Bully

The large and misshapen boy stepped outside and immediately scanned the playground for his next victim. His eyes settled on a boy sitting on a swing, eating his lunch alone.  Without further hesitation, he made a beeline for him before the boy had a chance to eat everything in the small brown bag sitting perched on his lap. He stopped and effectively cut any route the victim had in escaping his wrath.  His stance yielded an added bonus because his shadow overtook his victim like a solar eclipse. That gave him a more menacing look.  The bully liked the fear in the younger smaller boy,  when he looked up to see what caused the sudden change in his sunlight.

The bully slapped the crust of bread from the other boy’s hand and quickly demanded that he turn over the remaining contents of his lunch sack. The blow was so sudden and severe that it knocked the glasses perched on his nose, onto the ground beneath his feet. The trapped boy frantically tried to focus on this threat without the benefit of a good pair of eyes. The young boy quickly held out the bag for the other to take hoping that this would suffice. It didn’t. Like a savage animal smelling fear, or worse, blood on his prey, it only encouraged him to inflict more pain and suffering on his helpless victim.

Little Tommy knew the only thing he had left in this peace offering at the bottom of the sack was an apple, and this knowledge only fed his fear. When the bully standing astride him looked into the semi-empty sack, his fears quickly turned very real.  Like a volcano erupting in front of him, abuse rained down upon him with great fury.  Each strike seemed to be feeding the next without any hope of stopping.  After the first hit to his head, he let himself fall backwards onto the soft earth, but this only seemed to angered his tormentor more. He quickly closed the gap and was now on top of him.  With his energy finally fading the bully stopped. The bloodied boy was relieved.  The bully looked around to see if his handiwork was noticed and was satisfied it wasn't then told Tommy to “keep his mouth shut" because he would be looking for him again tomorrow and "the bag had better be full". 

Tommy did as he was told and kept quiet about his injuries until the end of the school day and went home. Tommy would have to tell his mother because the cuts and bruises he could not hide, besides he trusted she would know how to handle this. When he walked in the front door of his house she immediately saw he was injured. She took him into her arms and asked “what on earth happened to you peanut”. Something in her touch and in her voice immediately soothed his fears and pain. She always had that effect on him.  It wasn’t that she was his mother, it was something deeper that penetrated to his soul.  He told her what had transpired in all of its hellish details. He left nothing out.  He told her that it was his fault somehow. 

After his father had died two years ago, it was just the two of them. Somehow, it was enough.  The loss of his father weighed heavily on him, but his mother filled that void.  She sat him down and said “I want to tell you a story and then after you hear it, you will understand it is not you that caused this, but something as old as time itself.”  She said mysteriously.

Before she began, she got up and went to retrieve something out of the old chest in the dining room. She spent some time searching its contents before she plucked something from within and brought it to him. It was a stone set into an old necklace made of silver. She draped it over his head until it rested on his chest just above his heart. She turned and picked up three candles and lit them before she placed them onto the table in front of him. He was intrigued. He had seen her do these types of things before and they seemed rather magical to him. She continued “There is an evil that gathers every Halloween and performs a ritual that is called the corruption spell.  This spell then enters the minds of people who are most vulnerable and changes them in such a way that they themselves become evil. Every evil act they do is channeled back into those that performed the spell. This gives them great power and each year they become more powerful. The amulet that I place around your neck will be your shield. When one of these evil surrogates come in contact with you and attempts their evil on you, it reflects back onto them that which they wish to do to you.  More importantly, it amplifies back onto those who gain from this evil and diminishes their power.  Finally, if there are others anywhere near the one attempting to harm you, it also shield them as well.  Therefore, you will reverse all evil everywhere once you infect the one.  There are many of these evildoers that are walking around whom are unaware that they have been infected.  The Amulet is a powerful tool, but if you use it on Halloween day it will be much more effective in its strength “. As she ended the story and finished the ritual in a tongue that Tommy did not know, she began to blow out the candles one by one. When all of the candles were extinguished, a strange and powerful feeling wash over him.

When Tommy went to bed that night he dreamt of cloaked figures chanting around a circular dais. In its center, a small baby. He caught brief glimpses of golden masks under these dark hoods and each one was more frightening than the last. He knew, or rather sensed, these were the ones his mother spoke, as if he was there in the room with them. They were agitated as they too felt his presence but could not see where, or who he was.  The amulet was shielding him from their gaze, this much he understood.

At noon the next day he went back to his favorite lunch spot, but this time with a new courage. He was not fearful meeting with the bully, in fact, he was looking forward to it. He sat on the swing, opened his lunch bag and he began to eat. He saw the kid that terrorized him the day before and he was heading in his direction. Tommy waited until he was standing in the exact place he stood the day before as if some recurring nightmare was rearing its ugly tale again. He continued eating his sandwich, which he could see angered the Bully. He knew that the volcano was about to erupt on him at any moment. He didn’t have long to wait when the Bully screamed at him to stop eating HIS lunch. Unmoved by the threat this time, he continued to enjoy his meal without fear. 

The looming Bully broke the stalemate when he started to rain his fists down upon him again. One, two, three punches in rapid succession came down. The Bully screamed.  It wasn't a scream of anger, but one of pain. Tommy looked up at the Bully and noticed gashes opening up on the bridge of the kid’s nose, cheek and eye. Tommy felt no pain when he should have. He remembered his mother’s words of the power. The amulet was working. It wasn't just the Bully who was terrorizing him but two other bullies in his vicinity began to scream in pain. They too had injuries manifesting in the same areas as the Bully. He could not swear to it, but he thought he saw a wave of energy leave him that travelled outwardly in all directions at once. The Bully started to run away from him with his bloodied hands covering his bloodied face.

Tommy couldn’t wait to tell his mom the news. Later that night while watching television there was a breaking news story. It seemed there was an outbreak all around the country of mysterious injuries being inflicted on many people, it had the police stumped. 

Later that evening as Tommy was going to bed, somewhere in a distance land, in a remote castle, hooded figures gathered. One by one their robes fell to the floor until all had been destroyed leaving only a pile of fabric and intricate gold masks scattered around a round room.