[ WP ] A Bullied Teen is made into the new Embodiment of Fear .

It had been an ordinary day. As ordinary as any day. 
 
 School. The taunts, the shoves, the foot in the crowd that tripped me making all my papers and books slide across the hall while the rest of the kids laughed. 
 
 The burn of tears fighting their way free from my eyes. Trying so hard not to let them out. 
 
 I can go home at the end of the day, to Mom, still drunk on the couch where I left her before school. Dad will be home eventually, but until then, I'll make a snack and hide in my room. Probably cry about the unfairness of it. 
 
 It wo n't make a difference, but sometimes it makes that empty loneliness bearable. 
 
 Sometimes. 
 
 It was a dream that night. After Dad carried Mom to bed, after'just one more glass' of wine. After it felt like my body floated above my sheets, and a voice whispered in the darkness. It came from a place that hardened some part of my heart, reached and pulled and gave me *freedom* from the ache. 
 
 I woke up, and walked to school, the dread that had just the day before put lead in my shoes and a churn in my stomach, now a twisting sense of power in the back of my mind. I saw the group on the walkway, and instead of keeping my head down, trying to be invisible, trying so hard not to vomit on my shoes-which I had done the week before. 
 
 Today my eyes looked right into theirs. Looked and *saw*. Saw passed the varsity jackets, and cleaned clothing. Saw passed the car and the cheerleader girlfriend. 
 
 Saw in the hearts of his lackeys, and some part of me felt the audacity to *hurt*. 
 
 James went home to a dad like my Mom. Drunk at best, mean at worst. Sports kept him out of the house. 
 
 I saw loneliness in Sam, who could n't get the attention of his very busy buiness parents, always with something more important than him. School was where he got attention. 
 
 Nick. Nick was their'leader'. Their'boss'. 
 
 Nick who knew their secrets and held them as blackmail into doing whatever he wanted. Nick, with the older brother, Nick with the parents who saw him as a golden child. Nick, so sheltered and cared for and *loved*. 
 
 Who wanted to knock him down. Wanted to humiliate him. Simply because it was *something to do*. 
 
 Today anger rolled in his gut. Today he looked him in the eyes. Today he took back some of what had been taken. 
 
 He made Nick feel as if they were the only two there. Felt his bafflement at the open emptyness. Then, he made Nick *feel*. 
 
 The pain of going home to James life. Of not knowing if today was the day he got hit. 
 
 The emptiness of living Sam's Life, as second to everything, no matter what goal he reached. 
 
 And then the loneliness of his own life. The empty room where he wished for it all to be over. Where he would give anything, *anything* for someone to just *talk* to him. 
 
 He watched Nick's knees strike the concrete. Felt the whimper escape his lips, and I laughed. 
 
 Laughed to let him know, that I could do this whenever I wanted. To just *take away* all the safe, nice, *good* things that made Nick's life *so special*. 
 
 All at once things were back to normal. All at once, Nicks friends were asking what happened, was he okay. 
 
 I kept my eyes on him. Kept that eye contact until he ooked at them, then back at me. 
 
 I smiled. 
 
 I could feel it almost roll off me in waves. The other students just absently avoided me, but Nick- Nick looked at me and he knew. 
 
 Knew that later that night, I would be what hid in his closet. That the monsters in the dark had a new face. 
 
 That the monster was me, that I did n't mind, and that the monster was *very* spiteful. 
 
 Sweet dreams, Nick.
