It was a dark eerie night, a young man by the name of Tyson Myers was stumbling on his way back from a raging party. Earlier on that day of June 5th, 1998, all students of Demise High School rushed out the doors once they heard the bell ring at 3:00 p.m. sharp. Their faces are lit with bright smiles as long as the Golden Gate Bridge just from all the anticipated fun they are going to have for the next two and a half months of their life. I don't know why all the kids were sad that they were leaving their friends when everyone was going to see each other at a party tonight. Tyson and I got in his car, drove down the street to the nearest McDonalds, and grabbed 2 Big Macs, 3 McNuggets, and 4 fries. We arrived at his house and played GTA for the next three hours while munching on our food. Tyson handed me the game controller and got up and went to the bathroom. However, it sounded like he was on the phone with someone. I could barely hear him say anything over the noise of the game. I continued playing the game, not paying much attention to what he was on the phone for. I heard the door squeak open and he went to his wallet and pulled 40 bucks out. After that, he didn't say a thing and just walked out of the room. I was sitting there confused out of my mind trying to figure out what was going on. He didn't even mention where he was going, he just walked off. Around half an hour later he came back looking a little off. I couldn't tell exactly at first till I heard him try to speak. He kept mumbling and stumbling his words while talking. And his eyes were the definition of bloodshot. “Yo, where did you go bro?” I asked him after he shut up his mumbling. He said “Nowhere, I just juustt… went on a drove out in the sun” I just shook my head trying to signal that I completely understood what he said. Although I had no idea what he said I went and grabbed my bag and told him that I was about to leave and head home. I looked over as he gave no response back and just saw him snoring on the ground with a blanket. I strolled down the neighborhood and reached my house. I finally got to sit down and relax after 180 long days of school stress. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, it was a  text from Tyson. He typed asking, “Yo you going to the party tonight?” I responded, “Probably”. 

I got ready and waited for Tyson to pull up to my driveway. I hopped in and we went to pick up two of our friends that were on the way. First, we picked up Jack and then Ryan. Ryan whispered to Tyson. It looked like he was asking for something but I wasn't that sure, to be honest. It just feels like something strange is happening with Tyson. He's not talking and just has all his attention on the road. Usually, he would play music too and blast some 50 Cent but not this time. Everyone knew that Tyson drank and smoked but even when he was, he never acted like this. When we arrived we saw at least 30 more cars parked down the street. The funny thing was that when we were getting out of the car only Jack and I got out. Tyson and Ryan stayed in their car till ten minutes later when I saw Tyson walk through the front door the same way he did earlier in the day when I was gaming. Ryan didn’t look as bad but something was definitely wrong with him too. Anyway, the party was fun but it got a little too wild and the cops ended up arriving. As soon as everyone heard them they all panicked and ran out of the back of the house. I ran with everyone as well till we got to our cars. Jack, Ryan, and I were waiting for Tyson but he didn't seem to be here. I didn't want to go back to the house because cops were coming. It just doesn’t make sense why Tyson didn’t come to the car. We all tried calling him, even one of my friends Nick. Nick and Tyson knew each other for a while but he didn't pick up either of our calls. 5 minutes passed and we saw no sign of anybody. All the kids left, and the cops went away, yet there was still no Tyson. It got late and my parents started texting me to come back home. My friends and I thought that maybe Tyson went with the rest of the kids and we took an Uber back to our houses. 

I woke up the next morning all tired and sweating from the heat outside. For some reason this Summer there are record-high temperatures. I rubbed my eyes and stretched, trying to get the courage to get out of bed. My eyes steadily lit up a little more when I heard my phone constantly ringing. At first, I thought it was an alarm going off but I never set one since it's the first day of Summer vacation. I picked up my phone, it was a call from Ryan. “Yo, YOO you there, I haven't heard from Tyson and neither has Jack.” I didn't know what to think, I replied to Ryan saying, “Let me call him.” I rang up Tyson’s phone and heard it dial twice before it got declined. I texted asking him if he was busy, but I got no response. I tried calling him after a couple of minutes but it kept denying. At this point, I was confused wondering what was going on with this kid. He has been seeming off lately, he didn't drop us home after the party yesterday, and now he's declining our calls. I texted Ryan to meet me at the park in two hours. 

Two hours pass by and we meet each other at the school park. Jack came along with Ryan and we talked about going down to Tyson's house since he lives 3 minutes from the park. Once we arrived at his house we realized all of the lights were off and the front door was cracked open the slightest bit. We rang the doorbell a few times yet no one came to the door. We saw Tyson's car on the driveway but his parent's car wasn’t there which meant he had to be home because he doesn't go out much unless it's the weekend. We peeked our heads through the door and tried to look for any sign of him in the house. “TYSON MYERS MAY YOU PLEASE STEP OUT” yelled Ryan. Jack decided that he couldn't wait any longer and barged in through the door. “Tyson you here???” I asked out loud. We checked the living room first, then the basement, and then upstairs but we saw no one. As we were walking back down the stairs we heard a whisper coming from above us. “I am here, I am here, I am here” came from a soft voice above us but it nervously crawled up the back of your spine. Ryan looked back to see if there was anything there, but there wasn't. Every step we took down the stairs it felt as if this voice was creeping closer and closer to our ears. I even started feeling this itch in my neck once we got back down to the main door. We all stood there confused and a little terrified from what we just heard. I remember we stepped out of the house and we got a call from Tyson’s mom. She called us trying to ask where he was or if he was with us. So now no one knows where our friend is anymore and his parents have no clue where their son is. Tyson and his parents never really had a good relationship. He was adopted when he turned 6 years old and always stayed in trouble at school. He would come to us complaining about the constant arguments that he had with his dad over him not working yet. Tyson always tried to find ways to not go back home every day and soon it seemed like his parents stopped caring much about what decisions he makes. This kind of seemed to trigger Tyson's lifestyle into how it is currently. Right now he doesn’t work but he makes money doing a lot of illegal stuff like selling drugs and gambling. Myers also always seemed to be conflicted in his head, he would randomly get up and leave class during school. He would get easily distracted while having a conversation with someone and over time it only felt like it was getting worse for him. Every time I asked him how he was doing he would just smirk and say I'm fine. Also, it was becoming obvious how troubled he was once we saw him going through multiple pill bottles and other substances while we were all at Soccer practice after school. Anyway, we left Tyson's house but right as we stepped out the door made a loud bang and shut by itself. We tried to open it but the door handle was locked. At first, we thought of running but we were too curious to not find out what just did that. We went around the back of his house and broke in through the backdoor. As soon as we were all in Jack ran and grabbed a knife just in case. All of a sudden a loud cry for help came from upstairs and it sounded like Tyson's voice. I led the way up the stairs with stealth and awareness making sure no one was there. We made it to his room door but it was locked and we could clearly hear Myer's voice this time. “Someone HELP!!!” yelled Tyson, we tried kicking down the door but by the time we opened it, it was too late. All we could see was Tyson losing control of himself. He was running away from his own shadows in his room, seemingly terrified of himself. I glanced over his room while Ryan and Jack were trying to calm him down. On his table next to his bed he had pills out, needles stacked, and some sort of white powder lined up. It became obvious to me at this point why Tyson was acting so strange and not answering any of us. 

We got him to sit down on his bed, and I could just tell by the look in his eyes that there was something really wrong about to happen, I just didn’t know what it was. Every couple of seconds Myers would blink slowly and his eyes would slowly start rolling back. It looked like he was trying to say something but didn’t have enough strength to say one complete sentence. It was sad seeing him like this because I started anticipating it once I realized how often he started abusing his drugs. Ryan made him drink some water to see if he would become somewhat conscious again. Nothing seemed to work as much as we tried. We tried calling his parents to let them know we found him but they didn't answer their phone. I felt so helpless watching my friend fall apart right in front of my eyes. Ryan and Jack stepped out of the room for a minute and I stayed with Tyson trying to keep him company. The whole time I was wondering how many different substances he took that made him act like this. There was still a line of that white powder left on the table and I wanted to move it away but I felt like I shouldn't drag Myers's attention to that before something else happened. But I couldn't leave him until Ryan or Jack came back to supervise him. “Yo Rafael, come here for a second bro” said Jack, asking me to come out. I denied it at first but then after not being able to tolerate their begging, I stepped out. Sometimes I wish I didn't step out to see Jack because once I left Tyson, all hell broke loose. 

I remember walking out and talking to Jack about sending Tyson to a therapist or a rehab center for mental illness. As we were talking about why we thought this was a good idea we heard something drop and it sounded nothing like anything else. We rand back trying to figure out what fell, and I remember seeing Tyson’s body folded uncomfortably on the ground. I looked over at the table and the line of powder appeared to be gone. It was covered all over his face and especially his nose. We started panicking, stressing, worrying about what to do because none of us had been in this situation before in our lives. We dialed 911 but it was too late, before the call even ended we saw his nose start to bleed, white foam coming out his mouth, and his body started shaking. My friends and I all looked in distress and impatiently waiting for the police to arrive. I felt my neck itching, my face sweating, and my eyes tearing. The tick-tock sounds coming from the second hand on the clock in his room got louder and louder until it happened. The clock stopped ticking and Tyson lay still on the ground with his eyes rolled back and wide open. No air coming out his nose and no beat pumping his heart. All I wanted to do was to help him. That was the darkest day of my life over 26 years ago when I watched my best friend fall apart.