Andy's Shorties - 2. Prompt #223

Joseph lay on the floor with blood pouring from his nose.

As hard as it was for the teachers at Manor Green School to believe, Joseph had once been one of the most popular kids in the school. He had just turned sixteen and he was one of the best of the best-looking boys in the school; in fact, he would not have looked out of place on the front cover of any tweeny magazine.

He was the captain of the school cricket team, the deputy chair of the student council, the bullies left him alone, and the girls fawned all over him; at least, that was up until three months ago, the day that the photograph had started doing the rounds.

He had been on holiday with his family, and he had been caught kissing another boy. Joseph was gay, and although his parents knew, he was not quite ready to come out to the wider world; especially, while he was still in a school with the reputation of Manor Green. ‘The Manor’, as it is referred to by the kids who attend there, is one of the roughest and meanest secondary schools on the planet.

Since he was on holiday far from his hometown, he thought that he could relax a little, and wouldn’t have to worry about holding hands with, or kissing another boy in public. Little did he realise that Jordan Napier and his family happened to pick the same idyllic little holiday village in Dorset to stay in. It was Jordan who took the now infamous photograph on his digital camera, and then he blanket e-mailed it to the entire school directory.

Two days after the photo had been taken, the entire school had seen it; faculty and students alike.

The next day, the photo had somehow been posted on the school’s website, and in spite of the admin team quickly taking it down, it managed to get reposted just as quickly.

Three days after that, it started appearing on kid’s Facebook pages.

Two days after that, it appeared as though there wasn’t a single person in the entire town who hadn’t seen it; actually, most of the people in the surrounding four towns had also seen it as well.

When the new term started at Manor Green three weeks later, Joseph found that he was suddenly as popular as a hamburger in the Vatican on the first day of Lent.

Joseph was quickly thrown off of both the cricket team and the student council, the girls suddenly found him unappealing, and the bullies found themselves with a new toy.

When he was Mr Popular, Manor Green had seemed like a pretty nice school with pretty nice kids; now that he was an outcast, he got to see the dark side of the school.

He got to see the side of the school that had teeth.

He got to see the side of the school that filled the hearts of mere mortal children with an icy dread.

He got to see the side of the school that only the bullied, the tortured, the unliked, the different, and the generally despised had thus far borne witness to.

It was a dark, dank, foul place that he had never even imagined existed in his school.

Today was the third time in as many days that Joseph had been attacked at school, and today was the third time in as many days that absolutely no teachers were within screaming distance of the small playground that was behind the school. There had been four teachers on duty on each of the last three days, but they had all decided to monitor the larger playground at the front of the school, and not concern themselves with the small playground; a conspiracy theorist could really have a field day with the implication of that.

A shadow fell over Joseph.

He held his ribs and whimpered, “Just do whatever you need to do and fuck off.”

“Now that’s not a very polite thing to say.” The voice was soft, full of concern, yet unfamiliar. Joseph felt a hand take hold of his. “Here let me help you up.” He was pulled up with ease, and instead of seeing a teacher as he had half-expected, he found himself looking into the pale grey eyes of a muscular teen.

“Who . . . Who are you?”

“My name is Michael.”

“I’m . . . I’m Joseph. I’m sorry about what I said. It’s been a bad few days.”

Michael handed him a handkerchief. “Here, wipe the blood off your nose.”

“Thanks”. As much as he didn’t want to bloody the new boy’s handkerchief, Joseph gingerly wiped his nose clean. “I haven’t seen you around before Michael.”

“No, I’m new.”

Joseph let out a small half-laugh. “That explains why I’ve never seen you before.”

“So Joseph, what happened?”

“My nose got in the way of someone’s fist.”

Michael smiled at Joseph’s attempt to bring a little levity to the situation. “I figured that much out for myself. What I should have asked was ‘Why did it happen’?”

“You’ll hate me, and you’ll be the next to beat me up.”

“Now why would I want to go and do a thing like that?”

“You’ll hear before long, so you may as well hear it from me. Actually I’m surprised you haven’t heard already.” Joseph hung his head as if he were ashamed of what he was about to admit. “I’m gay.”

Michael smiled. “So you’re the faggot.”

“Yeah, that’s me. So let’s just get this over with.”

“I must admit, I never expected you’d be this cute.”

“Don’t take the piss out of me. Hit me . . . break my nose . . . crack a rib if you must . . . but don’t take the fucking piss.”

“I’m not. You really are cute. If there weren’t so many others around, I’d struggle to keep my hands off you.”

Joseph smiled for the first time in months; he actually smiled enough so that Michael got to see his pearly white teeth.

“Who hit you Joseph?”

“Why does that matter?”

“I’d like us to be friends, and I just want to know who the arseholes in this school are.” Both boys laughed, and as much as Joseph was trying to fight it, he couldn’t help but be attracted to Michael. It wasn’t the muscles, far from it, he’d never been turned on by the whole muscle thing; it was those grey eyes.

He’d seen kids with grey eyes before and they had always seemed dull and lifeless, but Michael’s eyes were alive; the irises sparkled, there were flecks of darker grey that swam as if trapped in eddies and currents, even the tiny pupils glinted in spite of the lack of sunlight.

Joseph pointed out the boy who had hit him. “That’s him. That’s James Urquhart. He’s one of the biggest arseholes in the school.”

“Well, neither he nor anyone else will give you any problems any more. They’ll have to come through me first.” Although Joseph appreciated the offer, he somehow doubted its veracity.

Joseph and Michael spent the rest of the day together. Joseph showed him around the school, they had the same lessons together, and it wasn’t long before the rumours started flying.

Some wondered if the new kid knew that Joseph was gay.

Some wondered if the new kid was gay as well, although nobody was quite brave enough to test that theory with someone with that many muscles.

Others wondered if the new boy would protect Joseph or join them in torturing him.

In the hope of developing their friendship, Joseph invited Michael to his house for dinner, which Michael gratefully accepted.

James Urquhart and three of his friends were on their way to a party at Jordan Napier’s, and as it was getting late they decided to cut through the park; by cutting through the park, they would save half an hour on their journey.

About forty yards in front of them, they spotted Joseph. Joseph had just been to the supermarket and he was carrying half a dozen bags full of groceries. James and his friends quickly but quietly followed Joseph.

James pulled out a knife, eighteen year old Jacob Alban had a corkscrew, and twenty two year olds Tony and Mark Chambers, who were originally unarmed, had each picked up a branch that had fallen from one of the trees.

Joseph had just reached the fountain at the centre of the park, when he heard a noise behind him. He spun around but saw nothing, so he just shrugged it off as the wind.

He walked past the fountain and he heard the noise again; this time just off to his left. After a quick scan of the area, Joseph concluded that he was alone, and that it really was just the wind.

Just as he finally reached the far side of the park and saw the exit in the distance, he heard a branch snap nearby. He spun around and saw James and his friends only a few yards from him, each of them brandishing their weapon of choice.

“Hey, faggot. Imagine meeting you here.”

Joseph turned back around and continued walking towards the exit. James grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around.

“This is my park, and I won’t have a faggot like you trying it on with the little kids who use this place.”

Although Joseph recognised the danger he was in, he really couldn’t bring himself to believe that the four of them would resort to using their weapons.

“Just leave me alone,” he said. “I’m not doing anyone any harm.”

“You’re doing harm just by breathing.” Before Joseph could react, James hit him, breaking his nose. Joseph’s bags fell to the floor quicker than he did, and James and his cronies found some entertainment in using his bags of shopping as they would a football.

James leaned over Joseph, sneered, and said, “You’re gonna learn how we deal with faggots. If you take it quietly, you may just live long enough to make it to the hospital.”

Mark Chambers swung the branch he was carrying at Joseph’s head. The branch connected with a sickening thud, it snapped in half, and Joseph lost consciousness, as the blood ran down his face.

Just as Tony, Mark’s cousin, was about to take a swing of his own, a large something walked out in front of him.

What they saw was impossible!

It looked like a dog, yet it was larger than a bear. Saliva dripped from it fangs, and before the Chambers cousins could as much as blink, the creature had bitten into them and ripped both of their throats out. Tony and Mark were dead before their bodies hit the ground.

Jacob Alban ran for his life, but the creature quickly caught up with him. It pounced on his back, sank in its claws, and ripped him to shreds.

Joseph slowly came to. His head pounded and blood obscured his vision.

The creature looked over at James, with blood running down its face, and bits of Jacob Alban still in its claws. It slowly licked the bits of flesh from its paws, and looked upon its next victim. It let out a bloodcurdling howl, and lunged at him.

James was frozen in abject fear, his brain simply refused to accept what it was seeing, and his bladder loosed of its own volition.

He could do absolutely nothing as the large animal ripped into his chest with its razor sharp claws; his brain still refusing to accept the reality of what was happening.

He did nothing as the animal reached into his chest and ripped out his heart.

The creature then turned to look at Joseph. It sat back on its haunches licking its lips, looking at the wounded and defenceless Joseph.

The last thing that Joseph saw before he fainted was a pair of sparkling grey eyes.

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