being... Tickled. At first, at least. Then it was a mild scratching in his arms. Then it was as if he were being scraped by sandpaper. It started hurting, and James felt his skin become so raw he believed he was going to start bleeding any second.

But then, the voices inside James's head spoke to him.

Wake up, James.
WAKE UP!
WAKE UP!, It screeched.
WAKE UP! WAKE UP!!!

~~~

She sobbed beside him, his mother.

"We're doing the best we can," the nurse stated with an apologetic voice.

James had been in a coma for the past 3 months.

"Honey, we have to go. We'll come back after you eat something," his father said.

After discussing for a while, they left, promising a comatose James to be back soon.

The nurse looked at James and checked his brain activity on a hidden screen

She gasped loudly.

"DOCTOR!" She called. When she found the doctor, she  anxiously told him,

"It's working! The experiments! They're working! Come quickly!"

The doctor simply grinned. "I know. It's a shame he won't live to find out how much he has contributed to finding the remedy."

The nurse nodded, but then asked nervously, "Sir, what exactly are we, uh, trying to cure?"

The doctor was already walking towards his office. "Pain," he responded, "every kind." And with a sense of finality, he locked himself in the office to find the remedy.

The nurse simply walked back to James and looked at the boy pity fully.

"It was for the best, James."

She had only just left to talk with another nurse when the two heard a flatline. They looked at each other and ran to the source: James's heart monitor.

The nurses had expected to find the boy dead on the hospital bed, but that was not what they saw.

James was sitting up straight, looking around frightened, his light brown hair sticking every which way.

The first nurse was shocked and wide-eyed. The second too, but he said, "Get the doctor. NOW!"

And she sprinted off to find him, leaving the male nurse and James alone.

And then James broke the slightly awkward silence.

"What happened to me?"

Fun fact: I almost didn't write this because I got attached to James and I felt bad for all the things I made happen. Yep that's how low I've gone jfc I need help,