Cedric took a moment to try and place the voice he’d just heard. He’d never forgotten or misplaced a face or voice, and it was unlikely he’d just never noticed this boy. Not with his creepy habit of constantly monitoring everyone.

“Shut up!” Aspen’s snarling voice snapped Cedric’s attention back to the issue at hand. “If you knew how creepy this kid was, you wouldn’t be helping him!”

“Better creepy than a bully!” The voice grew aggressive, its fury reminiscent of Aspen’s.

“Bully? I’m just-” Aspen was cut off by a fist to the face. He reflexively staggered backward and clutched his injuries, releasing Cedric in the process. “OW! MY NOTHE!”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

It was then that Cedric got a good look at the origin of the voice. He wore a camo t-shirt and a hand-me-down hat with a red-white-and-blue pin on it. He was scrawny, and a little small for his age, but his stance was confident and the look in his eyes was sharper than a knife.

“YOU LITTLE-” Aspen swung at his assailant, but the boy just caught the punch with one hand and struck Aspen in the gut with the other.

While Aspen was still staggering from the blow, the boy used his grip on the bully’s arm to swing him into the wall Cedric had been pinned against moments ago. Aspen started to struggle free, but the boy just pulled his hand up from Aspen’s stomach and used it to grab the bully’s face.

“You wanna end this?” The boy pushed Aspen against the wall, slowly sliding him down onto the ground, where he put his knee up against the bully’s gut. Then, the boy leaned in real close and let out a low growl, the look on his face the same as a wolf ready to finish off a pinned deer. “Or do you wanna keep fighting?”