Chapter 37: Cycles
A blonde boy proudly walked along a wide dirt road of a humble village, he held his head so high, that he was basically looking at the clouds. Wearing a silk shirt and pants, it was easy to see that he was a cut above the honest simple living of the villagers. Though, only in terms of material wealth. In terms of temperament, demeanor and upright bearing, he was sorely lacking. The very idea that he was above others for the wealth his family possessed was the determining factor that turned him into a spoiled, insufferable and mean young boy.
Unfortunately, the idea of being superior because of your material wealth, was not an idea opposed by those that did have more. Instead that idea was circulated and encouraged between the higher classes, turning most impressionable young peoples into the same arrogant versions of their parents who propagated the idea. And those who grew up with that concept would pass down those ideas to their children, and their children would pass it down to their children, until the cycle continues in an inevitable loop.
Was it the fault of the children for not resisting these ideals? Could someone so young properly discern morality? Would white know the implications of being dyed red or blue? Growing up, was it their fault for remaining ignorant and never questioning their ways? Could people raised with such a warped sense of the world recognize and discern ignorance? Or would they simply chastise those “lesser than them” for being “ignorant” to the ways of the world? Lastly…would this cycle ever break?
Zan did not contemplate these things. Nor would he intentionally become the one who breaks all of the world’s toxic cycles. What he did know was, he was going to teach this boy a lesson in the form of physical assault! A violent and vengeful one at that.
A pair of cold, piercing eyes stalked his prey in the dense greenery of the forest. There was something strangely comedic about a boy hiding in a bush to assault another boy, but the reality was anything but.
It was only around 6:00 PM but the skies had long darkened, the hours of the day cut short by the season of winter. The blonde boy held a rock in his hand, throwing it up and down playfully with cruel eyes.
‘She should be coming back soon…’
‘I’ll hit her other foot. I’ll save her face for later.’
‘No wonder the girls hate her, her face is prettier than theirs by a long shot. Shelly probably got jealous when Hans tried to speak to her hahaha.’
Suddenly the boy heard a rustling of leaves in the dark.
CRUNCH
‘Shit! What the hell?’
The blonde boy looked around, easily startled but in the end he found nothing.
‘Maybe it was a rabbit or something…’
The boy’s nerves started to calm and his body started to relax, just as he was about to let his guard down, however, he heard another sound.
CRUNCH!
“What!? Who’s out there!?”
The blonde boy was greeted by silence.
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‘Fuck. Fucking animals! Me and dad have to go hunting around the area to keep these vermin and poor people out of here.’
The boy brushed it off but as he started to move forward, something ran through the bushes!
‘What the fuck! A wolf!?’
Sweat started to fall from his brows as he looked around in agitation. The sound of those rustles was not light. It couldn’t be a rabbit, it had be something much bigger!
‘Mountain lion? Coyote?’
The boy continued to sweep his eyes, the light of the moon his only lantern.
‘Maybe it…left?’
Suddenly the same sound appeared behind his back, much closer, much louder.
“Who the fuck is messing with me!?”
Nothing but a long silence greeted him.
…
The silence continued on for so long that he felt it had to have left. It had to, right?
The boy heaved a sigh of relief but too bad that at that same moment the sounds returned.
“Fuck!”
The boy threw his rock at the place he heard the sound and he watched as it beamed towards a bush. He watched…as it suddenly stopped in the air, hovering there for a few seconds before it slowly moved backwards at him. Then, as if something stopped holding it, the rock fell to the ground.
For a few moments his heart stopped beating. A memory returned to his head when he and his friends sat at a campfire, sharing stories of ghosts and ungodly creatures. It was said that many of those poor peasants died in mysterious accidents while building their large, fine homes. The ghosts of those misfortunate souls still resided here, trapped in purgatory by an unknown malevolent force.
In reality, Zan just threw a small rock with the exact same force needed to cancel out its momentum while keeping it “floating”. Alas, even he wasn’t perfect and it started to slowly move backwards. On accident however, he scared the blonde boy even more shitless.
‘Fuck, fuck fuck fuck fuck.’
The blonde boy was going to start sprinting, but the demon seemed to have read his mind. As he got up and sprung his legs to the ground, a stick had fallen on the road, it seemed to have fallen out of the sky.
Breathing harder than ever, it felt like he was going to have a heart attack. While it was just a stick in the middle of the road and the boy knew he could just run over it, he was too scared. Too frightened. Whatever sinister thing was out there in the darkness, it wanted him to stay. What if it killed him because he didn’t want to stay? What will it do to me if I do stay!? What if this is my only chance to make it happy?
The boy’s overthinking got to him and he felt as if he was about to faint.
Then!
A large rustling sound came behind him again, he turned his head to see the vague movement of something moving towards him at a breakneck speed. Bushes, greenery and foliage were disturbed upon the oncoming movement of the creature and he was watching, tracing the disturbances to see it had reached the edge of the dirt path. The blonde boy started to literally piss himself in fear, whatever was lurking in the woods was now going to exit out of them! And kill him!
He screamed, yelped and squealed in fear. Whimpering to himself as he accepted his incoming death…but it never came. The thing that was supposed to jump out of the bushes and feast on him alive, never came out. The figure that was obviously right there in front of him, literally protruding out of the foliage, simply evaporated into thin air. It was like it never happened. Like he imagined it all in his head. Burying his face in his hands, he closed his eyes. For a long time, he was in a state of self-doubt, absolute terror and breathless pain.
By the time he collected himself, his silk pants that he pissed green was already dry. Slowly he raised his head from his safe space to look around himself. It was over. It was finally over. It must have been at least an hour for the…pee to dry, and in that time nothing happened at all. No rustling, no noises, nothing. The blonde boy breathed a deep sigh of relief. As he stood up he looked at his pathetic self, before defeatingly walking back towards his house. He had enough.
The boy immediately turned around from the direction Elea ran in, and limply walked back from where he came from.
THWACK!
A hard object smashed against his ankle and the blonde boy yelped in pain. It left a wide bruise on his foot and…the mark it left was nearly identical to Elea’s bruise. The same shape, except perhaps harder and a different color because of its freshness.
THWACK!
Something whistled in the air and before he knew it, another rock hit his other ankle. The boy cried out in pain once again as he stumbled in the darkness, somehow falling on the object that hit him. He desperately grabbed onto the rock to protect himself, and he noticed…this was the same rock that he threw into the woods. The same rock that he threw at the poor girl’s ankle.
THUD!
This time a rock hit his face, square on the cheek. The boy was already scared shitless but now the impact made him want to cry once again. Before he did however, he saw red hair, and a rapidly approaching punch straight into his nose.
CRACK!
The punch broke his nose and blood profusely flowed out. Alas, it did not end there. Whatever it was that hit him, slammed him into the ground. It placed its weight on top of him, before punching him left and right, again and again. A ground and pound was taking place in the middle of the road. Blood gushed out from his mouth and his lip, his eyes started to swole, and he wondered if the pain would ever stop. The last thing he saw before he fainted were cold eyes filled with glimpses of wrath.
Even after falling unconscious, the red-haired boy did not stop. It was never about justice or getting even, but revenge.