Awakenings

Awakenings
By Stephen Scully

It was a hot summer's day in July, the sun was shining bright, the air was filled with the sounds of insects and children screaming their excited messages of summer to whomever was listening. A small quiet boy, rather pale and shy looking stood in the shade of a tree with a book in his hands and a group of children at his feet. “and then the princess was freed from the tower by the gallant prince, whose hard work and determination to win her heart saved the kingdom from the dark witch.” he closed the book with a snap. “and that was 'Forest of foreboding'!” all the children around him burst into speech at once, as one voice, demanding more reading, more shade, or more snacks. The little boy, whose name was Seth Niall Lynch beamed at his admirers. He could read quite advanced literature  for his age and read it well, which made him popular on hot summer days when the more intellectual children didn't want to get sweaty in the burning hot sun. A group of them broke off to go play a video game inside and he simply leaned back against the tree, closing his eyes and smiling to himself. He was not used to the idea of friends, his only friend previously being his brother Richard, who had encouraged the sheltered little boy to branch out and meet new people. He thought about this for a while, drifting off in the summer heat to thoughts of knights and princesses when he felt an odd weight on his body. His eyes snapped open to see a little girl, around his own age or perhaps a year older smiling at him in an odd way and leaning against him in the shade. She lounged dramatically, her head on her hand supported by an elbow carefully placed between his outstretched legs.

He looked down at her in amazement and she said shyly “hiya!” after he remained silent for a time, she said, “my name's Elizabeth. Remember me? I've always listened to your book readings. I really enjoyed your story!” she told him.

He beamed at her. “thank you!” he said, “what about it did you like?”

She ignored this question directly but answered it in the end with, “what do you think of the knight? And the princess?”

“well,” Seth said, considering, “I really like the idea of getting a princess, because then I could rescue her and make her happy, and,” he blushed, “we could, uh, do romance stuff.” he said sheepishly.

She smiled coyly at him, a strange gleam in her large hazel eyes. She propped herself up now on two hands, leaning herself into him, forcing his to cringe back away from her into the tree as she grew so close she was almost lying on top of him. He tried to sidle sideways but she adjusted her position to block his escape. She spoke softly then, that gleam intensified in her eyes. “so, Seth.” she said, “what if I were your princess?” she asked him.

He mouthed nothingness at her and managed, “and I was the knight?”

“Of course.”

“that'd make me very happy, I think.”

“it could happen, you know. You've already saved me from the castle of those other rowdier boys, and now we're all alone together out here.” she told him.

He gazed at her, and he felt his gaze fighting to look at more of her. She moved in even closer now, actually laying on him, her chest and hips pressed into his and her face so close he could feel her small rapid breaths on his cheek. “Ah, um, I do wish I was a knight. I'd like to rescue you, and bring you to a castle somewhere to be my princess. We could be together...” he trailed off, blushing furiously, “but that's silly of course, and I'm sorry--I bet that was rude.” he tried to get up but she pressed into him harder, her body against his and oppressively tempting. He felt some stirring deep inside some instinct that was primal telling him that this was right, this was good, and he should get even closer to her... but how? What did this feeling mean? He didn't understand what it was trying to get him to do.

“no,” she said, “it wasn't rude. I'd be your princess, if you want. And we already have a castle right here.” she smiled hugely at him and his eyes bulged in fear, eagerness and confusion. She leaned in, mouth poised to kiss him, and he tentatively put his mouth in the position he thought was best for it and squeezed his eyes shut. Suddenly he felt a slight pain on his ear and his eyes sprang open. “Fooled you!” Elizabeth cried out happily. “you thought I was going to kiss you! Haha no way, you're too creepy! But you were so funny when you believed me! She sat back on her feet, kneeling between his legs and laughing.

Seth began to cry silently, his red eyes narrowing into dangerous slits. “that was really mean.” he said. “why would you lie to me like that? Why?”

She continued giggling and just added insult to injury. She rubbed herself against him again, saying, “aw, does the lonely creeper boy want a girlfriend? Too bad! No girl would ever want you! I just wanted to tease you, you're so funny when you're sad!” she started to get up away from him when she felt his arms around her back. He pulled her in, pressing her hard to him. “hey!” screamed at him. “what the hell do you think you're doing! Let go I said I don't like you!” she couldn't move her arms, he had pinned them too tightly. She tried flailing her legs, but this did little more than to tap her feet, making little dust clouds from the dry earth. She pulled back far enough to see his eyes and screamed at what she saw. He had gone strange, his eyes looked right through her and his mouth was slightly open. He kept licking his lips over and over again, staring at her and beyond her terrified face.

Seth was going strange. Something had compelled him to grab her. He was so angry! She was teasing him and being cruel just so she could hurt him! Just for fun! It made him so furious he wanted to do things to her... he felt that same urge as before but this time it was different, something was new, something was wrong. He began to fade away, he could still feel her struggling, could feel it less and less as the world became less important and eventually turned to blackness.

Suddenly there was light, and Seth blinked rapidly in the sunlight blinding him. After taking a moment to shade his eyes with a hand he looked down around him and stopped dead. Elizabeth was gasping and groaning at his feet, blood pouring from her neck. There was a bloody mark there and it was oozing slowly. He began to panic as he saw her eyes rolling up into her head in shock. He ran to go get his brother from inside, and as he did so wiped his chin of something dribbling down it and tickling his skin. He glanced at his hand as he ran and what he saw there made him stop dead in his tracks again. Blood glistened like liquid life on his hands, his face, and soon he realized all over his clothes. He could taste blood in his mouth and felt the strange urge to swallow. He did so, and felt better...much better. What the heck had happened?! She was being mean, and he fell asleep, and he woke up and she was hurt, and there was blood all over him? What had happened!? Seth realized now that the urge he had felt just before passing out was gone, he seemed happier than before.

Forgetting all this he continued his run to the house and found his brother in his room. “Richard! Please, help!” he pleaded. Richard did not stop to ask questions but immediately sprang to his feet to follow his trusted little brother. “what happened?” he said seriously when he saw the dying girl. He looked closely at his younger brother, who was carefully standing in the shade of the trees near the girl. “why are you covered in blood? Were you hurting her?”

Seth looked angry. “No! She was hurting me!” he insisted defensively.

“...so you just hurt her back, but did it too hard? A sense of justice overdone perhaps?” Richard said, cool as ice and trying to reassure.

“I didn't....” the little boy said, trailing off into silence as he watched his big brother heave the girl up and run with her over to a police car down the block.

A long time later he sat at home with a police officer, Elizabeth's parents, and his family all staring at him, waiting for a reply. He had nothing to say, and didn't know what to think. There had been a security camera on the schoolyard they were playing in, and it had caught everything. It had caught her teasing, her cruelty, and it had also shown...

“what... the hell... did you do?” his mother said as calmly as she could manage. Seth didn't look at her, and his brother said quietly, “I'm sure he had a reason, mom,” but she interrupted him with an explosion of rage. “reason? What the--” and she let out  a stream of curses at the sad little boy, “could be a reason to rip a little girl's throat out with his goddamn teeth?!” she screamed.

Seth began to cry silently and Richard placed a strong hand on his shoulder to reassure him. “he was just acting in self defense, I think, but he became a bit overzealous.” Richard nodded at the screen still looping footage of the scared little boy's crime, “you saw her, she was being mean to him, and, well, you know little boys....” he reasoned with her, but she would have none of it.

“that's it!” she screamed, making the policeman jump, “I'm sick of pretending you're normal. You've always been a freak and I'll have no more of it! Officer, take him away or lock him up or something, just get him out of my house!”

“Mom!” Seth cried out, tears flowing down his face.

“You are no child of mine!” she screamed at him, “you're sick! I regretted you the instant you popped you sickly pale head out! Get out of here! You could have killed that girl you freak! Get out!” she screamed. She threw a coffee mug at him which burst on his head, making him fall back into the chair and sob harder than ever. His father grabbed her shoulders and said sternly, “Elanor!”

Richard was looking at Seth's head for damages. There was a chunk of ceramic stuck into his forehead, but as he went to gently pluck it out it popped itself out from the skin and clattered onto the floor. Oh well, one less thing to worry about. He left the room hurriedly to get tissues from the bathroom for his head. As he went back with the tissues to hold over the wound he stopped in surprise. There was no wound on his forehead anymore. Tears still streamed down his face, and his brow was still creased in a dark scowl but the wound had vanished.

Their mother was screaming again. “Officer! Remove him now! I DON'T EVER WANT TO SEE THAT THING AGAIN!!” she pointed an angry finger at the boy.

Seth began to cry, pleading for his father to stop her, but it did no good. He buried his head in his hands and sobbed as Richard tried to hug him, protecting him from their hysterically screaming mother.

As Richard began to whisper soft reassurances in his little brother's ear, “it'll be OK, little bro, just hold on to--” but the little boy leapt from his arms with a feral lunge and punched his mother in the chest as hard as he could. She toppled over onto the kitchen floor, screaming and gagging from the blow. The policeman and his father moved to grab him but he sprang from the table onto her chest and began beating her head with his little fists over and over again screaming “I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!” and sobbing hysterically. Finally all three men heaved him off of her and threw him back into his chair. The little boy rolled on the chair screaming his agony of threefold pains. He looked around for more help. None was to come from Elizabeth's parents, currently trying to hide behind the policeman. His two sisters had fled upstairs as well, and he sat alone in his world of darkness.

The officer walked over to him after checking on Elanor Lynch and said sternly, “I know she was being mean to you, young man, very mean indeed, and I know it hurts a lot, ...but that was utterly unacceptable... you're going to have to come with me.”

Seth looked wild eyed at his brother, “No! Don't let them take me Richard!” he begged.

Richard tried pleading with the officer but he was resolute. “I'm sorry but it has to be done. He's a minor so it won't be very--” and suddenly Seth had punched him too.

“I'm sorry!” Seth cried out as he sprinted down the hall to his room. He grabbed some more clothes and a backpack he always kept ready just in case something like this ever happened and sprinted out the main door before the officer could chase him. He had never thought he would need to escape, had always just been happy imaginings from fanciful tales. He had prepared that backpack after reading stories about people fleeing from alien invasions and it had seemed like a good idea. Now he was using it at last, scared and running, crying out behind him, “I'm really sorry officer! But no! Never! I never want to see her again!” he was sobbing hard again, and Richard started to chase after him. “No Richard no! Don't do it!” Richard kept pounding down the street after him, a determined sad look on his stern face. “no Richard please!” he begged, but Richard tackled him into the dirt beside a neighbor's house.

Richard held his struggling brother down tightly and said sadly, “I'm really sorry, brother, I really am, but, well, it has to be done. We'll get a doctor or something for you and he'll fix you right up, OK? It'll be fine, you'll see.”

“NO!!”

“You won't have to see mom ever again if you don't want to!”

“No! Let me go! I don't want to hurt you!”

“I don't want to hurt you either so come quietly and--”

“NOO!” Seth screamed at clawed at the face of his best friend and brother. Richard's face exploded with blood and he shrieked, falling back off him. Seth gazed at his hand, the fingernails were strangely long and sharp, dripping with Richard's blood. He was horrified to feel something inside him glad, pleased and the violence and pain, and he shuddered at the things he suddenly wanted to do.

Richard gazed at him through his mangled face. “Seth, I...” he swallowed hard to stop the pain overwhelming him, “I love you man. Just go. Someday, maybe, I'll see you again. I'll send you some money and things, you'll know where to pick them up. Just go for now.” Seth stared at his brother and began to cry again, reaching out a bloodied hand to hug him but Richard slapped it aside, “just go!”

And Seth ran off to join the night, sobbing, lost and alone.