He forced Ash to look up, their eyes locking, his voice a menacing whisper. “Look at me, creep,” he growled, “I want you to watch your mouth.”

‘Yeah? So that’s your weak point?’

“Ash, I’ll let you go. You can go live your pathetic life with everyone you care about. With your friends and family, if you keep shut about everything you saw.”

Ash scoffed, and then let out a low chuckle. “Forget it. I won’t keep shut. Everyone deserves to know that you were the one to ruin people’s lives. Everyone, even Jason. He has every right to know that you were playing with us, manipulating us all the time.”

Ash turned his face away from Blake, while Lucas seemed to be pondering over something, and then he turned to face Blake.

“Blake,” he called out.

“Yeah Boss?” Blake asked, turning to face Lucas. His posture rigid, his eyes bore into Lucas’ red eyes.

“Ash won’t understand. I need you to teach him to keep his mouth shut when he goes outside. About me, being the boss.” Lucas had determination in his eyes, while Ash scoffed.

“Yeah? How’re you gonna do that? Beat me up? Kill me?” Ash asked, looking at Blake.

‘I’m not gonna be afraid. I’ll do what Alex asked me too. Just…be fearless.’

Ash remembered.

.

.

Blake hates it when someone stands up to him, you know? He feeds on fear. The catch is when you face him, be fearless, and he’ll stop messing with you.

.

.

Lucas shoved his hands in his pockets, and then faced Ash. “Do you think I’m stupid?”

Ash leaned back, despite the stinging pain in his wrists, “Yeah, well-”

Ash was forced to stop, when he felt someone roughly grab his collar and yank him closer, although it didn’t really work, since he was bound to a metal chair.

It was Lucas.

“Not the point here, Ash. I know you very well. You’re not going to back down. So do you know what I will do?” Lucas hissed, his tone challenging.

“Tell me, what will you do?” Ash shot back.

Lucas leaned in closer, his eyes gleaming with victory, “I’ll kill Noah,” he said, voice cold.

‘W-What?’

The words hit Ash. For a moment, the room spun, and all he could hear was the sound of his own heartbeat, loud in his ears. His mind screamed in disbelief.

‘No, no, no... he can’t mean that.’

Ash’s hands trembled, but he forced himself to look up, meeting Lucas’s gaze. “You’re bluffing,” Ash spat, his voice cracking.

“Noah has nothing to do with this. You wouldn’t-”

“Oh, wouldn’t I?” Lucas’s voice was a whisper, a smirk playing on his lips. “You think I won’t go that far? You think I don’t know how much that little brother of yours means to you? One word from me, Ash, and he’s gone.”

Ash’s breath came in ragged gasps.

The thought of his little brother, innocent Noah, caught in whatever twisted game Lucas was playing, was enough to set his blood boiling.

“You wouldn’t do that. You can’t. You…You had fun with him, you played with him-”

Ash’s voice cracked, upon remembering Noah and Lucas giggling together as if they were best friends.

“I would. You don’t know me Ash. I can do whatever the hell I want.” Lucas said through gritted teeth. “You think I don’t kill people? That’s cute. One order, and Noah is dead for good. Just. Like. That.”

“Lucas.” Ash’s voice was barely a whisper now.

“That’s why no one trusts you. You make people go through all kinds of examinations to check if they actually trust you or if they’re only playing. And now look at you,” Ash growled, his mind was reeling with anger.

Lucas glared at Ash, while Blake sneered from behind.

“This is you trying to control everyone because you’re afraid of losing everything.”

Lucas’s face hardened. He shoved Ash back into the chair with a force that made it creak under the pressure. “Shut up,”he hissed.

“You think you know me? You think you understand me?”

Ash’s eyes blazed with rage. “I might not, but you’re not worth wasting my time on.”

For a moment, something flickered in Lucas’s eyes- regret, maybe, or something close to it. But then it was gone.

He stepped back, signaling to Blake. While Ash looked at his feet, they were directed towards the door. And Ash knew Lucas was about to go back.

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“Make sure he learns his lesson,” Lucas said, his voice devoid of any emotion.

Blake’s grin was wide, cruel. “With pleasure, Boss.”

And with that Lucas went outside, leaving Blake and his lackeys- Liam and Carter behind. They were smirking, and surrounding him like hunters.

“Open his bounds, Liam. I wanna teach this piece of trash what he gets for threatening me.” Blake rasped, cracking his knuckles.

Ash’s head was spinning, but even as he sat there, bound and surrounded, he couldn’t help but think.

Bullies... they were everywhere, but here? In American high schools? It felt like a whole other level.

Liam stepped closer, opening Ash’s bounds from his wrists and ankles.

Ash stumbled forward, falling to his knees as Liam shoved him out of the chair. His arms screamed in agony as the blood rushed back into his hands, and he barely had time to brace himself before Blake’s fist collided with his jaw.

The pain was sharp, immediate, and it sent him sprawling to the ground.

‘Why’s it always like this?’ he wondered. One in five students- that’s what the stats said.

One in five kids being pushed around, picked on, or worse. There were many kinds of bullying, four were very common.

Physical, verbal, cyberbullying and workplace bullying.

Fists were used, true, but people found newer ways to bully others.

It’s like they’re not just trying to hurt you; they’re trying to erase you.

Break you.

Get rid of you.

“Get up,” Blake growled. “I’m not done with you.”

Ash gasped as another kick slammed into his ribs. He coughed as pain radiated through his chest. The room was spinning.

The thing that got to Ash the most was how accepted it all was. It was almost like bullying was just a part of high school culture.

‘You either survive it, or you’re swallowed whole. And the saddest part? Most people just... accept it. The teachers ignore it, the parents pretend it’s just kids being kids. And kids just cope with it.’

Blake drove his knee into Ash’s stomach, making him double over in pain.

Ash’s vision blurred, but there were questions. So many questions that haunted him.

Why did people become bullies? Was it the parent’s fault? Was it the neglect, or just the greed for control?

He’d heard some say it was because they were hurting themselves.

Hurt people hurt people, right?

Blake grabbed a fistful of Ash’s hair and yanked his head up. Their eyes locked, and Ash saw nothing but sick satisfaction.

‘But that’s not an excuse,’ he thought bitterly. ‘You’re hurting, so you decide to ruin someone else’s life? That’s just... pathetic.’

Liam joined in, his punches coming hard and fast, but he wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of hearing him scream.

“Still think you’re tough?” Blake taunted, “Still think you can play hero?”

Ash’s lips were bleeding, his breath coming in ragged gasps, but he managed to lift his head just enough to glare at Blake.

‘It’s like they’re trying to fill some empty hole inside them,’ Ash thought, his gaze boring into Blake.

‘It’s like they’re trying to tell themselves; out of all people, that they are better than others. That they are more than others see in them.’

Blake shifted beside his calculating gaze, and he delivered a brutal kick to Ash’s side, sending him rolling across the floor.

The world was fading in and out, but through the haze of pain, Ash managed to think.

People are so afraid of not fitting in, so afraid of being alone, they’ll do anything, hurt anyone, to stay on top. It’s like you can either be at the top, or you’re invisible. They’re afraid that without all this power, they’re nothing.

Liam signaled Carter to join too, who just snickered and did as told. They were all kicking him, while Ash tried to keep his eyes open.

It wasn’t that it didn’t hurt. It did- it was suffocating.

But…somewhere inside of Ash, he told himself that they were scared. They can’t break Ash. It was just like in elementary school. Many students bullied Ash, well they tried to- but Ash didn’t care. He wasn’t a pushover.

He knew he wasn’t. So whenever someone, a student- to be precise, would go beyond his limits, Ash would stop him.

Once, he punched someone in the face, once in the eye- he still remembered the screams of agony he had to hear, the red that gushed out of the eye.

It made him feel alive, in some way. It made him feel like he was better than others who just let it happen.

Blake punched him on the cheek, and Ash tasted something similar to iron- blood. He could feel his breaths getting shallower every second, and blood gushing out of his lips and nose.

Ash’s head snapped to the side, his body collapsing onto the hard floor.

Blake kicked him in the stomach, and then kept his foot there, pressurizing Ash while smirking.

“You think you can just come in here, threaten me, and walk out alive?”

Ash wheezed, trying to catch his breath. His body was screaming at him to just give up, to let the darkness swallow him whole, but his mind stuck to that act- being stubborn.

“Why... do you even care?” Ash managed to spit out, his voice hoarse, barely more than a whisper. “Is it… that my notes made… a difference?”

Blake’s eyes flashed with something, anger, maybe inferiority. He delivered a savage kick to Ash’s side, sending him skidding across the floor.

Blake spat. “Shut up, Ash. I wasn’t afraid.”

Ash’s body sprawled on the floor, his mind drifting in and out of focus.

‘Why did I come here? W-when will I go back? Will…I ever go back?’

No bully had ever gone this far with Asher, no one- not even Blake. But when Lucas came along, things changed.

He set this trap for Ash. He wanted him to see for himself that the heroes don’t always win. That there is more to the world except what he knows.

He was the one to invite Blake over to see his little trick play out.

He asked Blake to teach him a lesson.

Blake crouched down next to Ash, grabbing his head and forcing it on the ground, a sudden pain shot through Ash’s head. Intense, and painful.

“You thought I was a scaredy cat, huh?” Blake said, in triumph.

He forced his head on the ground again. Liam and Carter snickered beside him, laughing.

“I…d-did. You…Y-You were s-scared.” Ash blurted, his arms limp to his sides, his head throbbing with pain.

Blake laughed, cruel that is. “You heard him, guys? He thinks I was scared.” Liam and Carter nodded, and smirked.

He forced his head on the ground again.

Again.

Again.

Ash could feel his head throbbing, his heartbeat slowing, his breaths labored and shallow.

He felt something- something wet, on his head, Blood. It trickled down his eye, warm.

But Blake wasn’t done.

With a grunt, he grabbed Ash by the throat.

“You will keep shut, got it? God, I hate you.”

Blake’s grip tightened around his neck, cutting off his air. Ash’s hands twitched, but he was too weak. All he could do was stare blankly into Blake’s cold, triumphant eyes.

‘W-Weak. I am nothing…but a w-weak pathetic fool…’

“D-Don’t worry…T-The feeling’s m-mutual.”