Chapter 3

David could hear someone calling his name over and over. He felt hands shaking and pulling him and he opened his eyes. He saw a look of pure terror on the face in front of him. He took a quick glance around and saw Dan lying on the ground with a small pool of blood near his mouth. It was Beth who was pulling on him and he looked back towards Jack. He hadn't noticed it but he was holding Jack by the throat about 6 inches off the ground against the brick wall of the school. He heard a voice inside his head.

"Are you okay with this life you live," the voice asked.

The noise around him completely filtered out and time seemed to stand still. David thought about the voice and wondered if he was losing his mind.

"Of course I am not okay with my life! I am sick of this world and my place in it," he replied.

The voice in his head responded, "Very well then, I will free you from this world."

Jack was struggling against David's arm kicking and gurgling. He tried to jerk himself free. David let go of Jack and he fell to a heap on the ground gasping for breath. Beth looked into David's eyes and her own almost bugged out.

"David! What is wrong with you!?"

He noticed the world looked different. It seemed as if he noticed everything around him in extreme details, as if time was slower and he could take in every facet of his environment. Beth grabbed his hand and dragged him away from the school. She was gasping for breath when they stopped. David wondered why they had run away from the school. He felt nothing but calm, as if he knew that everything was going to be just fine.

Beth was babbling to herself. Nothing she said seemed to make any sense to him. He asked her what was wrong.

"What's wrong? What's WRONG? David just look at you! Well I guess you can't, here let me..." She dug into her pocket and fished out a small compact. She opened it up and forced it into his hands. He looked down at the mirror and saw his face. Well it was the same old David: spiked black hair that had been messed up in the scuffle, brown eyes and black eye. Wait, black eye? David looked closer and saw the large eye in the middle of his forehead. The choker around his neck had also changed from metallic silver to a blood red color.

Beth seemed more frantic now, trying to pull him inside his house. He followed her inside but was still trying to come to grasp the situation around him. He was led up to his bedroom and sat down in his computer chair. Beth looked at him expectantly, as if he was holding some great secret from her and she demanded to be let in on it. She let out a soft gasp as the eye began to close and then vanish as if it had never been there. The blood red color of the choker receded into the normal metallic silver color.

"What is going on David? What happened to you? When did you get so strong?" She let her rapid-fire questions sink into him for a moment before she let out a dramatic sigh and added, "Thank you for saving me, I thought he was going to really hurt me." She rubbed her chest where Jack had grabbed her.

David finally felt the situation catch up to him. He no longer felt the gentle calmness he had felt before. He felt scared. Scared of himself and scared of what he might be capable of. He looked at Beth and said, "Beth I have no idea what happened here. I was getting my ass kicked by Dan and I just sort of blacked out. When I came to I was choking Jack against the wall. Please, you have to believe me! I really am as confused as you are!"

David pulled on his choker. He had often wondered about it. He had never found a clasp, nor had he ever been able to get it off his neck. His parents told him he had been wearing it when he was taken to the hospital when he was born but obviously it wasn't normal or he would have been choked to death just from growing up. He tried not to dwell on it much, but the recent events seemed to make him focus on it.

He looked at Beth and asked, "Beth can you tell me what happened to me while I was unconscious? I need to know exactly what happened."

"Well you got knocked around by Dan, and then I screamed for help. Next thing I know you stood up and had knocked Dan down in an instant. When did you learn to move that fast? Anyways, that's when I noticed the eye, you know, the one on your forehead. Jack saw it too and his grip on me loosened. I started to pull away from him but he grabbed my shirt and yanked me back. Then you grabbed his hand and he let go and yelled to his friends to kill you but they were too busy running away for them to help."

He listened to her intently and smiled at the thought of Jack's Goon Squad running for their life. They had made his life hell for a long time now. He held up his hand to stop her a moment, "And that's when I grabbed Jack and threw him against the wall?"

"No, first you punched him in the stomach a few times and then you hurled him at the wall. You picked him up then started choking him. I thought for sure you were going to kill him! Not that it wouldn't serve him right, the bastard." She tried to calm herself down and relaxed on his bed, trying to regain her composure. David tried not to stare at her and thought about the situation. He knew Jack would have told the school that David had picked the fight and beat them up. Jack's mother was a very prominent businesswoman and often contributed to the school. It was well known that Jack had gotten out of quite a few jams by letting mommy dearest give a helping hand to the school.

David heard cabinets closing in the kitchen. He looked at the clock and it was 8:12am. He knew it would probably be easier to just skip class today and relax before the storm erupted. He never missed any class unless he was sick, so he knew his parents wouldn't mind. He let Beth know that he was going to tell his parents he was staying home today and headed towards the sounds. His mother was a sweet woman, only 36 years old, but could not have any children of her own. She sat at the table eating a small bowl of cereal. She looked up and saw David walking towards her.

"David! What are you still doing here? You are going to be late for school." She looked at his face and saw the swelling of his lip. "Were you in a fight again, hun?" she got up from her chair and moved towards him. She brushed the hair from his face and clucked like only a mother could at the sight. She went to the freezer and retrieved some frozen pees. She placed it against his face and told him to hold it still. Beth was standing in the hallway looking at the interaction between mother and son.