by Josh Kilen
Tell Me A Story:
Amazing Tales to Captivate Your Kids
* * * * * * * *
The Superhero Chronicles: Birth of Moonlight
Josh Kilen
Copyright 2011 Josh Kilen
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the author.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Preview The Tales of Big and Little – Doom of the Three Stones
Preview of Sean Ryanis & The Impossible Chase
Preview of The Lost Princess in Winter’s Grip
About the Stories
Some Storytelling Advice
Copyright Information
More Titles By Josh Kilen
Chapter 1
Billy watched as the fist quickly approached his face. The impact knocked his head back and he heard the sickening crunch of bone from the bully’s fist against his jaw. After that, everything went completely dark. When he came to, Billy was on the floor staring up at the Vice Principal, Mr. Davis.
Mr. Davis did not look happy.
Reaching down to help Billy up, Mr. Davis shook his head. "Getting into more trouble I see." Billy’s head felt woozy and he had a hard time standing up straight as the school hallway spun all around him.
"No Mr. Davis, I was trying to stop Rick from picking on Jasper, the new kid."
Mr. Davis looked at Billy sternly, "That's not what I heard, in fact no one was willing to say that you didn't start the fight. You'll have to come with me. We need to call your parents." Mr. Davis supported Billy as they walked to the main office.
"Not again," Billy said to himself. He looked up at Mr. Davis and said aloud, "Honestly, I was just trying to help. Rick and his friends were going to pummel him."
But Mr. Davis didn't say anything else as they made their way slowly through the hallway.
Safely in Mr. Davis' office, Billy slumped down in the chair across from the large desk as the Vice Principal calmly sat down behind it. He considered Billy carefully, "Billy, I want to believe you, but this is the third time in three months. I think that you should consider backing off. If there is any bullying going on in this school, the administration will take care of it. You need to let us do our job."
Billy wanted to laugh at that, but he knew it would only make matters worse. Every kid knew that Rick and his gang of bullies ran the school, but the Principal and his staff didn't do anything to stop them. No one was willing to say anything against them. No one except Billy that is.
"I'm sorry Mr. Davis, I know it's your job but if I see someone in trouble I can't help it, I have to help." Billy stared down at his feet dangling off the tall chair he sat on.
Pity crossed Mr. Davis' eyes and he glanced over at the phone, "Maybe we don't need to call you parents, this time. But if I see or hear of you getting into any more fights, I'll have no choice but to suspend you. Got it?" Billy nodded his head.
A simple nod wasn't good enough for Mr. Davis, "Billy, do you understand me?"
"Yes Mr. Davis, I understand."
Mr. Davis looked happy and began writing on the small white tablet next to his phone, "Excellent. Here's a hall pass to get back to class. Now, I don't want to see you in my office again, Okay?"
Billy took the note and shoved it in his pocket. "Yes Sir, thank you Mr. Davis." And he headed back to class.
He knew he was going to have a nasty bruise later, so Billy was thankful that the fight had only been one punch. But no matter what Mr. Davis said, Billy felt good that he stood up to the bully squad. Rick and his thug friends couldn't intimidate him, even if they had the rest of school running scared.
As he walked through the hall to his next class, English, Billy took a deep breath. Rick and all his goons were in the class too. He opened the door and the teacher was sitting at his desk while the rest of the class was busy writing. "Oh no," he thought, "I hope it's not a quiz or something."
His English teacher, Mr. Marconni looked up and Billy immediately saw disapproval on the teacher's face. He walked up and silently handed the hall pass to Mr. Marconni. The teacher looked at the note and then back up at Billy, saying out loud, "I see you've been fighting again." All the kids heads popped up and Rick smiled wickedly.
"Billy, I don't care if Mr. Davis gave you a pass, I won't condone this sort of behavior from my students. You get a zero on the quiz today, and I want you to think about how to improve your behavior. Now go sit down." Mr. Marconni pointed to the open seat in the back of the class. Billy walked past all the other kids, some snickering, some whispering, and he slumped down in his seat. Unfortunately it was just behind Rick and his posse.
Billy heard Rick whisper to him. "You're not gonna get away with what you did today. Me and the guys are comin' for you next." and Rick turned to give him an evil smile.
Billy laid his head on the desk. How could this day get any worse?
Chapter 2
The class bell rang and Billy left the classroom, his head drooping low. He walked to his locker slowly. He was dreading the last period because he knew that right after school got out he was done for.
Waiting at his locker, as always during this time of day, was his best friend Grace. She and Billy had been best friends since they were little kids and she was the kind of girl that would rather punch you in the arm then act all weird and girly. He knew Grace would be able to get him out of this predicament; she was pretty smart.
When Billy came to the locker Grace was staring at his bruised eye, "I heard something about a kid getting picked on in the halls, shoulda figured you were involved somehow." Billy saw that she was worried about him.
"I'm fine, just Rick and his goons, the were picking on Jasper and, well, you know me..." Grace just nodded her head, she knew Billy very well. In fact, his willingness to stand up for people in need was what she liked most about him.
Billy continued, "Now, they want to beat me up after school. I don't know what to do."
Grace looked up to the ceiling, thinking really hard. Then she snapped her fingers, as a huge smile came to her face. She told Billy, "I got it, meet me in the girls bathroom five minutes before the last bell. See ya there," and she ran away as the bell rang.
Billy hurried to his science class, but for the rest of class couldn't pay attention to anything the teacher said. He was distracted by thoughts of being beaten to a pulp, but he was also curious to see what Grace had in mind.
The last bell couldn't come fast enough. With ten minutes to go, Billy raised his hand and asked to go to the bathroom.
The Teacher looked surprised, "I think you can wait 10 minutes Billy, put your hand down."
Billy made his best ‘I have to pee REALLY bad’ face, "I'm sorry but I have to go really bad, like REALLY bad." Billy figured that no teacher wanted to a student to pee in their class.
He was right.
His science teacher sighed, "Fine, go, just be quick." Billy grabbed his books and raced out of the class. After a quick stop at his locker to get his bag, he made his way to the girl's bathroom. He knocked on the door softly, but didn't hear anything. Suddenly a deep voice behind him said, "What do you think you're doing?" Billy's heart sank as he turned around.
Grace giggled at his shock
ed expression. "I do a pretty good Mr. Davis huh?" Billy blew out a deep breath and lightly punched her in the arm, which she returned. Billy noticed that she had a pile of clothes in her arms.
"Come on in," she told him as she pushed her way into the bathroom. Stiffly, Billy walked into the girl's bathroom for the first time ever. Once inside, he noticed right away that it smelled better and was a lot cleaner than the boys bathroom. He thought it was pretty unfair that the janitors would clean the girl's bathroom but not the boys.
Grace shoved the clothes at Billy, "Here you go, put these on." Billy took the clothes and looked at them. They were kind of ratty, but clean and they didn't have stains. "What are these for?" he asked.
Grace rolled her eyes, "Disguise, duh? You gotta sneak by Rick somehow." Billy put on the pants and a hoody over his regular clothes. When he saw himself in the mirror, he looked a lot different.
"Do you think it will work?" he asked. Grace just shrugged her shoulders, "Don't know, but it's better than nothing. Don't worry, you don't look anything like yourself." Just then the last bell rang; it was time to leave school.
Both Billy and Grace took a deep breath and Billy pulled the hood over his head. As they walked out of the bathroom, they made sure no one was looking in their direction. They made it to the front door of the school and Grace tugged on Billy's arm, "OK, you walk ahead and I'll be behind you, if I whistle then it means they spotted you somehow and you need to run." Billy just nodded.
They walked casually onto the main street and Grace noticed that Billy was taking a different route home than usual. "Good job," she thought to herself. She put some distance between Billy and herself so it wouldn’t be too obvious that she was following.
Minutes later she heard footsteps behind her. Rick and his goons passed right by Grace, and she started to whistle loudly. She just hoped Billy could hear her. He did, and turned to look. When he saw Rick, Billy took off in a sprint. Rick and his buddies were not far behind. Grace yelled out, "Run Billy! Faster!" as she tried to follow. "How did Rick know where Billy was?" she thought to herself.
The Bullies were starting to gain on Billy, who was moving as quickly as he could. He knew it was only a matter of time before they caught him so he tried to lose his pursuers. At an intersection, Billy ran into the road, right in the middle of traffic. A red pick up truck came to a screeching halt right in front of Billy as the driver leaned out shouting, "What do you think you’re doing?!"
Rick and his bully friends stopped on the corner and smiled at Billy, there was no where to run now.
Just then, the red truck shot forward, as a much larger freight truck slammed into the back of it. The freight truck tipped to the side, and barrels of steaming, bubbling liquid tipped over onto the road.
Right on top of Billy.
Chapter 3
As Billy haltingly woke up, he felt waves of surprise, excitement, and relief. The only problem was that the feelings didn't seem like his feelings. It was almost as if they were coming from someone else. Billy slowly opened his eyes and saw that he was in a hospital room. His Mom, Dad, and a doctor were standing around his bed.
He tried to shift positions in his bed but every muscle in his body hurt, like he was one big bruise. Even his eyelids hurt as they made every effort to adjust to the light.
"What happened?" he asked.
"Oh honey!" his Mom said, "You were run over by a truck!"
"Now Sheila," his Dad chimed in, "It wasn't as bad as that. But you did have a pretty nasty accident Son, and when the truck flipped over, all the chemicals it was carrying, sort of, well, fell on you."
Billy’s eyes finally adjusted, and he looked down at his arms. As he held them to his face it was clear that the skin was melted off in some places. The red blotchy patches turned his arms in a marbled mess. He felt a stab of grief in his head, but again it didn't feel like it was his grief. Billy was certainly sad about being burned and scarred but nothing that intense.
The doctor stepped in, "For what it's worth son, you should be OK. The skin was badly damaged but I think you’ll heal up just fine. Your parents love you very much, they've been here around the clock."
Strong, worried emotions flooded into Billy’s brain. He had to close his eyes because it was so overwhelming, like having a headache in your heart. Billy looked up at his parents and they had worried looks on their faces. “Was there a link between the worried looks on his parent's faces and the worried feelings in his head?” He thought to himself.
"I'm sorry for making you go through this," Billy said slowly, "I was trying to stand up for this kid at school who was being picked on, I thought maybe if I stood up other kids would too..."
His Dad put up a hand, "It's okay, Grace told us the whole thing. Both your Mom and I think that what you tried to do was a very noble thing, and we're proud of you. But, well, we're a little worried that you can't go back to school now. The school's Vice Principal didn't think the bullying was a problem, but he would look into it. I’m not sure it would change anything, so your Mom and I were thinking that maybe you would like to be homeschooled or maybe try another school. You don't have to go back to that school is what I'm saying."
The overwhelming emotions of concern attacked Billy’s head again, and he couldn't think of anything else. He was slowly able to push those feelings back out and take control of himself again. “What was going on?" he asked himself.
Billy looked up at his Dad, "I have to go back Dad, I can't back down. And didn't you tell me to always finish my fights?"
Billy's Mom looked over at his Dad with a deeply disapproving look, but Billy felt like he was the one giving his Dad the look. His Dad shrugged his shoulders and just gave her a sheepish smile, "I did, but really didn't intend for him to get into a fight. It was more a life philosophy and such which."
"Life philosophy!?! What kind of life is fighting!" His Mom was getting really upset at this point. "Now our son is off getting into fights and trouble and we have to move to a new school and what will people think? What will we do? We can't keep moving..." She was going beyond upset to hysterical.
The emotions and feelings were swirling around Billy's head like a bee swarm, it was too much to take. Billy looked up, right into his Mom's eyes, and said loudly, "MOM, CALM DOWN! You need to relax, don't worry about me." Instantly her body relaxed and she stopped talking.
She looked over at Billy's Dad and said evenly, "Well, he seems fine. I'm sure he'll be out of the hospital in a few days. Where do you want to get some dinner tonight?"
Both Billy and his Dad looked at her like she was crazy.
Chapter 4
Billy's Mom walked over to the chair and picked up her coat, "Bill, are you ready to go." she asked Billy's Dad.
He looked at her like she was nuts. "Sheila, are you okay? Just a few seconds ago you were getting hysterical and now… you're acting like nothing's wrong?"
She walked over and kissed Billy on the forehead, calm and peace radiated off of her. There was no worry to be felt. "I don't know what you are talking about Bill, Billy seems fine, I'm not worried about him. In fact I expect the hospital will take good care of him. Then he'll come home. Did you decide on dinner yet?"
Bill looked apologetically at his son, "Billy, I'm sorry, we need to sort this out. Just hang tight and we'll be back to pick you up tomorrow. Isn't that right Doc?"
"Yes, that's right, but I want you on bed rest for the next few weeks. Those chemical burns are going to take some time to heal." The Doctor left the room, but not before taking one last curious look at Billy's Mom.
Billy's Mom was tapping her foot, "Bill, are you ready to go?" she looked over at Billy, "Honey, I love you and we'll see you tomorrow. I know you'll have a great night."
Billy's Dad grabbed his coat and left with a quick good-bye to Billy, chasing his wife down the hallway. Did he somehow make his Mom stop caring about him? “How did this happen?” he thought to himself as he fell back to sleep.
Periodically
Billy would wake up when a nurse came into his room. They always had smiles on their faces, but somehow Billy could tell which one's were the friendly ones and which one's really didn't want to be there. Once again, the emotions from the happy nurses washed over his mind, and he felt great when they were there. But the other nurses were a different story. Billy's head hurt when they came in, and he felt angry and upset.
As he fell asleep for the last time, he prayed that all of this was a dream, that his Mom would love him again, that he would stop feeling these crazy emotions, and that everything would be back to normal.
When he woke up the next day, Billy saw his Mom and Dad packing his belongings in boxes.
"Mom, Dad, what're you doing?" he asked.
"Honey, you're awake." his Mom said, "That's wonderful, we're packing you up to take you home, remember?"
Billy slowly nodded his head, "Oh yeah, that's right."
"Didn't sleep too well last night?" his Dad asked.
"Not really. I'm really looking forward to going home."
"And we can't wait to take you home," his Mom said.
Billy's heart leaped out of his chest. Maybe last night had been a dream? Maybe he had made it all up? His Mom seemed fine and he could feel... then it happened.
As the fog began to clear, he could feel them again. The calm happiness of his Mom, the relief of his Dad, but now he could sense the hallway too. There must be a scared patient passing his room, and also a frustrated nurse or something. Billy sunk back in his bed, defeated. This was terrible.
As his parents wheeled him out of the hospital, Billy shut his eyes and tried his hardest to close his mind to the swirl of emotions that surrounded him. It felt like everything was crushing down on his head, he almost couldn't take it anymore. At least when they started to drive home, they moved fast enough it was easy to ignore all the people out on the sidewalks.
His Dad looked at Billy in the back seat, "Son, you doing okay?"
"Oh Bill, you worry too much. I'm sure he's fine." his Mom chimed in.
Billy's Dad gave her a worried look, but decided not to say anything else.