The mention of Toby’s disappearance always succeeded to make grownups mute, as long as it was a child who spoke the words. People who always seemed to be judging and voicing their disliking towards developed generations below themselves, suddenly becoming dry at the loss of verbal reaction. Unable to voice the thoughts that many of us in Rale thought on a daily basis. In the eyes of Joseph Greene grownups not talking was a sign of how the kids in this town lack importance. Our children are our future - that’s what they say to each other. Mothers chatting alongside with each other, holding conversations with one another about their children’s accomplishments turning into wraths when those mentioned children came home late when the mothers came home to find chores undone. Kids being the future - now that’s true, but the adults are the present. Everyone knew that. Break a rule yesterday you get a beating today.
Toby Greene disappeared after breaking a rule. He broke a rule yesterday and had to pay the price today. Chatter about Toby’s yesterday and what happened today follows everywhere, coming from the corners, walls and below the surface Joseph walks on. Most of the chatter bring rumours, both false and true about Joseph’s brother. Some of them tell him about how Christina Greene gave her son a beating - a beating too much for a nine-year-old boy to handle. A beating that led to the poor boy’s blood accidentally spilling on the floor, but not ceasing to stop anyway. The concern of the stain would never come in mental contact with Mrs Greene during that moment. Others tell him that Mr Greene drank a little too much, just an inch too much. That extra drop of Hershburry’s three-year-old whisky was that extra drop that made the dam break, the consequence of that dam breaking was young boy Greene’s disappearance. Others tell him that Toby Greene went out to play and got kidnapped. Plucked away like a weed from the poisonous garden that was the Greene household. Poisoned with chemicals to become greener and more colourful, but nevertheless, it’s only the appearance that gains from those chemicals. The taste just tastes more bitter and bitter after each spray of the chemicals called secrets behind locked front doors. The outside of the house is sprayed with chemicals, if Joseph could taste it, he would surely die from food poisoning.
Our children are our future. Always echoing against the walls in every Rale building until the echo hits its designated target; the children themselves. Every hit of echo a child receives leaves a bruise of ambivalence on their mind. Rale is full of echoes, infectious sounds coming from those venomous mouths of grownups. For our young Joseph, grownups were especially threatening but after Toby Greene’s disappearance they became seemingly less hostile. That gave Joseph some advantage when dealing with stuck-up adults who liked to interfere with his business. It also did give him some trouble in school. The other kids, especially the ones in his class, decided that him being just slightly more favoured than every other kid was an outrageous development of Joseph's status along the other sixth graders. More often and often Joseph was harassed by some of the more daring kids in his class. Even some of the older kids in his class, the ones who had to stay behind while the other kids advanced to seventh grade. An example of one of those kids was Richard Davidsberg. Along with his fellow stay-behind, Jordan Smith, he harassed Joseph Greene almost every day. Although it rarely got physical it bothered Joseph to no end. Those times it did get physical though, was at this moment.
As for this moment, Joseph was trapped between Davidsberg and Smith's revolting bodies. Each of Joseph's arms was in locked dead between the older boys'. They were basically carrying poor boy Greene, dragging his legs limply behind them, further and further away from Joseph's ripped backpack and the road that lead to his house. Joseph had stopped his attempt to fight free a few metres ago, a few punches ago. Joseph had some dried and fresh blood on his face. Catherine Greene will be very disgruntled when she sees her son's face so badly beaten as it is right now. God forbid that the Greene family earns any more bad reputation, as if they don't have enough already.
Richard grunted to Jordan to stop and to drop Joseph. Jordan complied, leaving Joseph completely out of breath the exact moment he came in contact with the ground. It sure as hell hurt Joseph, every time Richard decided that he needed to learn some new exciting feeling of pain it ended with Joseph either unconscious or so badly beaten he had to lay on the ground until he was either dragged home by some poor human that happened to find him or until he could manage to drag himself home. One time, which had been one of the worst cases of physical damage any doctor in Rale has seen, boy Greene had ended up with a broken bone. That time his blood had been splashed over several surfaces and left several trails behind. Joseph's mind had been too exhausted to comprehend his surrounding, much like he was right now. The only Joseph knew of his whereabouts was that the small road Richard and Jordan dragged him on was just around a hundred metres away from the safety of his home. If his home was even safe from Richard and Jordan. Richard tended to ignore rules a lot so breaking into someone's home and trespassing was not off his table. Jordan would only do something that had with breaking rules to do if Richard was the one leading.
"Now what do we do?", Jordan huffed out. Both of the older boys were out of breath, Joseph didn't weigh that much but the bullies had used a lot of energy striking Joseph's body with blows repeatedly earlier. And Joseph isn't stupid like his personal demons above him, more punches are going to be gifted to him.
Overhead, Richard straightened his back, one of the habits he had. Something he always had done when he was in the middle of ruining some poor kid's appearance that would last for at least two weeks. Maybe it's not a habit, maybe Richard just had to straighten out his back once in a while. It does tire out the back muscles to be bent over kids hours in a row.
"I think we ought to finish beatin' this ol' skank up, I can't have my old man suspecting me, you know that I'm as good as dead if he gets a whiff of what we do."
"Right."
During the two's conversation, Joseph had managed to scramble up the ridiculously small amount of energy he could find in himself. That energy was fueled to his anger, which in its hopefully would cause more energy to spread in him. If he wasn't so scared, he would've fought back, but unfortunately, he was only a boy. A boy who just wanted to go home and watch some old show on TV, it wouldn't matter if the show was boring or pissy, he would enjoy it a lot more than this. Anyone with a sense of reality would enjoy a lot more than this.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
"You' lookin' rather worn out there, Greeny boy!", Richard shouted down to Joseph.
No wonder dumbass, Joseph wanted to say. He wanted to scream it in Richard's dumb face and tell him to piss off and kiss his ass and then he'd beat the shit out of him for kissing it. If he could, that is. In Joseph's imagination, Richard would only be a mere form of punching bag to fulfil Joseph's violent inclinations. But since it all were works created by Joseph's mind, it would never come true. Especially considering young Greene's muscle mass. Even though Richard Davidsberg and Jordan Smith both had more of an explosive strength the circumstances had to be extraordinarily incredible in Greene's favour if he would have the slightest of chance in a direct melee fight against both of the older boys.
"We should move to somewhere more closed off, don't want any witnesses", Jordan proposed. The road leading away from the main road Joseph Greene always took to get from Rale Elementary School to Greene Residence. Some other kids in his grade and some above usually took the same road as him but continued past the green home. Joseph usually left after his classmates meaning that the chances of someone walking by were rather low. Two of his three friends, Daisy Walker and Henry Terrins sometimes walked the same way as Joseph Greene, depending on if they wanted to have company during a few of the minutes it takes for them to walk home. Walker sometimes stayed at school later than Greene did on some school days. When Joseph had left the school this early Friday afternoon Daisy was still there working extra on a project that they had been paired up in together with Edgar Dias, the final segment of Joseph's group of friends. Yet the likelihood of Daisy magically coming to save Joseph was something that he could only hope of.
Jordan Smith was just about to grab ahold of Joseph Greene's right arm but the sound of a girl's voice made him stand up again from the bent over position he had assumed.
"Leave him be!", Daisy Walker shouted.
Richard Davidsberg and Jordan Smith turned to look at the one who interrupted their precious time spared just for moments like these. The older boys always looked threatening, even compared to the grimmest of punks. Daisy looked a little shaken up by just having to stand in front of their piercing stares. But if you personally knew Walker like Greene, Terrins and Dias did you would know better than to think that being scared would stop young girl Walker. Unfortunately for Davidsberg and Smith, the only interactions they've shared with Walker was of when she had threatened to snitch to Davidsberg's dad when she had witnessed one time that they'd beat Greene up.
"Walk away, flower motion", Richard shouted back but at a slightly higher volume. 'Flower Motion' was the best insult he could come up with but he was proud nonetheless. A smirk was clearly visible to the eye of the world. Daisy walked a few steps closer then stopped and Richard stepped away from Joseph, closer to Daisy. Daisy grimaced slightly.
“Why the foul face, flower?”
“Because it had to witness yours”, she said.
And just like that, in less than a second Richard’s smirk had transformed into a frown. If Daisy’s intent originally had been to help Joseph it certainly did, but she instead had to suffer Richard’s leftover anger from school that day. That anger had been caused by Joseph Greene, whom had broken a rule that Richard Davidsberg had created just for him. The only rule that Joseph at all times had to mind and follow. Never tell anyone what I do or tell you. Davidsberg had made that rule official after Greene had gone to the ER after a badly damaging beating. This Friday, during lunch break, when kids in lower grades were quickly eating in large groups to spare more time to play, Joseph along with his group of friends had been sitting at the edge of the school yard. Henry Terrins had during a conversation about which movie was the best brought up the fact that Joseph often had new bruises every other week. Even though it hadn’t been Joseph who brought the subject up it was him that got beat up.
Now that Richard and Jordan's attention was on Daisy, Joseph could either stay and help her get out of this mess or get up and run. Both options seemed to lead to worse consequences. If he stayed he would most likely fuel Richard's anger and that could lead to both of the younger kids getting killed. If he ran, he could get help from someone but during the time that he'd be absent Daisy would get seriously injured or worse. Joseph himself was already exhausted from all the torturously slow minutes spent getting struck by his humanised demons over and over again.
In the end, Joseph couldn't decide on what to do soon enough and in the blink of an eye Daisy was on the ground with small streaks of blood running away from her soon-to-be corpse along with Richard and Jordan repeatedly striking her sides, head and legs, anything they could reach with unmeasurable force. That force eventually went overboard and Daisy Walker's last breath as breathed in then knocked out by Richard Davidsberg's fist splashed with a mix of the girl's blood and Joseph Greene's.
Jordan had stopped hitting Daisy just a few seconds before her death but even after Richard continued. Richard continued until Jordan pushed him back by his shoulders.
"Rich, the girl's dead! Stop actin' crazy, a'ight?"
But Richard didn't stop acting crazy. Actually, instead of acting less crazy he turned around and looked at Joseph's limp body with a gaze prepped with an explosive rage and started to march over to him. When Richard reached Joseph, he repeated the process done just before. Just like Daisy, Joseph didn't make any type of sound except for sharp breaths. After the first few strikes, Joseph closed his eyes and tried his best not to tense his body. He got struck in his stomach which caused him to reflexly lift his head up and put his hands over the hurting area. Richard saw that as an opportunity and punched Joseph's forehead with so much force that he could gather up in a fraction of a second. That force was enough to make poor Joseph Greene's head hit the hard rock ground and crack open in the back.
Just like Daisy Walker and Toby Greene, Joseph Greene had been another victim of Richard Davidsberg's lethal wrath. Every life in Rale would continue even without the three kids gone. For the media, they were only missing and those splashes of blood were just spilt paint. Richard Davidsberg was only a normal kid with the wrong childhood and poor mental stability and Jordan Smith was only a victim of group oppression. Rale was only a beautiful town with the wrong community. But everyone who knew what Richard has done knew better than to think that the missing children would stop at three.