Hendrick
Hendrick closed the door behind him and found himself in the little garden in front of his home. The taste of fresh air filled him with relief, the sun shining high up in the skies gently tickling on his face with its warming rays. A few white flowers were planted neatly arranged next to the entrance, but besides that there wasn’t much notable besides grass. The house was located at the edge of the village, so there wasn’t much traffic on the streets or people walking around.
He took a deep breath, then walked off the family property and onto the side-walk. The pavement under his feet emitted a slight aura of certainty. Around 10 minutes without anything to take care of. Time to think and, finally, some breathing room for his soul. There was no need to take too much care about the surroundings, since he had memorized the exact path with all the details a long time ago.
So which options did he have? All the things he had tried so far didn’t quite work out. He did dive even further down the rabbit hole, but the light at the end of the tunnel was, even if very close, still not to be seen. Not even a slight change, a gust of an opportunity, something, anything. If one more strawberry would find the way into his throat, he would snap. Not like it would change a thing, but it would happen. He needed to reevaluate all of his plans, figure out the best solution, and then start one last attempt to get through the final obstacle blocking off his freedom.
Not a single cloud was visible in the ocean-blue, clear sky which spread itself like the painting of a middle-aged woman across the horizon. As usual, a gentle breeze hummed through the woods just a couple of meters away from the path, tickling the branches’ leaves in waving rhythm. A few cars drove by with steaming clouds and mechanical appearance, which reminded him of a familiar place.
He felt the muscles in his right hand tighten up, forced himself to relax.
There is still enough time remaining until the clock hits 12. Until then, I need to be ready, he thought while crossing the road without even checking the colour of the traffic light once. I can’t give up. If I will, there will be nothing else I can do besides accepting my fate.
“God damn it,” he muttered, but Hendrick’s high pitched voice made the swear words he used sound pathetic. How could anyone take him serious like this? His tiny legs carried him forward as the school campus moved closer and closer.
“Maybe I can try to open the door from further away...” Hendrick pondered with one hand on his chin as if he wanted to scratch a beard that wasn’t there. “No, I already tried something similar. That wouldn’t work.”
His thoughts spun like a carousel at a fair. Then, he got thrown out of the carousel as a shape around his size tackled him and ruffled his hair.
“Hey, Hen! How’s it going?” a cherish voice – which was a little too close to his ear for comfort – inquired. A slim figure, a boy around his age, stood close to him with a wide grin from cheek to cheek.
Everything about the person’s appearance was shining brightly.
It was Jim.
“Hey Jim, what’s up?” Hendrick asked with a narrow smile.
“Guess what?” Jim asked rather jumping than walking as his hands gestured around without much observable concept. He had a certain glow in his hazel eyes, as if something had awoken a deep passion inside of him.
“Huh? What happened?” Hendrick asked rather calmly compared to the bundle of energy next to him.
“Jack got the rulebook for the new ‘Dungeons and Dwagons’ edition for his birthday. He said if we give him some time to prepare, we can all come over and play it with him.”
“Really? Awesome, dude. I’m in... but I get to be the berserker,” he said without a hint of doubt.
“Ah, come on…” Jim returned. “The berserker is the coolest one.”
“We can just both play a berserker, right?”
“Nah dude, RPG rule number one... that’s lame. If you are going to be the berserker, then I just play something waaay cooler than you,” Jim said. “But I won’t tell you now, Bleh! Ah and by the way…” He leaned a little closer, whispered, “I will also beat your ass with it.”
“Oh yeah?” Hendrick chuckled. “Let’s see that once the time comes.”
It was always funny how cheerful Jim could be. If Hendrick was completely honest, he had to admit Jim was rather predictable as a person and a little over the top from time to time, but also truthful, really straightforward and logical under certain circumstances.
Suddenly, he got an idea.
Stolen story; please report.
“Hey, you always seem so keen on fighting everyone. What if I wouldn’t wanna fight you?”
“Because I would be way stronger than you? Hmmm…” He scratched his brown, messy hair, then added, “That would be like… super boring. You know that, right?”
“Yea, I know. But in theory. How would I stop you from beating my ass?” Hendrick asked, a light chuckle in his tone.
“Well, perhaps by dropping your weapon on purpose. That would be so lame, I wouldn’t want to keep fighting if you pulled something like that.”
“Yea, you might be right.” Hendrick said. He then thought fast, added, “Also, who said Jack gets to lead the campaign? I’m sure I would be good at leading too.”
Jim tilted his head lightly. “Yea, but Jack owns the game and knows the rules. Also, he is smarter than us, so it probably wouldn’t work out very well.”
“Hm, yea,” Hendrick said. “He would just find out things way too fast and it would create problems.”
“Pretty sure, yes. Let’s just ask him about it at school. I’m sure he already has some crazy stuff prepared.”
“Yea. Like always.”
Hendrick and Jim followed the tarred path up the hill the school was built upon. A tall building surrounded by a couple of old oak and birch-trees spread across the outdoor area. Multiple floors of monotone looking concrete reached higher than the treetops. In front of the main entrance was the school-yard, which reached around about half of the building... there even was a small playground for the younger children.
They entered the building’s front-door and made their way down the main hall, then strolled through the halls which led to their classroom. Jim spent most of the time rambling about which Science-Fiction movie was the best while Hendrick kept thinking about his plan.
Now he finally had all the pieces he needed.
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Jim
Jim had almost fallen asleep on his desk as he felt a finger poke his side. His body jerked upwards like a doll on strings before he regained his posture and acted – at least he attempted to act – like nothing had happened. He shot a quick, sleepy glance across the desk at Jack, narrow eyes flashing at the troublemaker. His death glare got interrupted by a smoky male voice originating from the front of the room:
“Would you please give us the answer to the equation on the board, Jim?” the grey-haired maths teacher asked. Some snuffed chuckling was audible from different corners of the room.
“Yea uh…” Jim placed his left index finger close to his rather bulky nose, tapped with his foot under the desk. “It’s uh… uhm...”
“It’s 21,” a female voice stated.
“Good job, Anna! Jim, maybe you should spend less time at night playing video games and more time studying,” the old man said while pointing his walking aid in his direction.
“But studying is boooring,” Jim returned as an epic comeback. Laughter echoed through the classroom for a brief moment before the teacher silenced the class with another wave of his walking aid. He then sighed and continued explaining things about X and Y, almost as if the conversation earlier didn’t even happen.
Jim spared a look over to Anna, who poked her tongue out at him, a cheerful expression on her amber coloured face. He responded with a wink and a middle finger.
School was probably the most cruel thing you could do to an 11-year-old. At least Jim had his friends with him, which made the whole process a little bit more bearable. He couldn’t wait until after school, when he would beat them in fighting games and play hide and seek with them.
The clock moved slower than the loading screens he saw on his computer every day. If there only would be anything he could spend his time with while listening to this old man’s muttering about equations. Even the slightest dose of entertainment would be a real lifesaver. He craved dopamine.
Jim’s craving got silenced by a piece of paper which got slid onto his side of the desk by a dark-skinned hand. It showed a rather vague drawing of a stick-man holding a sword way too tall for its body. The stick figure had a big smile on its face while impaling another stick creature with the tip of its oversized blade. A lot of red circles had been drawn over the impaled figure in a rather coarse way.
“This is my ‘Dungeons and Dwagons’ character fighting evil guys!” the afro wearing male next to Jim announced in a rather quiet voice. “I call him Guts, the swordsman.”
A quiet laugh escaped Jim’s lips. “That’s the edgiest shit I’ve ever seen in my entire life... I kinda like it. Hmmm... but,” Jim pointed at the piece of paper, “what’s all of that red stuff?”
“It’s the blood and guts of his enemies, of course! Isn’t that obvious? He never gives up, and he always comes out on top whatever happens to him.”
“Yea… right.” Jim couldn’t help it but smile. Jack always managed to cheer him up if he was bored. He also was the second best ‘Swash Bros’ player in their friend group. Jim held the number one title of course, and he bragged about it frequently.
A loud ringing was audible.
Jim leaped off his chair bare milliseconds after the clock had rung.
Break time, finally! he thought.
He loaded his imaginary weapons, started finger-gunning into Jack’s direction. Jack – who appeared to be prepared for the attack – barely managed to dodge all of his imaginary attacks as he leaned backwards, the mind bullets missing his face by mere inches as they zipped over him.
A maniacal laughter was audible as Jack paced out of the classroom – almost running into a first grader who was standing in front of the door while doing so – before disappearing into the hallway.
“You will never catch me, scum!” his distant voice echoed through the halls.
Jim followed Jack out of the classroom, fingers held up high, ready to roll.
“You can run but you can’t hi-”
He looked to the left, then the right.
“Wait… where did he go?”
He then proceeded to sprint along the hallway in search of his enemy.
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