The next morning, Julia was downstairs making breakfast.


    Zach stood in front of the bathroom mirror, checking around his neck. He should have marks or something around his neck, but there was nothing, silky smooth.


    He had a crazy idea.


    Zach ran out of the bathroom and to his room. He had to looked for it before eventually finding it on the floor next to the bed: scissors. Yes, they would do.


    He went back in the bathroom and took a couple deep breaths.


    Zach dipped one blade of the scissors, inside his forearm, feeling the pain of the metal slicing his veins.


    Blood started flowing out, Zach stopped cutting and watched it fall into the bathroom sink. It seemed his idea was wrong... no, hold on a minute...


    The injury sealed up in matter of seconds and went back to how it was before.


    Shocked, Zach dropped the scissors and took a step back.


    He stared at his arm completely healed. The pain was gone too.


    Zach took the scissors from the floor and tried the same thing on the left forearm, this time he tried to cut slightly deeper and squealed in pain.


    He let the blood flow in then sink and watched the new cut seal up like the other one, in matter of seconds.


    ''Oh my god!'' he exclaimed.


    Followed a series of experiments to see how far this thing could go.


    He cut into his legs, face, arms, everywhere and every time, with no delay, the injury would heal itself after few seconds.


    Until his mom knocked on the door, ''You ok honey? You’ve been in there for a while...'' There was slight fear in her that this time he wouldn’t answer either and that this time it wouldn’t be a prank.


    Zach did answer, even if he had painted the bathroom floor of red with his own blood, ''Yeah, mom, I''ll be out in a  second...''


    ''Be fast, you got 20 minutes.''


    It took Zach 19 minutes to clean the mess and 1 to get dressed for school.


    They didn''t say a word on the way.


    Julia didn''t even want to think about what happened but how''s a mother going to take such an image off her mind? - her own only son dangling off the ceiling...


    She stopped the car in front of Zach''s high school.


    ''Hold on,'' she said when he opened the door, ''Zach, I''m sorry for overreacting yesterday, I was...''


    Zach had somewhat of a smile on him, she had never seen him smile so much on his way to school, ''Don''t worry about it mom. I''m sorry it made you feel some kind of way.''This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    They had a moment when their eyes met and they said nothing for seconds, just a long mother and son stare.


    Zach said, ''Alright, I gotta go...''


    ''Sure... Love you.''


    ''Love you too.''


    The day was standard: Sadie and her bunch of friends didn''t mess with Zach in school anymore but that didn''t stop them from giving him mean looks in the hallway. Sometimes he would walk past them and Mike would scream something like, ''What are you looking at?!'' even if Zach was purposefully looking away from them.


    After school is where problems usually started for Zach.


    That day he couldn''t wait to go home to try his new abilities even more. He guessed, now that he healed rapidly, there was no reason to be afraid of passing by the park to get home faster.


    The forest had tall trees, the type of place where you hear unexplainable noises when you’re walking through it alone or at night. There were other school kids walking through the forest behind and in front of Zach.


    After a couple yards, the path split into two, left and right.


    The left path led to another area of town and was where all the kids coming back from school went.


    Zach went to the right, a path that lead to his small neighborhood - which was just one road with about 10 houses.


    Zach could already ear the lovebirds giggling and eventually saw them standing there, Mike with his back on a tree and Sadie with her hands on his chest, looking up at him with dreamy eyes. He rubbed under her left black eye, ''You''ve gotta tell me who did this to you. Give me a name and I''ll kill that person with my bare hands...''


    ''Ok, knight in shining armour, your services are not needed.''


    ''I''m serious, if someone is treating my woman like this, they need to pay...''


    ''Your woman?'' she had to go on her tiptoes to kiss him.


    As she raised her head, he bent down slightly and their lips met in the middle, until thy heard steps.


    Mike noticed him first, ''Faggot incoming…’ then he moved Sadie off him ''You come at the right time, I needed a punching bag.''


    Zach, like always, tried to walk by without looking up at them.


    But Mike wouldn’t take that…


    Zach passed by them, Mike grabbed the back of his shirt, ''Are you really going to try and ignore me?'' he pulled, almost making Zach trip.


    Mike dragged Zach back and lifted him with both arms extended, ''Look Sadie, doesn''t this look like the Lion King?''


    ''The Lion King? I never watched it.''


    ''What do you mean you never watched it? Do you live under a rock or something?''


    Sadie shrugged, ''Probably...''


    Zach said, ''Please put me down.''


    ‘Oh, I almost forgot you were here. What did you say?''


    ''Put. Me. Down.''


    ''Hahaha! This punk’s starting to grow some balls... Since when do you tell me what to do?''


    He spun Zach around in mid-air and their eyes met, probably for the first time ever.


    ''How funny is this? Babe, he actually makes eye contact with me now.''


    ''Maybe he''s in love... I heard somewhere, there''s this thing called Struckhomo Syndrome or something. It makes fuckers like him love you when you beat them.''


    ''Is that so...? Fucking pervert.'' Mike dropped him, ''Don’t worry, I''ll beat you so much you’ll hate me,'' and cracked his knuckles, ready to launch a missile at Zach''s face.


    Mike hadn''t even noticed that Zach had sent a missile to his own face - with Zach''s skinny muscle-less arms, you wouldn''t really call it a “missile,” paper plane is more appropriate.


    Regardless, when it landed on Mike''s face, it didn''t hurt at all.


    What stunned Mike was that he wasn''t expecting it.


    ''... what the fuck did you just do?'' his face went red in anger, ''Enough, I''ll kill him, Sadie!''


    Zach couldn''t believe what he had just done: it was the first time he had fought back. That rush in adrenaline he felt after punching Mike was not enough, he wanted more of it.


    Zach took off running and Mike started chasing him before Sadie yelled, ''Stop Mike! Let him go. You''ll deal with him another time!''


    Not that Sadie would tell Mike, but she told him to stop because she could see clearly that what they were doing to him, was what her father used to do to her mom.


    Mike stopped and watched Zach run away as fast as he could - the only thing Zach had on Mike physically, was his ability to run fast, where his skinny figure became an advantage.


    The last thing Zach heard, as he ran was Mike’s scream, ''Next time I see you outside of school, you''re dead!''


    For the first time in his life, Zach looked forward to that...