by Bob Bannon
“Just staying out of Oswald’s way,” Eric responded. “He seems a little more cranked up than usual lately.”
“Someone needs to teach that bonehead a lesson,” Jonah said.
“Yeah. You and what army?” Eric shot back. “I’m walking inside, hit me back when you get home.”
That struck Jonah as oddly funny. Was this warehouse office home now? He supposed it was. The thought didn’t sit well with him at all. Actually, it was kind of disturbing. “Later, Danger,” he said, and then replaced the walkie back in the pack.
He zipped up his coat and then zipped the pack closed. He was halfway down the stairs when he remembered something. He went back up the stairs and got a piece of bread. On his way back down, he balled it up and tossed it in Grouchy’s direction. Grouchy’s head popped out of the nest. He looked angry, as usual. “Yep. Good morning to you too,” Jonah said without stopping.
The bike was exactly where he left it. He stuffed his pack into the little door under the stairs and then put the tablet inside his coat where it would stay if he balanced it right. He unlocked the bike and took off for the mall.
Main Street was in the thrall of a busy Monday morning. People came and went from shops and restaurants. Delivery trucks ambled up and down. Jonah dodged the traffic easily enough. He took note of the bus stop, the one he would be walking to from the mall. According to the digital clock on the bank, he had about thirty-five minutes to make it back to catch the right bus or he would have to wait another two hours for the next one. He peddled a little faster.
He liked riding to the mall. It was certainly faster than walking. He wondered if he could borrow Eric’s bike every day. He supposed that wouldn’t be fair to ask. He knew Eric walked to the mall from where the school bus made a stop about ten minutes away. He could certainly bring the bike to the mall every day and trade it. That plan made no sense either, since Eric rode home with his mom. Oh well, he was only half-serious about it anyway.
He pulled up to the bike rack at the center entrance to the mall, the closest to Eric’s mom’s store, and found that there were three bikes locked there already along with two scooters. He doubted anyone was shopping this early, so they must belong to employees. He slid Eric’s bike into place and fastened the chain around it, wrapping it around one of the poles provided by the rack.
He turned and left the mall, crossing the parking lot. As he walked, he thought about what Eric had said about spending the day dodging Logan Oswald. What a pain. He wished there was something he could do about it. He’d ask Eric if anything happened today when he got back.
He was just crossing past an alley when the pain started. This was only the second time the pain had started in the middle of the day. It shot into his left eye like a needle and drilled straight back through his head. He doubled over and put the heel of his hand on his eye. He silently begged it to stop. He had stopped the pain in the mall, but he didn’t know how he did it or exactly why it had stopped. He begged it to stop. Then he demanded it to stop.
He ducked into the alley. There were too many people on the street that might want to stop and help him. That would lead to questions.
He stopped next to a dumpster hidden from the street. He slumped against the wall. He rubbed at his eye. “No!” He cried. “Please!” he was doubled over in pain again. And then everything went black.
XIV
Eric had the early lunch period. There were two scheduled lunch times that were a half-hour each. One was eleven-thirty to twelve and the next was twelve to twelve-thirty. From junior high through high school students were allowed to pick which one they would like to have. Eric had the late lunch period last year, so he switched to the early period this year.
As he dropped his books in his locker, Eric did his usual survey of the hallway. He knew exactly which kids had lunch period at the same time and which kids were just transferring books for their next class.
There were the popular girls giggling to each other over by Emma Wong’s locker. She waved and looked like she was on her way over to say something, but got sidetracked when Heather Montrose showed her something in her notebook.
Gavin Thomas had just knocked the books out of Nathan Channing’s hands and Nathan was scrambling to pick things up as papers went flying and Gavin and his buddies laughed and moved on when they saw the guidance counselor, Mr. Jackson, coming down the hallway.
The skateboard freaks were huddled over someone’s board looking at some new artwork one of them had done. Members of the drama club were huddled at the foot of the stairs seemingly in an impromptu practice. And Paige Ryan, the ninth-grade student council president, was busily running up and down the hallway selling raffle tickets for the Winter Ball.
Just another day in paradise.
Just like every other day, Eric felt left out of a lot of things. He noticed when other kids called to each other up and down the hallway or when kids were talking about making plans for after school or for the weekend. He told himself it didn’t bother him, but it did.
The fact was, Eric MacIntyre was just plain ignored, which was almost worse than getting picked on. At least kids like Nathan had something to complain about. Nathan was a nerd in every sense of the word. He was the first with his hand up in every class, he had a slightly greasy look to him, and he looked like you could snap him in half like a twig. In short, kids like Nathan stuck out in ways that made them easy targets. The bullies gravitated towards those kids. Eric, on the other hand, was just seemingly out of place. Sure, he was in some advanced classes, and he was smart and got good grades, but there was nothing about him that stuck out enough to garner that much attention. In a way, that was a much lonelier existence.
The thing that irritated him most was that he could remember going to birthday parties for some of these kids when they were much younger. The school certainly wasn’t big, he could almost name everyone he saw. These kids had grown up together. But sometime around the beginning of the seventh grade, things changed.
Eric had never gone in for sports. He thought of himself as mostly uncoordinated, so he just kind of left those options alone. But the kids that grew up loving stuff like that began to hang out together much more, especially if they had joined the football team. For whatever reason, those guys became the kings of the school.
He noticed that other cliques began to form around common interests as well. Kids who liked science flocked together, kids who liked skateboarding bonded over that. By the time eighth grade happened, and for whatever good reason, Eric had been left out in the cold. Kids either stopped talking to him, or looked down on him. He couldn’t see the rhyme or reason to it, he perpetually walked around thinking he had just missed the boat.
It’s not like he wasn’t guilty of the same thing. He wasn’t exactly friendly with Nathan Channing, although they were in advanced science and advanced algebra together. He felt like he had no reason to strike up a conversation with Nathan, and there was that whole greasy thing about him that made him look kind of gross. Eric was also smart enough to know that befriending Nathan might just put a target on his back.
There were people who acknowledged his presence, especially a few kids who didn’t do their homework on a regular basis and didn’t pay enough attention in class to understand the assignment. Those kids would usually catch him in study hall and either ask him for his class notes or flat out ask to copy his homework. Eric would share his notes, but he felt he’d be the first person to get busted if he let someone copy his homework.
There were three or four of the cheerleaders who fell into that category, but also crossed into a different one. Those girls loved his mom’s store and were usually asking if he could get discounts and if he knew when specific things were going to go on sale – as if he kept any track of such things. Emma Wong was different, but Emma Wong talked to everyone. If he told the truth, he’d say he was a little intimidated by her.
Then there was Logan Oswald. Logan found it hard to ignore anyone that was more than
a head shorter than him. He’d once seen Logan actually make a sixth grader cry in the middle of recess and walk away feeling like a real tough guy. Logan was a kid who liked to intimidate and threaten just to see if he could scare other kids, demanding lunch money was just part of the act, not the end-game. Eric liked to think he put on a good cover, but Logan did scare him a few times, usually when they were off campus. He’d seen Logan get detention enough times for his antics, only if a kid was brave enough to actually tell someone in authority the truth. Eric was a lot like most kids in that he was intimidated enough by Logan to let the lunch money thing slide without incident on the occasion a teacher happened by while it was in progress. But sometimes Eric’s mouth would get the better of him and he’d really end up irritating Oswald. Those were the few occasions he thought Logan might actually beat him up.
When he met Jonah Havensby, he just naturally assumed he was going to be another Logan Oswald, a kid that had radar for intimidation. Jonah was almost as tall as Logan, he had those crazy different colored eyes, and he looked a lot different wearing his bulky winter coat. He looked like he could do some damage. So when Jonah walked over to him that first day, all of Eric’s defenses went up immediately.
When he found out Jonah liked ‘Kat Skratch’, Eric thought that was pretty amazing. He couldn’t remember the last time he actually talked to anyone about video games. He was pretty surprised when they started playing the game together and Jonah was really good at it. There were several levels to the game that you just couldn’t beat without playing co-op, and Eric had resigned himself to the fact that he just wouldn’t clear them.
Jonah was funny too. He had a good sense of humor. Eric’s smart mouth usually got him into hot water in more than a few situations. Eric’s humor was a little sharper edged. But Jonah seemed to appreciate the fact that it was all meant as a joke.
He had only known Jonah about five days when Jonah confessed his whole story that night in Eric’s room. As the story came spilling out, Eric realized how scared and lonely Jonah must really be, but a kid like Jonah would never come right out and say that. He also knew the confession must have been really hard to get off his chest. If Jonah told the wrong person that story, police would get involved, Jonah would probably be shipped to some kind of juvenile hall, and there would be all sorts of questions Jonah couldn’t answer about his dad. Jonah would probably never find out the answers.
But Eric didn’t really know how to respond to such a level of trust. It was a big responsibility listening to all of that and trying to understand what was going on with Jonah. Jonah was trusting him with a really big secret, and that didn’t come easy for anyone. So Eric did the only thing he could think of, he trusted Jonah with his biggest secret.
Eric couldn’t remember ever having a best friend, but that night in the dark, with that level of trust between them, that’s when Eric realized that they really were best friends. They had too much in common not to be.
Eric was so lost in thought he hadn’t realized he was headed out the door of the East wing of the school.
The school was built in an almost U-shaped pattern. The wing Eric was in now held the science and math classrooms for the high school grades on the second floor. English, and social studies were on the first floor. The flat front of the school held classrooms for the sixth through eighth grades and the school office, but it also housed the art and music rooms that the whole school used. The West wing was almost entirely dedicated to the gym, which doubled as a theatre, and the cafeteria was over there as well.
The open space in between the two wings held an outdoor lunch area with two basketball hoops and a small playground for the little kids. A concrete path connected the two wings. In the winter, the school opened up the gym and several of the high school students would congregate in the bleachers after lunch.
The problem with leaving the building from this side was that in the winter hardly anyone was outside. Walking outside and to the cafeteria from this side almost always meant you were going to get ambushed by Logan Oswald.
The thought almost immediately struck Eric as his hands had just opened the door. Eric said a curse word under his breath as Logan’s hands immediately grabbed the front of his sweater. The next thing he felt was being slammed up against the wall.
Eric felt dumb for literally walking into this. He was so angry with himself for not paying more attention he surrendered even before it had begun. “Listen Logan,” he said, rolling his eyes. “I only have, like, four dollars in my pocket, okay? Just take it and…”
Logan slammed him up against the wall again.
“We’ll get to that in a minute,” Logan said with another slam against the building.
Logan’s two friends Mason and Tyler were right behind him with big grins on their faces. They were football players, like Logan, but they were also like Logan’s dogs. They followed him around everywhere. They were with him at the mall when it looked like Logan was going to beat up Jonah but Logan got sidelined by Jonah’s headache. Eric had never really seen them do anything, other than add to the intimidation factor, but Eric also felt that kind of made them cowards. They had always let Logan take the fall by himself if Logan got a detention.
“What do you want, Logan?” Eric said with an involuntary eye roll, totally resolved to just get through the situation as fast as possible.
“I want you to Stop. Talking. To Me. Like. You’re Something. Special.” Logan said, punctuating each word or phrase with a slam to the wall. The last one knocked Eric’s head against the wall.
“I’m not special, Logan,” Eric said.
“You can say that…” Logan started, but then all of a sudden Logan wasn’t in front of him.
Eric looked up and Logan was suspended, up on the tips of his toes, pushed against the metal pole that held the closest basketball hoop.
The thing that held him tightly by the throat was the devil. Or, at least, a devil.
It was red, all over. All it was wearing was a long black coat and black board shorts and no shoes. Its feet were cloven - split in two. It had four toes on both feet, but two on either side of the split.
Its head was bald, it didn’t have horns, but its eyes were dark black. And its red skin made its white teeth look dangerous.
Mason and Tyler registered what was going on in a flash and started backing up like they were going to turn and run. Just then, a spiked tail flew out from the back slit of the black coat and whipped just below their ankles, sending them both down on their butts.
“Sit down, boys,” the devil said to them without looking. The tail seemed to shrink to a lesser size, but still stayed bobbing and weaving between the split at the back of the coat. The devil was still closely looking in Logan Oswald’s face. It seemed like the tail might have had mind of its own. “You might learn something,” the devil added, finally turning his attention their way, and then back to Logan.
Eric, who had hated being slammed into the wall, was now pressing his back against it so hard it seemed like he wanted to back up through it.
“So, Logan.” The devil spat his name like he really hated having to even say it. “You’re the big guy on campus, huh? Large and in charge around here?”
Logan looked completely panicked. He was clutching at the devil’s hand that was wrapped around his throat, it looked like he was trying to say something, but it wouldn’t come out.
“Cat got your tongue, big guy?” The devil asked him. He hadn’t stopped grinning.
Mason and Tyler were trying to back up as much as possible, almost trying to crab walk away while the thing was distracted. The tail whipped out and brought them back down again.
“I said sit down!” The devil said sternly. He turned to them. “What? Are you dumb and deaf?!” Then he turned back to Logan “Jeez, Logan, you can sure pick ‘em. Are these two idiots any good for anything? Then again, I guess you idiots travel in packs, huh?”
Somewhere within the terror of what was happening, Eric wanted to laugh
at that.
The devil released his grip on Logan and Logan slumped to the ground. The devil turned to Eric and Eric’s breath caught in his chest as the thing approached him.
“So what’s your problem with the E-man over here, huh, Logan?” The devil smoothed Eric’s sweater out and dusted off his shoulders. The thing was only just a little taller than Eric. “A fine, smart, young man. Good grades. Quite a catch.” With that, the devil chucked his fist lightly across Eric’s chin.
Eric’s brain was trying to calculate how this thing would know anything about him.
Logan was up and trying to run. There was a noise. Zzzzip.
The devil appeared in front of Logan and grabbed him by the front of his coat. “You jealous, Logan? Is that the problem? You think all the hot girls are going to figure out what a moron you are and go after the E-man? You’re such a loser, Logan.”
“Let’s hear it boys,” the devil said to Mason and Tyler. He began to sing softly “Logan’s a loser, Logan’s a loser,” over and over again, making a little melody out of it. The tail whipped in front of the two boys on the ground and the spike began to bob up and down, like it was conducting a symphony. “Don’t let me down, boys. Let me hear it.”
The boys began mumbling along.
“Louder!” The devil demanded, and whip-cracked the spike of his tail on the cement path just in front of them, the point cracked the cement. The boys complied.
“See, Logan,” the devil said. “Even your morons think you’re a moron.”
“My dad’s gonna…” Logan started.
The sound came again, Zzzzip, and Logan was pinned back up against the pole of the basketball hoop again. The boys stopped their half-hearted chorus.
“Daddy’s not here, Logan,” the devil said. “Is that what this is about? Big, tough guy on campus trying to get daddy’s attention? Poor wittle Wogan.”
The devil slammed him up against the pole, just as hard as Logan slammed Eric into the wall. “I think you’re going to have to change tactics, Logan old boy.” They were face to face. “I think you want to be a good boy, don’t you Logan?” They were almost nose to nose. “Say it,” he said in a whisper.