[ WP ] Two victims of bullying make a plan to shoot up their high school together . However , they both secretly plan to betray the other in order to become a hero .

Bethany stopped short, listening for a moment as she exhaled slowly. Someone was down the hall there, just around the corner. She was sure that she had gotten away cleanly, that nobody had seen her, but she did n't want to take the chance with someone down the hall. The hazy pain of gunfire so close to her ears dazed her mind and blanked the sound out once more, but she could see the ducked over shadows bobbing on the wall there at the end. She turned back around and, hunched over, began making her way back toward the library. She did n't want to go back in there, it stank of gunpowder and desperation. It was a sickly bitter odor that was as distinct as a ringing bell. She could feel the gritty scrape of broken glass under her Skechers. Looking down, she stopped once more and held her breath as she waited to see if anyone was going to come running down the hallway towards her. No one did. This time she let out her breath with a little plosive sound and began again toward the library. Lucas was, hopefully, long gone from there now and she might be able to sneak out through the fire exit in the back. That was a plan anyways. 
 
 Glancing through the oblong rectangle of glass in the doorway, she could almost feel the crosshatched pattern the wire embedded in the safety glass shadowed onto her face. The lights in there were still on and that was good. It meant that she could see that Lucas was n't in sight anywhere. 
 
 “ That lunatic is going to kill somebody. ” she thought. “ Well, somebody else. ” her gaze slid over to Mrs. Hargetay laying on the floor with the toes of her sensible grey pumps pointed up to the ceiling in a lazy V. Support hose barely hid blue veins that stood out on legs that had tromped around scholastic libraries for nearly three decades. Those legs would n't be tromping anymore. Their strutting days were over. Mrs. Hargetay was never going to dance the funky chicken again. She was never going to slide aching feet out of sensible pumps at the end of a long day again. She was the epitome of'Silence is Golden' which was spelled out in gilded wooden letters a foot high across the front of the library desk. Mr. Guidry, the shop teacher had made those for her when he retired, she'd told every one – well, everyone who cared to listen. She held in her the silence of the ages now. Tears were streaming down Bethany's face as she stared at those sensible pumps. 
 
 “ Ca n't let myself freeze like this, he'll be after me next. ” her thoughts came back from the disoriented scramble. She put her left hand on the pull handle and, quiet as she could, swung the door outward into the hallway. She stepped into the library once more. After the initial panic, and people running and screaming, it looked almost serene in here. If it were n't for two or three overturned chairs and a couple of pieces of paper that lay on the floor, forgotten in the scramble and dash. When someone with a gun entered your world, littering was pretty low on the list of priorities. Bethany stifled a manic giggle as this thought zoomed across her mind. Cramming her hand into her mouth, she bit down on one knuckle to feel the pain of reality, to bring her back before her mind could skate off into the blue once more. She took another tentative step into the library and almost screamed when the pneumatic gizmo wheezed as the door shut behind her. Looking around wildly, she stutter-stepped further into the room. Standing in the rough center of the library, she glanced around and stopped for just a second. There was a sound, she thought, though through the ringing in her ears, she could n't be sure she'd actually heard anything or if she was just imagining it. 
 
 No, there it came again. It was almost a ticking sound, but metal on metal – at least that's what it sounded like through the gun powered deafness now stuffing her ears. She peered down one stack, then the next. It sounded like it was getting closer. She peeked into another stack, crouched down now and trying to breathe as quietly as possible. The sound was irregular and difficult to tell where it was coming from. She peeked down the last stack on her left and gasped when she hear the loud tick behind her. Turning, she stood and lifted her hands as Lucas stepped out of the stacks behind her. She was all of a sudden staring down the dark bore of a huge pistol. 
 “ Did n't think you were dumb enough to come back in here little Bethy ” Lucas said. “ Thought you had scuttled on off to bigger and better things, just like the others. ” 
 
 Bethany's mouth clenched in a moue of anger and disgust as he spoke, “ Do n't call me that. Do n't ever... ” he lifted the gun a little higher and gestured with it, silencing her anger. 
 
 “ Or what? You gon na run home and tell your mommy? ” Lucas sneered at her. 
 
 “ Listen, Lucas this is n't, ” 
 
 “ Shut up. I should've known better.'If you want something done right son, you have to do it yourself!', ” his voice was older, fuller and in the weight of that moment, she could all but see his overweight father standing there with his balding pate and pudgy sausage fingers, berating his progeny. Was it any small wonder that Lucas was a prime target for the bullies and the bitches of the school to harass? No small wonder at all. 
 
 “ Lucas, you have to listen to me, things are different now. You ca n't take it back. You have to see that they're going to take you down for this. ” 
 
 “ It does n't matter Beth. It's over and I'm tired. ” As if by magic, a bubble, bright red and arterial formed on his lips and then popped as he leaned, sagging against the stack to his left. “ I just do n't understand why you shot me. ” He slumped to his knees and the gunsight ticked once more as it tapped the shelf. “ This was n't the plan. ” 
 
 “ You're wrong Lucas. ” she crept toward him and raised the gun in her right hand as she did so. “ I just had to make it look good for the cameras. I can see it now:'Heroine of Brantley High saves the day'. This will stop them from picking on me for good now. All it cost was you. Well, you and Mrs. Hargetay. ”. Nudging Lucas with her foot, she turned him over. His fixed stare told her all she needed to know – Lucas had joined that old bitch Hargetay in the silence of the ages. She could already hear the amplified voices calling out, outside the building. She let the gun slide out of her hand and let the tears slide down her face, rehearsing her lines as she headed toward the fire exit. 
 
 “ I had to shoot him... If Mrs. Hargetay had n't thrown that chair at him and knocked the gun out of his hand before he shot her, I would probably be dead now too. ” she glanced back once more before she stepped through the door, seeing it as the police would. That would work. It would work out just fine.
