Chapter 4: An Extinguished Flame

Caleb found himself panting loudly as he sprinted through the park towards the bridge.

The sound of his beating heart loudly pounding in his ears was all that he could hear as he made his way through the park. 

He didn't care about the fingers of passerby that pointed his way as he made his way through the park, nor did he care about the burning sensation coursing through his aching body as his muscles screamed out in protest at his mad sprint.

His focus was solely on the feeling of foreboding that had been crawling through his mind all morning that by now had bloomed into full blown panic.

All this time he'd been running along the edge of the river and the more he ran the more the small boats floating along on the surface of the water stood out to him slowly consuming what little sanity was still present in him as their presence alluded to something sinister for Caleb.

The now unfolded paper boat that he had pulled from the water weeds was even now still clenched in his hand as he made his way through the park, and had anyone been able to see it as he ran past them, they would have noticed it looked like a page torn out of a comic book. 

Finally as he rounded the bend and came upon the small hidden pathway that led to the underside of the bridge he slowed his steps as he noticed the signs that others had recently been through the path before him, and from the way that the weeds had been broken down, it was a sizable group of people at that.

Pushing aside the overgrown weeds that he had left to prevent persons from noticing his home, he finally came to the underside of the bridge and the sight the meet him caused his breath to hitch in his throat.

His little alcove had been raided.

Items that he knew belonged to him, items that he had been slowly collecting as time went by, were now scattered all over the ground covered in muddy foot prints as proof tat those who had done it meant to cause as much damage as they could.

The suitcase that he used to store his clothes had been thrown into the river after it had been slashed to bits, while its contents had been stomped into the mud along the river side. 

He stepped closer to the carnage and with shaking hands reached out to pick up his blankets, only to notice that they had been slashed to shreds. He spun around looking for something, anything that he could possibly salvage, but everything had been damaged in some way or the other. 

Shirts' had had their sleeves removed, pants legs had been cut off and what little undergarments he managed to find had been reduced to little more than rags.

The sight threatened to push Calen spiraling back into the pit that he'd barley managed to claw his way out of just a few hours ago, but he couldn't help it 

He kept looking and looking. Digging through the piles of tattered clothing searching for something, anything that could have managed to survived, until he was forced to accept his new reality. 

With nothing else to do he slowly turned towards the space under the bridge and with heavy steps, made his way towards it. 

The sounds of laughter that he had been purposefully ignoring was now grating on his ears and the emotions that he'd been suppressing for the last two months or so, ever so slowly started bumbled up to the surface once again.

He grit his teeth tightly as the red hot anger started coursing through his veins and he clenched his fist as his eyes finally managed to focus on the group of boys that were currently sitting, standing and even laying down in the scattered remains of his now ransacked alcove.

He looked around at the other scattered and broken items that littered the floor before finally locking unto a familiar figure crouching by the rivers edge. 

Silence fell as everyone stopped what they had been doing and stared between Caleb and Jackson, who seemed to not have noticed anything amiss as he continued to do as he pleased. 

The grating sound of paper being torn rang out as Jackson tore yet another page out of the book that he held in his hand before slowly and meticulously folding the paper several times before revealing the final result.

The delicately folded paper boat was then placed unto the water and gently pushed into the current that slowly carried it away.

Caleb watched on as the boat gently floated away, his eyes never leaving the paper boat until the sound of Jacksons voice drew his attention onto him once again.

"So what do you think? It's not my best work, but I think it was still pretty good if I do say so myself." 

Jackson was no longer crouching and had stood to his full height and turned to face Caleb. He flicked jhis hand towards Caleb and the tattered remains of the book that he had been holding flew towards Caleb, hitting him in the chest, before it fell to the floor.

"Surprisingly, this useless peace of scrap paper was pretty damn sturdy. Turned out to be perfect for a little arts and crafts project I'd been thinking about doing for a while." 

Caleb ignored Jacksons snide remark and instead glanced at the now tattered Naruto manga the lay at his feet. His heart ached at the sight of the torn out pages and the crumpled cover. 

He looked around and saw several more of them scattered all around the alcove with their pages clearly torn out and scattered all over the ground. He could only assume that the other missing books had been dumped into the river as he could clearly see that a good few of them were still missing.

"I have to thank you though. It's thanks to you that me and boys managed to find such a good hangout spot. Well hidden, not too far from town, yet just out of the way that it feels like a little getaway. Plus its also quite spacious."

 Jackson slowly sauntered over towards Caleb, his drawling voice the only sound Caleb could hear.

"Of course we had to get rid of the trash that we found laying around here before we could claim it for our own. Sadly there didn't seem to be anything of importance so we just threw everything out. Found a couple books laying around and I managed to practice some origami that I'd alm-"

"Why?" Caleb cut off Jackson and his spiel, while glaring daggers at him.

"Hmm? Why we threw out the trash? I figured even an idiot like you could figure th-"

"Why are you targeting me?" Caleb took a step forward and Jackson stooped walking around to glare at him.

"What have I ever done to you that made you want to make me suffer?" 

Jackson locked eyes with Caleb before snickering. If looks could kill he'd have been six feet under with the way Caleb was glaring at him but it didn't seem to faze him in the slightest. 

"Does it even matter if I answer you or not? What could you do about it hmm? Nothi-"

Caleb eyes flashed red and his patience finally snapped. He lunged at Jackson, clearly catching both him and his cronies off guard as he actually managed to reach Jackson without being intercepted by anyone, before punching him full force in the face.

Jackson's head whipped backward and he couldn't help but clutch onto his now broken and bleeding nose as he fell backwards unto the ground. Caleb didn't waste a single second ad he quickly went down with him making sure to straddling his fallen foe so that he couldn't get up and started to rain some furious punches unto him before anyone could react.

"Why do you target me you useless piece of shit! I never did anything to you, never confronted you, never stood up to you, never even tried to talk to you! So tell me Why?! Why me yo-"

Caleb didn't get a chance to continue his questions or the blows that he'd been laying into Jackson any farther, as by now the other boys had already managed to wake up form there stupor and had started to yank him off of their boss. 

He wasn't going down without a fight though and Caleb punched, kicked, scratched and bit anything he could reach before finally being subdued a short while after.

Jackson finally managed to scramble to his feet, while still holding unto his furiously bleeding nose, and glared with hatred at the now Kneeling Caleb who was being restrained by a few other people. 

His clothes were torn and he was sporting some new bruises from his scuffle with the group but he still glared back at Jackson with just as anger as he continued to struggle with his captors.

Jackson wiped his blood that had running down his face with a cloth that had been handed to him by one of his cronies, before stalking over to Caleb. 

He looked down at Caleb's who kept looking back at him with his defiant eyes and Jackson didn't like that at all. He reared back his leg before slamming it into Caleb guts, leaving him curled up on the floor like a cooked prawn as Caleb emptied his stomach of its contents all over the floor beneath him.

"You damn bastard!" 

Jackson shouted aloud as he continued to kink and stomp on Caleb 

"Who do you think you are to hit ME! You should be grateful that I even chose to speak to you, you god damn mongrel!"

With a final satisfying kick, Jackson was finally content with the beating he had inflicted onto Caleb, and slowly backed away while panting trying to catch his breath. Another of his cronies handed him a fresh handkerchief and he whipped his face once more before fliking the dirty cloth at Caleb

"You said that you wanted to know why? Hmm?" 

Jackson spat out the last bit of blood in his mouth onto Caleb's still curled up figure before once more kneeling next to the panting Caleb.

"You were right you know. There is no real reason why I should target you, no reason why you have to suffer at my hand in particular. No reason, other than because I want you too." 

Grabbing Caleb by the chin Jackson yanked up his head, forcing Caleb to look him in the eye as he continued to talk

"You have nothing, no one to turn too, no one willing to lend you a helping hand. You've never have anyone if I'm being honest."

Caleb tried to say something but Jackson tightened his grip on his chin painfully and Calen got the message that it wasn't his time to speak just yet.

"Your own father threw you out of his house after eighteen years without a second thought, and even your own bitch of a mother left you to your bastard father after pushing you out of her cunt and skipping town. No one has ever cared about you, and yet you still struggle. If I was in your position I'd have slit my throat a long time ago."

Jackson chuckled to himself before waving his hand towards one of the boys in the crowd who placed a lite cigarette into his hand.

He inhaled slowly before blowing a puff of smoke into Caleb's face, the smell instantly making him cough which only serve to bring a smile to Jackson's face.

"You know, people like you who keep struggling even when its perfectly clear that your struggles make no difference always intrigued me. I've watched you, you know. I made it my busyness to know everything about you. I've seen you fighting against your lot in life time and time again. You struggled against you father and anyone could see that that was a losing battle. How many days did you go to sleep hungry not because there wasn't food in the house to eat but because father dearest didn't want you to eat. How many beatings have you had to endure and even when you screamed out for help no one came to your rescue. Everyone knew but no one bothered to help. I wouldn't be surprised if he molested you a few times just for the hell of it."

Jackson watched intently as Caleb's breath hitched and nodded his head as he had already figured as much 

"You struggled in school to keep your grades up, spent hours in the library studying and researching for classes. Putting in one-hundred and ten percent in every class; yet, though you did end up graduating, your grades weren't anything to really celebrate about. You didn't get any of the scholarships that you applied for and since your old man was never going to support you through college you were bound to never get anything above a high school diploma. Even then you still applied for community college when you knew full well you couldn't even afford that. Still fighting for something better even though once again it was nothing but a losing battle." 

Jackson couldn't help but huffed while shaking his head. He'd seen stubborn people before but none of them had managed to rub him the wrong way like Caleb did.

"Funnily enough, had you just accepted the fact that you were never meant to go to college and struggled to find a job instead, chances are even thought your old man kicked you out you would have at least had some money saved up to find rent somewhere." 

Jackson cackled with laughter at the sight of Caleb's scrunched face.

"Haha! That's the face I wanted to see. You know that I'm right, that's why you can't say anything. What people like you never seem to realize is that the more you struggle against your fate, the more you fight back? The worse things will always get for you. 

You can keep fighting all you want but nothing you do will make a difference. No matter how much you struggle, no matter how hard you fight, no matter what you do, you can't make a difference. The cards have already been stacked against you from the very start.

So to answer your question. I hate people like you who keep pushing their luck when they should just realize that life is trying to tell them to keep their heads down and accept the shitty life that they have and stop trying to make things better."

Jackson took another dredge for his cigarette before standing up and looking down at Caleb. He had stopped struggling by now and seemed to be thinking about something, though it didn't matter all that much to Jackson. Exhaling another cloud of smoke he decided to pose his own question towards Caleb.

"Now that I've already answered your question as to why, I think its only fair that you answer me about mine. I'll ask you the same thing. Why? Why exactly are you fighting against your reality? What reason do you have to do the things that you do? Who are you really fighting for? I mean you could die today and it wouldn't make a difference. Your death wouldn't sadden anyone, no one would worry about you or the fact that you disappeared. Your very existence was more of bother than anything else, and your erasure might make people happy instead of sad. You have no one to rely on and yet at the same time no one relies on you."

Jackson once more yanked on Caleb's face so that they could lock eyes before speaking once more 

"So I ask you again, Why?"

Caleb's eyes became unfocused as he began to process everything he had listened to. He wanted to refute it, wanted to scream at Jackson that he was wrong, that his fight was not in vain, that he had a purpose, that his drive was worthy, that there was worth in his struggle, that all he needed was a chance, a single chance and he'd show them all just how special he was.

Yet, even as he struggled to open his mouth no words came out.

In a way Jackson wasn't wrong. All his life he had fought to become someone better, to rise above his station. He refused to give up and give in to the darkness that always seemed to want to sallow him, to take the shitty hand that life had delt him and still manage to make something out of it. 

But nothing had ever changed. 

No one acknowledged his struggle, no one acknowledged his pain, no one acknowledged his drive, no one acknowledged his potential, and no one acknowledged how hard he fought to make a difference. 

Instead, all of his efforts was for naught. He had no one, no real reason to keep fighting other than to prove that he did have worth, that he could make a difference, but even then why did it matter if there wasn't anyone to prove his worth too. 

A blanket of silence covered everyone as time ticked on. Jackson watched as Caleb's eyes slowly dimmed and a smile broke out across his face. 

He let go of Caleb's face and turned to walk away. In reality He had hoped that Caleb wouldn't have broken so easily. He had like to slowly enjoy his time when he was toying with people like him. People who had a flame of hope and defiance that kept burning no matter how much you poked and prodded at it and tried to put it out. 

He had hoped it wouldn't have ended like all the others toys that he had the pleasure of playing with, but it seemed Caleb's flame wasn't as resilient as he had thought. He took once last look at Caleb's poor crumpled broken figure before turning away and continuing on.

Caleb stayed on the ground in his own little pool of vomit, sweat, tears and blood as the words of Jackson kept bouncing around in head, dragging him deeper and deeper into a uncontrollably spiral of dreaded despair.

What did it even matter if he kept trying to do better, trying to be better, if nothing seemed to get better at the end of the day. 

Why was he struggling in a world that clearly didn't want him in it? 

Why was he even fighting anyway? Was he fighting for himself, and if so, did it even really matter in the end if he had no one to share his success with? 

Nothing he had done had mattered up to this point, so what made him think that anything he did in the future would matter more?

Nothing that he'd been fighting to do had made a difference. He was still struggling, still in pain, still suffering, still fighting-

Caleb was fed-up with struggling everyday with no end in site.

Caleb was tired of the pain that never seemed to want to go away.

Caleb just wanted it all to end.