Chapter 3

My face was all pummeled, lying down on the ground full of blood, I was exhausted. What a long day it's been, this is what I go through almost every day, which is why I hate school so much. These aren't the rights of a human being, not even those of a beast. No one deserves to go through this and yet it's allowed because I have nobody to protect me nor do I have someone with any political power in my family, not a single person, respects me no one has a reason to. To them I am merely an object, nothing more and not a thing less. To them all I am is a toy, and my only purpose is to entertain them. 

The only requirement of my life is to wake up, go to school, and get beat, nothing else. 

I've had enough of this life; this existence sucks. Maybe I should just go ahead and kill myself. It would be much easier for everyone else, or at least for my teachers since they won't be feeling bad when I get a beating and aren't able to do anything out of fear for Brad's father. I sigh... Whatever this is a waste of energy, I get up and look over at the watch on my wrist to realize it's 15 minutes past 3 pm. In a hurry, I rinse my face with water and rush to the classroom where I left my school bag. Ms. Fitzgerald, still there grading our papers from our previous exam. Ms. Fitzgerald is the one and only teacher that somewhat treats me like a human being instead of an animal. As I walked past the doorway, entering her class, I saw she took the time to put my things in my bag and brought it to the door. Having heard me enter the class she tells me to hurry since I'll get fired if I end up being late for work again. Without saying anything I left her class running out of the school's main entrance. Every day after school I hurry home, having done so for a long time my endurance is quite impressive. Allowing me to turn a 30-minute walk into a 15-minute run. After running that same distance every day as fast as possible it led to me becoming quite capable compared to others. Even those like Brad who was on the school football team were not as fast as I was. 15 minutes went by, and I had finally made it home. There's 10 minutes before the city bus arrives to take me downtown where I work. I enter my room in a hurry and take my clothings off and change into work clothes, while doing so I put ice on my cuts and bruises making it less obvious I was pummeled while I serve the customers. In that short period, I heard the bus arrive near my house. I throw the ice pack on my bed and make my way outside, running down the stairs exiting through the back door, and jump over the fence separating me from the neighbors. The bus right in front of me was about to close its doors. I barely had the chance to put my hand through the door and force it open letting me enter.

While entering the bus, I nod to the driver who scoffs at me as he does every other day. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if he hoped I would be late just to see my disappointed face. I sneak by everyone on the bus as they cover the empty seats next to them indicating they don't want me to sit next to them, and as usual I end up standing the entire 45-minute ride. It's now 3:55 pm; work starts in 5 minutes, luckily I arrive at my stop 2 minutes before 4 PM. From now on it's just a simple 1-minute jog, as I'm running to work I spot a little dog that was getting attacked by a few kids. They were throwing rocks and kicking the poor little guy. I keep running because I can't be late for work or there will be consequences. A few seconds go by, and I can't stop thinking about the poor pup, so I turn back. As I make my way back I hear them laughing, They seem to be younger and smaller than me, once making it to the alleyway I see the dog still whimpering. In fear for the dogs' health, I confront the kids, "Fuck off! Or you guys are dead" I threaten with a deep voice. Of course in reality, I would be the one to die. I can't do anything to protect myself, but I was hoping they would just be scared and run away. As they stared at me confused and speechless "Are you guys deaf? Move it," I demand, luckily the final push made them run away. I run up to the dog, He's breathing heavily and covered in blood, there's nothing left for me to do but hope he makes it. As he's taking his last breath, someone arrives, "Hey what's going on I heard a noise," says a random man wearing a navy suit with dark blue pants as he turns into the alley, he sees the dog on the verge of death and asks me to move out the way as he's a paramedic. I tell him what happened, and he sighs, "Is he going to be okay?" I ask, worrying for the dogs' health "If we get him help now he might be able to live with just a few injuries," he answers. He conducts first aid while I call a vet, the Veterinarian asks where we are and that they'll send someone to pick us up as soon as possible. I give them the address and pass the phone I borrowed back to the paramedic and state that I need to go as I'm going to be late for work. He nods, I run as fast as I can. Taking the final turn around the block to get to work I see my boss standing there with his arms crossed to his chest, the tapping of his foot on the floor showing a clear sign of frustration and impatience. He's morbidly obese with no hair, to be barely 30 and already having lost all his hair, there must be a significant amount of stress in his life. If things keep going this way, I might end up like him in my twenties. I ran up to him " I'm sorry I'm late. There was a dog that was on the verge of death. I needed to help him," I explain, panting from the running, before I get the chance to finish clarifying what happened. The large man cuts me off "You're full of shit, I don't have time for your stupid excuses," he says. "We have a lot to do today," he adds, clearly ignoring the obvious injuries on my face. I look down and sigh as I walk into the store. While at work, I can't stop thinking about whether or not the dog is okay. The regret in continuing to run lingers in my head. If I hadn't, maybe he would have had more of a chance of making it. My shift goes by pretty fast, it's now 10 PM, and it's time for me to get ready to leave. My boss, however, has different plans,"where do you think you're going?" he asks, with his arms once again crossed at his chest while tapping his foot on the ceramic flooring. "I'm going home, it's 10 pm," I declare, "are you not going to pay me back for being 30 minutes late?" he asks, with a bothered look on his face; I look down at my feet as I declare my lack of money. " No shit! That's why you're staying later, clearly your parents didn't teach you anything with the time they had'' he turns around and scoffs. Still looking down I try my best not to react to his comment no matter how mad I am for what he just said. The last 30 minutes felt so long compared to the rest of my shift. It's now 10:31 pm, and I'm getting ready to leave. This time he doesn't say anything but "scoff." On my way back to the bus I walked by the alley where the dog was attacked, I spotted where he was beaten as there was a large puddle of blood for his small body." I wonder if he's okay,"I think to myself out loud;" I make it to my bus, but this time it's empty, out of habit I walk to the back of the bus and stand holding onto the handle. I made it back home. It's now 11:30, and I'm exhausted. I go to my empty room and lie in my small bed to get some well deserved sleep.

I suddenly find myself inside my school, it's a mess, everything is in disorder. It's completely empty, I walk around in the dark. Blood and bodies cover the scene; I even discover bones, it must have been a long time for there to have decomposed bodies on the floor. I ponder... Why has no one found this? it's a massacre, why hasn't this been interrogated, this would be a extremely critical case. I take a left and recognize a body this one is still composed compared to the other ones, I look closely. It's Brad he lost his left-arm and bears a sword stuck in his chest, tears are running along his face I scoff and turn around to continue going down the halls. He grasps my arm asking for help. "P-Please h-help me," he says with blood dripping from his mouth. He continues pleading "T-there are monsters, i-if you don't leave y-you'll die." He completes his sentence and dies; I neglect what he mentions as he's probably trying to frighten me. I find myself in a situation where I can take a left or right. I stand in the middle for a second trying to figure out what way to advance. I detect a sound it's a familiar sound... It appears to be whimpering. It's coming from my left, I run towards it as fast as I can, the whimpering is becoming louder and louder as I get closer. I finally arrive its the dog that was beat up. He's lying down next to a body. I stare at him, but he doesn't seem to notice me, as he tries making it to the body. I take a look at it to try and figure out why he won't let the body go. I look at the body's face, I stand up as fast as I can and get as far as possible to that body. The body has jet-black hair and a scar on the left side of his face; He is frail and youthful. It looks exactly like me "fuck that!" I shout, this body is mine. In confusion and fear, I step closer to try and see what's going on. I want to know; I need to know, why am I dead, why am I in school? As I make contact with my lifeless body a screen shows up in front of it. In red text it says, "8 months… you have exactly 8 months, prepare yourself or die…" I wake up in a cold sweat overwhelmed by panic.