Chapter 23 - Meeting Hunter

"The first time I met Hunter was back in elementary school."

A child Marcus is at his home all by himself reading a note that his parents left him, the note states 'we went to the store and got some more groceries in the fridge.' As the child Marcus goes to the fridge, he hears a loud bang come from outside. Curious, Marcus opens the door to see a kid his age trying to pick up a trash can he accidentally knocked over.

"Y'know, a part of me wonders how different things would have been if I never said hi to him..."

The kid Marcus goes over to the other kid and helps him pick up the trash.

"Thanks for that," the other kid says.

"No problem," Marcus says.

"How better would my life have been..."

"By the way, if you ever wanna play some baseball, then come find me! The name's Hunter Huntingson, and don't you forget it," the young kid says with a smile on his face.

"If I never met Hunter."

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Back in middle school, both Marcus & Hunter are in class chatting during work time. Hunter is trying to toss crushed-up balls of paper into the trash can from his desk.

"Back then, we got along really well. I don't know if it was that we had a similar sense of humor, or that we could bond over some issues, but for the longest time..."

As Hunter tells Marcus a joke, he can't help but laugh.

"I thought we would be friends forever."

As the two continued to talk, the loudspeaker in the classroom activated as it stated, "Hunter Huntingson, please come down to the main office."

Hunter looks at Marcus and shrugs as he stands up.

"I'll catch you later Buddy," Hunter says as he walks towards the door.

"Oh, okay," Marcus replies.

"Little did I know it then but..."

Hunter walks out of the classroom and the door closes behind him.

"That would be the last time I would see Hunter like that."

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A few days later on a cloudy rainy day, Marcus is in the cafeteria when he sees Hunter. Hunter's eyes look vacant as he eats his food. Marcus walks over and sits at his table.

"Hey Hunter," Marcus began to say, concerned, "I haven't seen you for a while, everything okay?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Hunter murmurs.

"Oh okay," Marcus replies as an awkward silence falls between the two of them. 

Hunter looks down at his lunch tray, staring at the cheaply put-together sandwich.

Trying to cheer him up, Marcus adds, "Hey listen, if you want you can come over to my house today and we can hang out. You won't need to worry about my parents since you know how my dad gets home late & how my mom-"

Hunter grits his teeth as he stands up and begins walking away.

"You know Marcus, it sure sucks how your parents can just leave you be and you can do whatever you want," Hunter snaps.

"What? Hunter-" Marcus tries to say but gets cut off.

Hunter interjects by saying "Your parents really must be the worst huh? Your life must be so miserable."

Marcus doesn't know what to say as Hunter walks away and murmurs to himself, "At least you have a mom."

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"After that moment, every time I saw Hunter, he would be different."

Marcus is walking down the hall when he sees Hunter arguing with a teacher. His face has a few bruises and his hands are wrapped in bandages.

"He started lashing out at teachers, he got into a ton of fights, and the thing that made me the most upset was..."

After getting scolded by the teacher, Hunter walks over to Marcus and proceeds to spill some water over his clothes.

"How he began to 'joke' around with me."

"Oh, I'm sorry Buddy!" Hunter began to say, "I didn't see you there!"

"Oh, no worries," Marcus said.

"It would look like innocent teasing to anybody on the outside."

After a while, Marcus is walking to another class when Hunter 'accidentally' knees him in the groin.

"What the hell!" Marcus yells.

"Buddy, what's the big deal, I'm just messing around!" Hunter casually remarks.

"And whenever I'd try and stand up for myself, he'd just pretend like this was how we always acted. To those looking from the outside, it looked like I was the one acting irrationally."

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In a male bathroom in Starlight Middle School, Marcus is washing his hands when Hunter walks in. The two make eye contact as Hunter walks over to Marcus.

"So Buddy, you wanna hang out later?" Hunter asks as Marcus just looks down.

"I don't want to," Marcus murmurs.

"What? Why not! We always hang out."

"I'm not in the mood Hunter," Marcus sighs.

"Oh, you aren't?" Hunter begins to remark, "Well you sure were in the mood back then. But I get it, you wouldn't want to hang out with someone like me anymore, you're just gonna abandon me. Is that it?"

Marcus groans as he shouts, "Hunter! What is your problem?!"

"Problem?"

"I mean, why are you like this? This isn't you!" Marcus screams.

As Marcus stops talking he looks at Hunter whose eyes are filled with rage.

"I'm not like this? This isn't me? You don't know a damn thing about me!" Hunter begins to yell, "You have no idea who I am, everything I go through, you're just some… some stupid kid unaware of the real world!"

As Hunter is breathing heavily and his hands are shaking, Marcus tries to reach out to Hunter, however in a fit of blind rage and not realizing what he was doing, Hunter makes a fist and punches Marcus straight in the face.

"In that instant, we no longer were friends..."

As Marcus falls to the ground, Hunter snaps back to reality as he realizes what he's just done. Regret washes over Hunter's entire body as he remorsefully goes to reach out to Marcus and help him up.

But he stops himself, as something else begins to bubble up inside him.

Something he hasn't felt before.

Power.

The power to be stronger than someone.

The power to maintain some sort of control.

The power to feel absolutely free.

"Instead, the only thing I was to Hunter was..."

As Marcus tries to get up, Hunter grabs Marcus by the hair as he makes a fist with his other hand. 

"H-Hunter?" Marcus groans, "Wh-what are you doing?"

Hunter's fist begins to tremble as a twisted smile begins to slowly inch its way across his face.

Finally, Hunter bellows, "Hey Buddy, did you think I was done after just one swing?!"

"Nothing more than a mere punching bag."

See You Next Chapter!~