A loud laugh erupted from the Ice Hounds as Dallas crashed his empty soda can into his head. Almost every teammate laughed, Owen, Michael, Luke, James, Aaron, even Dallas himself. The only exception was Campbell. Staring blankly towards his teammates, his mind aimlessly wondering towards the thoughts he tried ignoring every night. The thoughts slowly grew from keeping him awake at night to keeping him on edge all the time. His mind always revolved around suicide, it was all he could think about for the past week. Even before that, he’d been entertaining the thought of death. The only thing holding him back was the uncertainty. What exactly happens after you die? Where do you go? Isn’t suicide a sin? All of these questions were clogging his mind, and he couldn’t handle the curiosity any longer. Standing up, Cam froze in shock as his whole team stared over to him. Cam was motionless for what felt like an eternity, he knew that the team was clueless as to his thoughts, but the possibility of them knowing was enough to scare him. “I forgot to do my essay, I’m going to the library.” He lied, smiling at the satisfaction of fooling the buffoons that were him family away from home. Swinging his backpack up over his shoulder, Campbell circled the chair and stepped towards the exit, avoiding looking at anyones faces. His eyes analyzed the floor, observing the tiles and the way they were patterned. As he got to the door, the pattern ended with a pair of feet. Looking up, he saw an unfamiliar face, he was wearing all black and had a spooky vibe to him. “Hey, watch where you’re going, might just get yourself killed.” The guy said, looking down on Cam. Apologizing, Campbell quickly swerved away from the unknown boy, continuing on his quest for answers.
Upon arriving at the library, Campbell passed the librarians desk and walked straight past the rows and rows of books before arriving at the psychology section. Looking for any book that could solidify his decision to either take his life or not. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find anything. Resting the book back on the shelf, Cam turned out of the isle, stopping mid-way when he spotted the pretty blonde he’d seen every once in a while. All of his teammates said she’d be into him if he just spoke to her. For a split second, his thoughts about suicide and death vanished, his mind thought about what things to say to her, if he should speak to her now or not. A rush of bravery struck Cam, stepping confidently towards her, reaching his arm out in an attempt to tap her shoulder so he can shine a smile and say hi, but his hand was frozen and he was too nervous to touch her, let alone make a sound. Quickly, Cam dashed away from her, sitting down at the computer and hoping no one saw his pathetic attempt at talking to a girl. Searching around, he looked to see if anyone was looking towards him, or even laughing. The library wasn’t very full of people, it had more than usual since the giant history essay was due today, but not enough people to notice him. Luckily for Cam, everyone seemed to be in their own little world. Little did anyone there know that just a few flights down and around the corner the cafeteria was experiencing what people ten year from now would call simply, a tragedy. Typing into the search bar all of his questions, Campbell’s eyes would drift from his screen to Maya, now questioning his questions.
