Bryan James [James - Shadow’s Night

Copyright 2014 by Bryan James

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For M, I wish we could have been the things we needed for each other when we needed them.

Authors Note

Its a strange thing to consider myself done with something and letting go isnt easy. My storyboard is in my peripheral vision, almost a years worth of work summed up in 39 cards that dont include the last chapter.

Granted it was part-time work. I wrote short stories and blog posts in that same time and yet it is terrifying to think of this being read in a few hours, sporadically over days.

Thank you to the readers out there, especially Joleen, Scott Wallis, and WS Long.

Table of Contents

Chapter 01 - Going Home

Eight years ago...

Theyre going to remember me, Simon thought as he walked out of his high school headed home, anyone messes with me theyre going to remember it. I might not be big, I might not be strong, but if I have to fight, if it comes down to it, then I will scar them in some way, I dont even have to win, just leave them with something so they remember. He thumbed the knife in his pocket. His jaw was tight and shoulders raised.

The school year had started easily and he was looking for a new start after the summer he had but over the last few weeks, intermittently, a group of boys, led by his new archenemy Josh, had begun teasing him. The first time he had mistakenly thought as they drove by and honked the horn it was some kind of hello and he had even, foolishly, waved back but he regretted that the next day and successive days when they would pass. They honked at him, yelled at him, threatened him, and even tried to swing at him with their hands and a baseball bat.

That was bad enough, but then it became something else as he passed Joshs house. He hated that house. That house had been the site of his great embarrassment just that summer. The year before he had become infatuated with Joshs sister Lucy who was in the same grade. He thought it was mutual. She flirted with him every time they were together, more when they were alone. She had been flirtatious and he had been awkward. She would touch and rub against him. He wanted her badly and had even asked her out but she politely refused.

It started with an impulse to see her, maybe something romantic like throwing stones at her window. It was easy to find but he didnt have the courage. However, he found that sometimes, especially if he waited long enough he could see her undress.

It was his secret until his mother followed him one night. He was in the darkness with one hand down inside his pants waiting to see her again. His mother was quiet, or else he was too absorbed, but she grabbed him from behind. He let out a scream of panic that became screams of pain as she struck him. The neighbors opened their front doors. Lucy came to the window. His mother pulled him to their front lawn. By then Josh and his father were on the front porch. He remembered Josh was in his boxers and for a moment he wasnt sure who should be more embarrassed.

He thought for a moment his mother would make him apologize but she didnt. She dragged him away and back to their home, made him bare himself, then spanked him with the belt that had been left hanging in his fathers office. He felt as if his sin, his mischievous act, had been beaten from him that night as the pain was burned into his flesh.

Sometimes he wanted to try and rub that pain as he passed by the house except he was usually too distracted by Josh and his friends. Sometimes he thought they would run out and chase after him but one of the boys had another idea. They got eggs. It became a sporting event. Any day they got back before he passed they would throw eggs at him, only once coming close enough to get splatter on his pant cuff. He started to think about a day when it got worse. He said something, they said something, or maybe they thought of something else.

It was the same as the time before when boys in his same grade made him take off his jeans and hand them over after school. He had to walk the rest of the way in a pair of white briefs, trying to cover himself with his hands and shirt, sneaking through yards if he could but risking double the exposure. The old people in the neighborhood watched their yards like a hawk ready to confront anyone who dared cross their manicured, green lawns. He managed to sneak inside and up to his room without his mother noticing and he thought it was over. The next day at school all his classmates knew. Most didnt say anything directly, just whispered behind his back, but others, other boys, they teased him, especially in the locker room. Eventually the principal found out and confronted the boys, making Simon recount the incident in front of them. The boys were threatened with suspension and his mother was told but little else came of it. His mother only tried to console him when he got home.

But he vowed to himself that it was a once in a lifetime event. He would only be humiliated like that once. The next time someone might get over on him, beat him, strip him, but he would fight and he would mark them, leave a scar in some way. He ran his thumb over the backside of the blade enjoying the feel of the blunt edge of the metal. He had one plan for how to react. He wasnt going to flash it. He wasnt going to threaten them. His advantage was that they thought they had the upper hand.

He walked along the familiar route, head down. The boys car passed him. He felt a lump in his throat. He got within 100 yards and for a moment he thought about trying to go some other way, but theyll know Im chicken, he thought, so he continued on. He walked steadily as he usually did.

Even when they threw the eggs he didnt try to jump around and dodge them. He let them hit as they usually did, but then he found himself doing something else. He turned and gave them the finger. It was a motion, a gesture that he felt ripped him from path in space and time, pulled him into some intangible present. The boys yelled and taunted, grabbed at their crotches and flipped him off. But he didnt walk away. He stood there for everyone to see, all the neighbors. The boys began to call for him, invite him, and feeling half-possessed he walked in their direction. He took his hand from his pocket as he stepped onto the grass.

Come on pervert, Josh yelled.

He didnt want to fight them, not really. He wanted them to stop. He wanted to confront them. He was the new cowboy in town and they were the bad guys. He paid little attention to anything else, just them, but especially Josh. He didnt notice the grass, the birds in the trees, a bright blue sky, an airplane passing over, just them. He got within ten feet and stopped. There were five of them and Lucy, she was on the porch. Had she organized this as some revenge?

What do you want pervert? Josh asked.

I want you to stop, Simon said.

Josh mocked him, adding an extra lisp to the phrase. Everyone laughed.

Quit it, Simon said.

Or what?

Its not right, Simon said.

Why dont you walk away so we can have some more practice, Josh said. We still have about a half dozen eggs that needs used.