The Night Gwen Stacy Died Read Online Free

then the unknown skyscrapers are a visible glow ahead in the distance. You
     hear a radio playing softly somewhere. You see a parking lot, a pigeon flap one wing
     helplessly, crushed metal floating in stacks down the surface of a narrow river. An
     entire scrap yard of flattened cars, half of them inching downstream, the sun catching
     the light off a resilient fender. The other half stacked on top of one another in
     an empty lot, their true colors muted by all the dust that has settled. The dust is
     the residue from nearby explosions. Sometimes there are explosions, the dream advises.
     You try to pay attention.
    Then there is the cramped apartment you don’t recognize. What happens next is the
     thing you can’t shake. You see a man walk into the room. His eyes are clear and slightly
     familiar. The rest you see in fragments, flashes that blur and fade around the corners.
     You see him walk into the bathroom with a clenched fist, open his fist above his mouth,
     and invite the small trail of white pills into his body. They stick in the man’s throat,
     and you see him start to cough, to choke. You see the man start to moan, and everything
     that follows. By now it is impossible to stop watching, to turn it off.
    He reminds you of someone you know. In the terror logic of the dream, the vision,
     the threat, the premonition, you understand that you are the only one who can save
     him from himself.

 
    AS SHEILA DISMOUNTED in the school parking lot, she always inhaled as much of the outside air as she could
     before heeding the last warning bell, locking up her bike, and submitting herself
     to the eight-period day. She caught her breath with her hands resting on her knees
     while she watched the rest of the student body—her peers—disengage from cars, embraces,
     conversations, and wander, group by group, into the building. It was senior year.
     Everyone had already become whatever they were going to be to one another for the
     rest of their time together. Alliances had been formed, rivalries established, and
     now the name of the game was hang on like hell to what you had worked to get, and
     hope for the best. Reinvention was futile; deliverance was not up for discussion.
    She walked into first-period English and took her seat.
    “Okay, people,” Mrs. Gavin was saying, “announcements. Listen up.”
    Good morning, said the voice over the PA. Can I have your attention please? Annual
     blood drive starts tomorrow. As always, type O, we’re depending on you! The votes
     are in and the theme for Spring Fling, as decided by popular demand, will be Girls
     Just Wanna Have Fun! The voice over the PA reminded the students that it was Spirit
     Week and said they should feel comfortable expressing their school spirit by creatively
     incorporating the colors of the Cougar—blue and orange—into their manner of dress.
     The students were reminded that hats, bandannas, head-coverings of any kind were not
     permitted. T-shirts with offensive language or T-shirts bearing explicit product insignia,
     also unacceptable. The students were encouraged, as always, to use good taste when
     selecting socially appropriate ways to show their school enthusiasm during Spirit
     Week. There would be a pep rally the following Friday in anticipation of Spring Fling,
     which was something everyone could look forward to, but, of course, the antics that
     ensued during the last school-wide pep rally would not be repeated.
    The announcements droned on. Sheila made a pillow of her crossed arms on her desk
     and placed her head there. No matter what was said over the PA on a given morning,
     Sheila could rest assured that it did not apply to her. She had been fairly successful
     up until this point of her high school career existing just on the periphery of whatever
     was going on.
    She knew how to give a straight answer to a question. She knew how to make eye contact.
     She had decent grades, mostly Bs. She had two physical assets: wide eyes,