Long Lost Brothers

Simon Spam was not like other seven year olds. He was a compulsive liar who lived in his own fantasy world and who always sought his own company. Kids his age should be amazed by the goings on that adults find ordinary and crave nothing more than the simple joy of company, especially the company of kids their own age.
There were some things that made him normal. For one thing, he loved to watch the ‘A-Team’, an action-adventure TV show about four men with guns who fought baddies in America. The show would give him the adrenaline to go running in the garden, making up stories where he would have to help the fictional goodies defeat numerous villains. Also, he couldn't wait until his eighth birthday. His patient parents looked forward to it as well, planning to make it as special as possible for Simon, saving up enough money to buy him every one of the four action figures from his favorite TV show.
Simon lived in Thornbury, a small village with nice scenery near Bristol. Fields of cows surrounded his house chewing the grass all day. Simon would sit in the fields and make up stories that would make his class-'mates' jealous or imagine great fantasies where he would defeat them with the help of the A-Team, in medieval jousting games or shooting them in the Wild West.
Forced to go to school by his bloody parents, though they were always going on about how much they loved him, the other children would make fun of his surname, and refer to him with it instead of calling him Simon: "I ATE TINNED SPAM THE OTHER DAY!! IT'S DISGUSTING!!'
The only girl who liked him was called Claire Beef. For obvious reasons, she could relate to his problems. She wasn't popular either, though it wasn't just her name the other kids made fun of. Claire and her mother kept to themselves and wouldn't socialize with the rest of the small town. They lived in isolation in a creaky old house at the top of a hill surrounded by a graveyard. They always wore dark clothes, and their skin was a lot paler than the other town’s people. There were rumors that they both slept in coffins.
All the children at school accused Claire and her mother of being witches but instead of feeling sorry for herself, Claire would admire Simon; the way he stuck up for himself and his great imagination that he used in class. They were both similar, she thought. They could be good allies.
Sometimes, Simon would come home and, to his annoyance, find Claire waiting for him. His parents enthusiastically let her inside, where she would wait eagerly and even play with his toys! Claire always responded pleadingly to his aggravation, “I'll do anything you want! I could be your girlfriend!” Simon’s parents wondered why he wouldn't want such a sweet and eager-to-please playmate.
Simon knew exactly how to hurt people: "BECAUSE YOU'RE A FREAK WHO SLEEPS IN A COFFIN!!" He had a lot of time to think about people's sensitivities. He didn't really want to hurt Claire's feelings so much but desperately wanted to be on his own to play.
It worked. As soon as he mentioned those words, it looked as if Claire's insides had been crushed into mashed potatoes. She still managed to speak, "YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT, SPAM!! I SWEAR BY THE TEETH IN MY MOUTH THAT THE NEXT LIE YOU TELL WILL COME TRUE!! MY MUM SAYS IT'S THE WORST CURSE THERE IS, AND I'LL MAKE SURE IT HAPPENS!!" She ran off crying. Simon had not been scared by what she had said as much as the intense promise in her eyes. He was sure that the colour of her irises became yellow like that of a witch.
What the kids at school said about her must have been true. The doomed term of events started when he was being picked on the next day by Corey Paisley. Simon’s lie didn't even come into his head before it passed through his lips, but he liked how it sounded. "GET LOST, COREY!!" he shouted, "OR I'LL GET MY BROTHER TO COME INTO SCHOOL AND BEAT YOU UP AND STICK YOUR HEAD DOWN THE TOILET!! HE'LL DO ANYTHING I TELL HIM TO. HE CAN DO ANYTHING. HE'LL KILL YOU!!" The teacher over heard Simon and, after a quick telling off, said that she didn't know he had a brother. Simon had to think quickly and told her, he had been killed by a car. Close one.
When Simon got home, his room had twice as many things in it than it had in the morning. There were clothes and toys that he had never seen before and strange upon strange, there was a bunk bed where his single bed should have been. He went to ask his Dad what was going on, but that didn't prove to be easy. His dad had got a call from school. It was about Simon going around telling people that his twin brother was dead. "You told everyone that Colin was dead! Do you know how much your lies hurt people!" his Dad shouted.
Simon was confused, but he was more scared of his dad's temper. It called for drastic measures. His dad liked it when Simon was playful. He also liked watching the A-Team with him (it was pretty much the only time he couldn't get away from his family, due to their continuous close proximity to the TV). The best bit in the show would be when Mr T, the A-Team’s tough guy with an ironic fear of flying, would say, "I don't get in no plane, Sucker!" Saying this seemed to be a bit strong for the temper his dad was in, so Simon decided to change the first letter of sucker and say something like, "Don't shout at me, you old mucker." Dad would appreciate him sharing a joke. He was always after his attention. So Simon shouted, "Stop shouting you big FUCKER!"
It worked for about three seconds. Simon was relieved that Dad stopped being angry. Three seconds later, however, he became angrier than he had ever been in Simon’s life and he picked him up with one hand and threw him out of the room. Simon landed on the floor and hurt his leg. He ran and hid under his mother's bed. "What's wrong, my love?" the old bag asked him. Simon didn't answer. "No matter what it is, just tell me and I'll go and tell daddy off," she said comfortingly.
"I told him..." Simon managed to whimper between sucking short breathes of air, "That he was a fucker."
Needless to say, Simon was shortly running from that room too. He hid under his own bed, never feeling so alone. This made him feel a bit better. No one understood him, he was better than them, and they would all feel stupid when he would be the biggest hero in the world. Just then, another head popped under his bed. “What's the matter, bro?” a voice asked.
Simon looked in amazement at a boy who looked a bit like him, only a bit taller and a bit stronger looking. "Who are you?" Simon asked softly, still crying.
"Don't be silly," the boy said, "I'm Colin, your brother." He crawled under the bed with Simon and put his arm around him. "You told the teacher in school that I was dead today but I don't mind. Mum says it's because you have an overactive imagination."
Simon remembered the words Claire the witch had said to him and the lie he told Corey Paisley. He assumed that this was all a dream. Dreams can be very real. Simon sometimes wondered: am I dreaming? I can walk here, and I can point over there. When he was just about certain it wasn't a dream, he would wake up. "I don't have a brother," Simon told the boy.
"Yes you do," Colin laughed. "And I'm not just an ordinary brother. I can make anything you want come true."
"Prove it then," Simon smiled. "I don't want dad to be mad at me anymore,"
"It's done," Colin shrugged, "Go downstairs and look."
Simon went downstairs and saw his dad watching TV. He smiled eagerly at him the way he always did and said, "Hello son, are you OK? Do you want to play a game?"
As always, Simon answered him, "No," and went back upstairs. Sure that it wasn't a dream. He thought maybe having a brother wouldn’t be so bad.

The next day Simon went to school with Colin and he saw that Mrs Bennet was crying. "Cool," Simon said.
"I have very bad news, children," she told the class. "School is going to be cancelled for the rest of the day." Everyone cheered while the teacher attempted to calm them down. "Please children," she tried.
"Ace!" Simon said. He hadn't even asked Colin to make that come true. Today would probably be better than yesterday.
The headmaster came in and the class became quiet. Then he told them why school was going to be cancelled. "I'm afraid that one of your school mates has been killed. Corey Paisley was going to the loo when someone stuck his head in the toilet until he drowned."
Simon suddenly got a stomach ache. He looked at Colin, who was smiling at him.
"We don't think it's safe for you to be here," the headmaster went on. "School is cancelled until we notify your parents otherwise."
Lots of the kids were crying. Simon looked at Mrs Bennet and listened to what she was saying to the headmaster ("I don't see how some maniac just walked in and did this. Someone would have seen him."). Simon ran out of the class room while the teachers protested, "ITS NOT SAFE, SIMON!"

Simon ran home as fast as he could. Colin was trying to catch up, telling him to stop. Claire had been a clever witch. She had made his second worst nightmare come true, giving him a brother. Being alone would be impossible now. He would even have to share his Mr T action figure, which he discovered his parents were buying him. She didn't realise how lucky she was living with just her mother, she could be alone whenever she wanted to.
When they were home, Colin finally got to speak to his brother, "Don't be nasty to me, Simon," he said nicely. "I was only doing what you wanted. Be nice to me or I'll kill you as well, or I could do worse than kill you."
"Kill me?" Simon laughed, "That's not likely if you have to do whatever I want!"
"Be nice Simon!" Colin said sternly
"You can't kill me," Simon was still laughing, "I made you up in my imagination!"
"I AM REAL!! YOU MADE ME REAL!! I JUST WANTED TO BE LOVED LIKE A BROTHER AND I COULD HAVE MADE ALL OF YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE!!"
"YOU'RE NOT REAL!!" Simon smiled evilly, always knowing what to say to hurt people; he spent a lot of time thinking about it.
Colin looked very hurt, "I AM REAL!! AND I HAVE FEELINGS!! AND I CAN DO ANYTHING I WANT!! LIKE MAKE YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE COME TRUE!!"
Simon shuddered, thinking about the cockroach-like creatures in his worst nightmare who killed everyone but him. "But you have to do anything I want," Simon said quietly.
"Well, you do want to be alone," Colin smiled with a face identical to his brother. "Now you can be alone forever." Then Colin disappeared and Simon never saw him again.
"He's gone!" Simon said with surprise. He went downstairs and saw his mother was crying. It was strange, seeing her cry. It was like a horrible dream. He asked her what was wrong and she pointed to her ear. There was a creature that looked like a cockroach crawling around there. She couldn't speak because she was in so much pain. Simon was crying because he knew what was going to happen. Just like in his worst nightmare, the creature slowly became longer and longer until it traveled to her neck and strangled his mother.
Simon was the only person they couldn't kill because he ran so fast and knew to avoid treading on them. Everyone else was getting strangled, not knowing that if you stepped on the creatures, they strangled you anyway somehow. Soon everybody would be dead except for him. Then he would be so dreadfully alone.

Simon Spam was not like other seven year olds. He was a compulsive liar who lived in his own fantasy world and who always sought his own company. However, just before his eighth birthday, Simon changed. He looked a bit taller and stronger. He became more like the other kids, amazed by the ordinary and liked nothing better than to play with all his friends (suddenly becoming a lot more popular at school). They would come to his house on Saturday when he wasn't seeing Claire, his girlfriend, whom he used to be so cruel to. His mother and father would always wonder what could have happened so suddenly to make their only son change so much.