Flashback (shared fanfic with Nessa and Jonathan)

The screams and sounds of gun fire really made Vanessa's heart race. As the students ran around her, she looked every which way, until she heard her cousin's voice call out for her. "Red! Get over here!" She called, spotting the red hair getting closer to her. She grabbed her arm once she was close enough to reach and pulled her towards her. She had to get her cousin to a safe place; she couldn't let Ariel get hurt...

She spotted a classroom, recognizing it as Rolfe's and was about to head that way when suddenly, silence fell around them, leaving them as the only ones in the hall. She felt Ariel grab onto her, causing her to instinctively wrap her arms around the younger teen. Around the corner she could hear someone begging for their lives, right before a shot rang through the air...

She wasn't about to let Ariel be another one... They started moving back towards the classroom. She hated how slow they were going, but she really didn't want to make them known to the shooter...

"Hello, ladies."

Vanessa froze at the voice, before turning slower then Ariel did to see Cale standing there... with a gun in his hand. She felt Ariel tighten her grip around her, causing her to breathe again. She slowly moved the younger girl behind her. "Cale... what are you doing?" She asked, slowly, staring him down, her heart almost beating out of her chest.

Why would he be doing this? All the moments they had together came back to her almost all at once, but she still stood her ground.

----

Jonathan had the kids in the classroom stay down as the shooting went on. It was too close for him to evacuate them and the bars on the windows of the classroom were no help. He looked around at all of the frighten faces of the students. He gave them all reassuring looks, but was really scared himself...

This was not what he was expecting to happen when he became a student teacher...

When the silence came, the kids start to fidget, causing Jonathan to give them a look that clearly said, "stay quiet...", right before another bang was heard.

He licked his lips, praying they would get out of this alive and for the poor soul that had been shot... Before his eyes snapped opened when he heard a familiar voice.

Ariel? He thought, before carefully peeking out of the window of the door. He mentally cursed when he saw that both her and her cousin were confronted by the shooter...

Who was Cale Tucker? That didn't make any sense...

He had to think of away to help the girls... But... how? He looked at his class, feeling his heart grow heavy..

Vanessa reached out to grab Ariel the moment Cale grabbed her away. She froze when Cale pointed the gun to Ariel's head. "Yes, Cale... I am wondering that very thought..." She said, slowly, keeping her voice from trembling. "Cale... please... don't do this..." She said, watching as he looked at her.

She didn't take his eyes off of him. "Rolfe! Please, Ariel is in trouble... He says if you come out he won't shoot Ariel or the kids... So, please, come out." She said, not even glancing at the door.

---

Jonathan tensed and felt his stomach twist at what he heard going on... She closed his eyes when Vanessa called for him to come out. He opened his eyes and looked at the kids once more, all scared, but some seemed to be urging him...

He let out a breath, before slowly standing up. He felt someone grab his hand, causing him to look down. One of the girls of the class was shaking her head at him, silently begging him not to go out there. He gave her a gentle smile, before giving her hand a squeeze. He let it go, before slowly opening the door. He held his hands up, as he closed the door behind him. "Okay, I'm here, let Ariel and the kids go, Cale..." He said, staring the boy in the eyes.

He only saw the look of a crazy man...

He was praying harder then ever now...

Cale brightened up as Johnathan joined them, "There now that wasn't so hard now was it?" He asked as he rested his head on top of Ariel's. "So to answer your question Nessa, lets just say I had an epiphany, and I rather like seeing people run from me." He added as he ran the gun along Ariel's neck, making her whimper in fear. "Now Johnathan...I've seen how you look at Red here and I thought...why not have some fun? It must be killing you to see her like this huh?" He asked with a devilish smile. He turned to look at Vanessa, "I'm afraid about lying earlier...Red isn't going to get out of this without a nice scar from me. Something that you can both remember as your biggest failure. She'll probably never fully recover either but that's the fun of this...you won't know until I'm gone." He said with a big grin, Ariel had started shaking even more as Cale kept talking.

"Cale... Don't do this..." Vanessa said, not removing her eyes from the two. She had told him so much... why would he do this? He knew how much Ariel meant to her. On the outside, she was calm, but on the inside, she was freaking out.

"Come on... you can take me, you don't need to hurt her; I'll be more upset if you damage my face then if you hurt her." She bluffed, sounding pretty convincing even in the current situation.

But will he read through that? She wondered, knowing how well Cale knew her. She was hating how he called Ariel by her nickname for her...

John tensed at Cale's words. Of course it was killing him. "Put the gun down, Cale..." He said, before Cale said Ariel was going to get hurt.

Something in him snapped, he almost didn't realize what he was doing until he had started the struggle with the teenager. He had grabbed hold of hand that was holding the gun, trying to get it away from Ariel, not really caring if he got shot in the process.

Vanessa stared at him in shock. You fool... She thought.

Almost as soon as Jonathan reached for the gun, Cale anticipated him and shot him in the shoulder. "What did I say about staying put Jonathan?" He asked as Ariel cried out in fear, "Jonathan! You monster!" She said and started stomping on his feet, Cale growled and gripped her even tighter around the neck before smiling at Vanessa. "I'm afraid that this is where we part ways." He said calmly before throwing Ariel on the ground next to Jonathan and shooting her in the stomach. As Ariel lay there bleeding out on the ground he smiled at Vanessa before turning and making his way towards the classroom.

Jonathan grasped his shoulder, falling onto his knees. "...Bastard..." He muttered, before shouting when Cale grabbed Ariel by the neck. When he threw her down next to him, he was about to grab her when all of a sudden a shot ran through the air and Ariel was bleeding. "Ariel!" He shouted, moving over to her and propping her up in his arms. He took his jacket off, not even caring about the pain in his shoulder. He placed the jacket over her wound, to try and stop the bleeding.

"You're going to be all right..." He told her, softly.

Vanessa felt her heart completely stop when Cale suddenly shot Ariel. "ARIEL!" She shouted, before making her way over to to them.

She stopped the moment Jonathan looked past her at the classroom. She looked back at the classroom, before looking back at the pair on the ground. She saw the look on his face and the pleading look Ariel was giving her.

She held back a groan, as she suddenly turned back towards the classroom and slid in front of the door, blocking Cale from going in. "Cale, don't, they're kids." She said, knowing it was a freshmen class.

"Why, Cale?" She asked, before she could stop herself, her violet eyes searching for answers.

He had been so happy... They had been so happy...

Where could this all be coming from? And why didn't he just shoot her? Did he find her not worth the time? Was it because him hurting Ariel probably hurts more then if he hurt her?

Vanessa was quiet at his words. "...I haven't killed anyone, Cale." She said, softly, but sternly. She stood up straighter in front of the door. "Go ahead, do it." She challenged, staring him right in the eyes. She didn't care if he shot her, sure, it would hurt like no other pain, but she didn't care.

"You never told me why." She stated, still wanting to know. With all the cell phones in the building you think someone would have called the cops...

---

"Shhh, don't speak, save your strength." He told her, softly, as he held her as much as he could. He glanced over at Vanessa when she spoke to Cale. He hated putting the girl in that position...

Vanessa felt her heart stop and started to feel choked up. She tried to swallow to feeling down as she stared at Cale with wide eyes as he continued to threaten Ariel. She felt her eyes grow moist as she tried to shake it away. Hearing Ariel cry out in pain, caused Vanessa to drop to the ground onto her knees. She looked down at her hands that were limb in her lap. "...Okay..." She mumbled, softly, as her hair fell over her face like a waterfall, hiding the tears that were threatening to pour.

--

John hissed in pain when Cale stepped on his wound. He tried to struggle to toss him off of him, it didn't help that he could feel the bullet still in his wound, digging into him further. "A-Ariel.." He tried to reach for her, but couldn't.

The pain was causing him to see spots. He barely heard Cale's threat to Vanessa as he put the gun against Ariel's wound.

He heard something fall behind him, and could only guess that it was Vanessa. "D-Damn..." He cursed, softly.

Vanessa flinched as Ariel called out her name, still trying her best to hold back her tears. She heard the screams and gun shots as Cale shot at the kids inside. As they ran out of the room, they knocked her over to the side, causing her to land on her arm funny, but she hardly noticed...

She tensed when Cale tossed Ariel back to by Rolfe, who immediately moved closer to her, grabbing the jacket back up to help stop the bleeding again. She watched as he held her close and gave her a sweet smile as he tried to comfort her, while completely ignoring his own pain.

Vanessa pushed herself up a little, before freezing as Cale crouched next to her. She tensed at his words, but didn't meet his eyes this time, didn't even look at him.

Jonathan glared at Cale as he walked away, before looking at Vanessa, who kept her face away from them. He looked down at Ariel, shaking his head at her. "I'm fine, don't worry about me." He stated, with a small smile, as he moved her bangs out of her face.

Vanessa flinched again when she heard Ariel whisper her name to her... She didn't even register that Cale was off shooting more people. She slowly looked up at her cousin, her eyes wide and moist. She let out a gasp, before the tears started falling as Vanessa scrambled up and towards her cousin.

She hugged the younger girl and sobbed uncontrollably. She didn't care if this was the first time she had ever really cried in front of anyone, let alone Ariel "I'm so sorry, I'm so, so sorry..." She cried, not being able to stop. She blamed herself for all of it.

"Vanessa, we have to get her out of here..." John told her, sternly, causing the brunette to look up at him, with wide eyes. She slowly registered what he said, before nodding.

"Can you get help?" He asked, causing her to look at Ariel with wide eyes. "Yes..." She whispered, softly...

Ariel cried out in pain unable to stop herself as Vanessa hugged her but she hugged her back just as tightly. "Don't leave me." She whispered. She didn't want to lose her cousin, not now not when she had just gotten her back. She was afraid she would get shot and die as well, she clung to both of them. Her eyes on both of them, "If we're leaving, we're all going...I am not going to just sit here." She said. She wasn't even entirely sure if she would be able to walk but she damn well would try.

"Ariel..." John said, softly, scared to move her while she was like this. He watched as Vanessa seemed to wipe clean the scared and hopeless expression she had on moments before and was now wearing a look of determination.

"I am not leaving you..." Vanessa said, looking Ariel in the eyes, before she looked at Rolfe. "We'll carry her together... I know with your shoulder like that it will be hard, which is why I'm going to help you." She stated, moving to put her arms under Ariel's leg. "Carry her upper body with your good arm." She told him.

He looked at her surprised, before nodding. He slipped his good arm under Ariel's upper body, and made sure he had a good grip on her. He looked down at her. "You ready?" He asked, receiving a little nod from the redhead.

Vanessa and John counted to three, before standing, while picking Ariel up in the process. They headed towards the nearest exist, which was in the direction that Cale had come from. John tried to not look at all of the dead students and teachers on the ground around them.

He glanced at Vanessa and couldn't believe how she could not look at them... Her face was hard and determined... only thing on her mind was getting Ariel out of there...

John looked down at Ariel and gave her a smile. "Remember your fifth birthday party? You had a little mermaid themed party..." He said, trying to keep her focused on him.

As he said her name, she glared at him daring him to argue before sighing in relief as Vanessa agreed. As they picked her up, she tried not to lean on Johnathan as much, knowing he was injured. She could tell Nessa was focused on getting them out but if and once they did she would blame herself for Cale. Ariel didn't want that to happen, her thoughts were shifted though as Johnathan spoke to her, obviously to help her focus on something else. She nodded, "I do....you...you were m- the Prince for the day." She said, almost saying my. "And I kept wanting to hold your hand...just so I could show everyone else I had a boyfriend." She said with a laugh which ended with her coughing up blood.