《Hurt People Hurt People》


 Chapter 1

    Evenings were the worst time to be in the Jones house.


    Sadie was on her bed, writing yet another vicious comment about Zachary Howard and she stopped midway wondering if it was the right thing to do anymore...


    She had the music playing from a Bluetooth speaker on her bed.


    Rock music thatSadie kept at a lowvolumebecause her dad didn''t like it loud.


    Talking about her dad, he should be home any time now.


    It occurred to her that usually when he came back home so late, it was because he had been having beers with his colleagues after work.


    In fact when he came back, Sadie ran to her bedroom window to see him park in the driveway. She saw her father park badly and stumble out of the car - it was a miracle he had never committed or been in an accident while drunk.


    He knocked on the door loudly.


    Sadie''s mother, Anna, opened and smiled, even if the horrid smell of alcohol reeked in Al¡¯s breath made her almost puke.


    Yet Anna pulled through it and smiled, ''Honey,welcome back, I made you a special dinner. I waited for you to come back so we could have it together.''


    Al walked in without saying a word, almost tripping on his own feet before walking over to the dinner table to sit.


    Anna hadbeen waiting for him with excitement.


    They both sat down and Al didn''t even bother to take off his construction worker uniform.


    ''Your favorite, curry. I tried a new recipe, it''s a little spicier than usual.¡¯


    ''Hm...'' Al dove in with a fork into the curry and ate up.


    He began coughing uncontrollably,eyes wateringas he tried to get a glass of water in the table but the drinking had made his hands shaky so Al failed to bring the cup to his mouth.


    He wasn''t breathing.


    Anna ran to raise Al¡¯s chin up and open his mouth so she could drop water from her cup down his throat. It worked, he gulped down the water and the fear of ¡°death by curry¡±was gone.


    In a flash second movement, Al slapped Anna so hard, the sound of the slap could be heard from upstairs, Sadie heard it over the music.


    ''Fucking bitch! Were trying to kill me?!''


    From the floor, Anna pressed a hand on her cheek, ''No I¡ª''


    He kicked her stomach with heavy construction boots.


    ''Bitch! Trying to kill me after I came back from work... I provide everything in this house and this is how you treat me?!''Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    Her screams of pain did nothing other than fuel Al''s rage; he kicked again, this time way harder than first time andanother kick.


    Anna could feel the toe of his boots go deep in her belly, wreaking havoc on her intestines, it made her want to vomit.


    ''Ah¡­ Please, Al! Please!''


    ''Un-fucking grateful whore! That''s what you are...!''


    ''Stop,dad,stop!'' Sadie came running down the stairs, and saw her mom on the floor squirming in unimaginable pain. Sadie couldn''t bear to listen to the screams anymore.


    ''Dad, don''t hurt her...'' Sadie got on her knees to beg him.


    Alstared at his daughter for a while¡­


    You see, dear reader, alcohol is a foul beast that makes rational thinking useless against whose possessed by it but truly, all it does, is show people''s true colors. Al''s color was the darkest shade of black, a soul rotten by a harsh life, where scenes like thiswere the rule, not the exception.


    ''Like mother like daughter¡­¡¯ he snarked, ¡®I know about what you get up to that little boyfriend of yours... his dad was just with me at the bar. He told me all about how you lock yourselves in his room for hours...''


    ¡®It¡¯s not how you¡ª¡¯


    He used his right hand to slap her face into silence, ''Shut up! When I talk,you don''t talk.''


    Sadie fell backwards, hitting her head on the floor.


    ''Stop it Al, I beg you¡­!''


    Too late. He had already picked his daughter off the floor and given her a punch in the face.


    Al raised a fist up to punch her once more, when Anna yelled, ''I''m pregnant!''


    Suddenly, Al stopped and turned Anna, ''What did you just say...?''


    Al dropped Sadie like a sack of potatoes.


    ''What did you just say?''


    Anna managed to stand up with her back still arched, and both hands pressing her stomach.


    ''I-I''m pregnant...''


    Al''s look was mysterious -you couldn''t tell if he was shocked or angry about the situation.


    He walked to herwith a smile, ''We''re going to make another child?''


    Anna nodded.


    ''That''s amazing news!'' he yelled with a joyous smile.


    Sadie was still on the floor trying to take her mind off the swelling up of her eye.


    ''Oh, my god, why didn¡¯t you say this earlier Anna, we need to celebrate!''


    Anna would have liked to tell him, the curry was what she had made to celebrate-not like he cared to know anyway.


    At the same time, Anna feared those strong kicks to the stomach might have changed the situation about the pregnancy.


    ''Don''t worry, I''ll make sure every thing''sperfect for the baby. Come let''s sit...'' he accompanied Anna to the dinner table, where they sat back where they sat before.


    Al looked at Sadie, ''Heard the good news Sadie? You¡¯re gonna be a big sis¡­ You ok princess?''


    Sadie slowly got herself up, with a black eye -she knew better than to confront him about what just happened...


    ''Y-yeah, I''m... Fine'' From the way that eye looked, she definitely wasn''t.


    Sadie watched as her father continued to eat his curry like nothing happened.


    Al went far to comment, ''This is fantastic Anna, you should try yours!'' While his wife was still struggling to breathe, not to talk about eating.


    Sadie went back upstairs to her room, and finally let all the tears go, while the black eye had gone purple-ish, making it hard to see from her left eye.


    How could her mom even think of bringing another creature into this hell that their life was?


    If he could do this to her and then call her ¡°princess¡±, Sadie could easily imagine him killing the baby because it cried too much, only to claim that ¡°the baby stopped moving for some reason.¡±


    Her father''s madness was something recent,the alcohol was a side effect of it.


    Sadie made sure the door was locked and pulled up YouTube on her phone. She found self-defencevideos.


    She had been practisingfor months to take her dad on but had never found the courage to fight back. One day, she thought, one day, I¡¯ll show him.


    She walked to the closet and took out a man-sized dummy for practisinggrappling. As she manoeuvredthe dummy into submissions, she could envision herself doing something similar to her father.


    Sadie had been saving pocket money to be able to get it and since she got it, practisingon that dummy was what she did when not on social media, insulting people.

 Chapter 2

    In a dark bedroom, a teenager stared at the screen of a laptop, crying.


    Zach Howard''s mom was going to arrive in few minutes.


    Under the pictures of his social media profile he saw nasty comments.


    You see, Zach had tried to promise to himself that he wouldn¡¯t look at them, ignore them completely but he had peeked to see just one of the myriad of messages or comments and fallen down the rabbit hole, he ended up reading all them.


    One of the latest ones was by the worst of them all: Sadie.


    Her comment under the one of his pictures read, ¡°Bet those jeans are ripped because he¡¯s on his knees a lot.¡±


    In the picture, Zach smiled near his cousin - which he went to meet in France bout a month ago. They stood in the road smiling. Nothing particular about the picture, other than the 68 comments, most of them just as mean as Sadie¡¯s.


    They went something like, ¡°That''s his boyfriend¡­¡±


    Or ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, this how faggots prepare to fuck¡­¡±


    (If I was to list them all, those comments would end up making you cry too¡­)


    Zach read them all and they made him want to do something horrible.


    At the same time, his mom was about to enter the driveway while waiting for old Mrs Bentley to pass by. Recently the elderly lady had been complaining about her walker that made her walk slowly, very slowly.


    Julia Howard would have screamed at the old man if shoe could but Mrs Bentley turned to her and waved, thus stopping right in the middle of the entrance to her house''s driveway.


    As she walked by Mrs Bentley waved at her and said something which Julia couldn''t hear because of the windows being pulled all the way up. Frankly, Julia had no intention of hearing the old woman ramble on about how her daughter, Tammy, was soon going to get her one of those electric things she sits on and drives - the name of it escaped her mind, later on she would ask Tammy and find out the words she was looking for were ¡°Electric Wheelchair.¡±


    Julia had to wait what felt like an eternity until Mrs Bentley passed by and went ahead, towards her house down the road.


    Meanwhile, with tears in his eyes, Zach had already made his decision. He stood up from the chair, his eyes still on the comments under that picture.


    His room was pretty small, the only source of light was the small window which he had covered with curtains - which is why the room was so dark. There was nothing much other than his bed, a desk, a wardrobe and a drawer.


    On the ceiling of the room there was a ceiling fan which was about to be used for something completely different from its original function.


    Zach, with some regret and feeling like there was no other option, dragged the chair under the ceiling fan.


    He walked to a 4 drawer chest nearby the desk, in the top drawer, there were belts, among which he sorted, looking for the most sturdy one.


    Zach tried to clean the tears off his face but they wouldn''t stop. He was doing the right thing, they would never stop harassing him.


    Here''s the thing: Zach had tried to tell his mom about the bullying a long time ago and Julia said something in the likes of, ''That''s not ok. Tell your teacher about it, they should stop things like that from happening!'' she said that while cooking in the kitchen. Her back faced him.


    Zach did what his mom told him to do, and told the teacher every thing after class the next day.


    Miss Beverly was a woman in her mid 40s, with a skinny figure, black hair and a deep voice that you wouldn¡¯t expect from someone who looked like her. Miss Beverly wore short skirts, secretary glasses and a golden blonde ponytail - suggesting she was a desperately single woman.


    Zach sat on the opposite side of the teacher¡¯s desk opposite Miss Beverly.


    She crossed her legs and asked calmly, ''What''s the problem?''


    Initially reluctant from talking, Zach found  himself shaking nervously. He looked at the door, ''C-can we do it with the door shut?''


    ''Sure...''


    Zach went there to do so and looked left and right outside the door to make sure there was no one listening in their conversation. He walked back to the chair and the teacher repeated, ''Can you please tell me what happened?''


    ''They''re bullying me...''


    ''Who''s bullying you?''


    Zach glanced at the door - even if closed he just couldn''t shake off the fear they could be listening in, after all, they were the type of assholes to do that kind of stuff.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    ''Sadie, Mike, Moira, Jules, Gerry...'' he started listing names, which the teacher noted on a notepad she took out when Zach had said about 15 names - at that point she asked him to repeat them all from the start.


    ''And what did they do to you?''


    ''Well, it started when I told Jules that I was gay...''


    ''Oh...!'' exclaimed the teacher with an expression of surprise and confusion - one look he had seen in his mother when he told her the same thing. Not knowing how to react to that news, Miss Beverly nodded and said ''... I-I didn''t know...''


    Zach helped her out of the awkward situation but continuing his story, ''When they found out, they started calling me faggot. I used to put earphones in my ears not to hear them but then they started pushing me¡ª''


    ¡®Who started pushing you?''


    ''Keiran, Mike, Tony... pretty much most of the boys...''


    She adjusted her glasses and wrote on the notebook again, highlighting the male names on the list.


    ''After that, they started beating me up in the school toilets or in the yard. Now they say bad things about me online every day.''


    ''That''s crazy...! Do you have any visible injuries from these beatings?''


    ''Yesterday, they punched the back of my head. There was a large cut behind my ear...'' Zach turned his head to show her and the teacher moved the glasses closer to her eyes to see, ''I''m sorry, but I don''t see anything here... when did this happen?''


    Zach touched the back of his head, ''It happened yesterday. There was a lot of blood coming out, I swear.''


    ''It¡¯s fine, I¡¯ve heard enough. Look at me, Zach, we won¡¯t let this slide.''


    She dropped the notebook back in her bag on the floor nearby the chair, ''I''ll take this to the principal right now and we''ll deal with this as soon as tomorrow.''


    Zach¡¯s smiled had never been so wide, ''Will you really?''


    ''Yes, this is extremely serious stuff. It''s unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable.''


    Both her and Zach rose to their feet, he was dancing with excitement, ''C-can I hug you?''


    Miss Beverly smiled, ''Sure you can¡­¡¯ and almost regret doing so - Zach hugged her so hard, she feared her internal organs would be squeezed out of her body.


    The next day, as they all sat in class waiting for the teacher to come in, Sadie and the others were looking at Zach. This time he didn''t look away like he usually did, he smirked at them, they would soon get what they deserved¡­


    Miss Beverly walked in, looking with disdain at the bullies Zach had listed to her which consisted in a quarter of the class.


    She dropped her hand bag on the teacher''s desk and pulled out the list of names from it. She looked at it as she listed their names, ''Sadie Jones, Mike Hadley, Gerry Torres...'' when done she concluded in saying, ''You are all required to go to the principal¡¯s office right now.''


    ''Why?''


    ''You''ll find out when you get there...''


    Sadie stared at Zach as she walked out with the others. He smirked at her, justice served... kind of...


    Their parents were called and they were suspended for three days, which were the best Zach had ever had¡­ until they came back: more violent this time and they made sure to do nothing to him within school property, but outside and online, they had no mercy.


    To go back home, Zach could have walked through the short-cut in the nearby forest but usually took the longer route - the other route made him take over an hour to get home compared to the 20 it would have taken him to get home through the forest short-cut.


    He took the longer route because, Sadie and Mike spent almost every afternoon after school there in the forest, kissing and smoking weed behind tree leaves.


    Mike was this 6 foot 3 tower of a teenager who played rugby in the local junior team - a mountain compared to frail Zach with his 5 foot 6 figure.


    Ok, enough with the backstory¡­


    Zach was wrapping the belt around the ceiling fan, making sure it was tight and wouldn''t break on his own weight.


    Meanwhile, his mom Julia, had parked and was taking out the groceries'' from the car''s trunk.


    She carried two heavy bags towards the door and had to grab the keys to open the door, which revealed to be another mission because the keys were in her handbag, hung on her shoulder - struggles of a single mother...


    Julia dropped one shopping bags and reached in the handbag to find the key and finally open the door.


    ''I''m home!'' She yelled. Zach couldn''t hear Julia from his room upstairs.


    He was just wrapping the belt around his neck, tears rolling down his cheeks - he thought, mom will probably be happier without a dumbass gay kid to take care of.


    With the belt secured, the next step was kicking off the chair. Zach did it, without countdowns or anything, they just make things harder. The chair fell on the floor.


    From the kitchen right under Zach''s room, Julia heard the chair hit the floor.


    ''Zach, what are you doing? I know, it''s late to prepare dinner, we can order some pizza.''


    She heard no response, which worried her, so she went up the stairs, ''Zach, did you ear me?''


    She got to his door, and knocked.


    ''Zach?''


    Julia opened the door...


    A scream erupted out of her as she fell to her knees.


    Mrs Bentley''s hearing was not that great but even she heard the scream from down the road.


    Zach hung from the fan on the ceiling, his body limp, his arms loose, feet pointing towards the floor, lifeless.


    ''What have you done?!'' Julia couldn¡¯t bare to look any longer. She moved away from the door and laid her back on the wall in between the door to Zach''s room and the door to hers. All this she did screaming, in disbelief.


    ''Mom?''


    Julia thought she was having auditory locations, hearing her son''s voice.


    ''Mom, is that you?''


    Grief can make people crazy, Julia knew that well from when she lost Zach''s dad, back then she would have sworn to still feel his touch when she slept in bed.


    ''Mom, can you help me...''


    Julia dared to peek in, to be sure he was... dead?


    Zach held himself with his arms on the ceiling fan, so he wouldn''t fall down and get choked again.


    ''Can you hand me those scissors on the desk...''


    Julia ran to him, with such fury, and looked around his desk, to find scissors. She passed him the scissors, still unable to believe her eyes.


    Cleaning the tears from her eyes, Julia asked, ''Hold on¡­ was that a prank?''


    As he cut the belt''s leather strap, not even Zach understood what was going on.


    He looked at his mom''s face seeing true terror in them and glimpse of hope that was she saw wasn''t real, that it all had to be a prank.


    He nodded, ''... yes...'' and smiled.


    When he came down, Julia slapped behind his head so hard, he could have died again.


    ''You made me...'' she was still cleaning the tears off her face, ''... it doesn''t matter. Don''t make a prank like that on me ever again. It wasn''t funny.'' Julia walked out of the room, looking away from him with that look of terror still on her face.


    As soon as she left the room, Zach looked at the ceiling fan, trying to remember what happened - to him, it all felt like when you wake up after a dream with a vague idea of what you were dreaming about and the more time passes from when you woke up, the less you remember it.


    Julia and him didn''t talk any more than night, she stayed in her room, even when he knocked to ask if she was alright.

 Chapter 3

    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...

 Chapter 4

    The next morning he waited until him and his mom were in the car. They watched as Mrs Bentley was about to pass by and block their way out of the driveway with her slow walking.


    At that point Zach told him mom, ''Wait! I forgot something...''


    ''What? Right now?''


    ''I forgot the¡­ homework on my desk, I have to deliver it today.''


    On her way to Julia¡¯s car, Mrs Bentley already had a smile glued to her face as she looked forward to telling Julia that Tammy was going go get the new electric wheelchair that afternoon.


    ''It''ll take a second.''


    Zach rushed back in the house but he didn''t go up to is room, instead he went to the kitchen and to a wooden knife block on the counter, to find the biggest one in the bunch.


    He hid it in the school bag.


    Before running out back in the car, right when Mrs Bentley was about to knock on Julia¡¯s door.


    Zach ran in the car, and saved his mom from an awkward conversation.


    She dropped Zach in school and the entire day, Mike wouldn''t take his eyes off, him. In class, Mike passed his thumb across his neck and whispered, ''You''re dead.''


    Zach, stared back with a smirk - Sadie recognized that smirk, what was he planning?


    After school, as Zach walked across the forest path, and eventually saw them.


    Mike was there on the tree again with Sadie on him.


    They watched as Zach approached with his chest and chin up high. He fixed his eyes on Mike and then moved his stare to Sadie.


    Mike also walked towards Zach, Sadie warned, ''Just let him go, Mike, I think there''s something going on with him.¡¯


    ¡®I''ll tell you what''s wrong with him, he''s about to die a very painful death...''


    Mike took off his jacket and dropped it on the muddy ground.


    He raised his hands like a boxer and said,  ''Sadie¡¯s right¡­ You¡¯ve been too cocky today,  I bet you¡¯re hiding something in that bag. Drop it faggot, let¡¯s have a man to man fight!''


    Zach stared Mike in the eyes for a while and then he dropped the bag on the side of the path.


    As soon as he did that, Mike charged Zach at full speed, like a rhino, grabbed Zach¡¯s legs to lift him up and drop him violently on the ground.


    After doing so, he mounted up top of Zach, and pounded him with punches.


    With those heavy knuckles, cuts and bruises were inevitable.


    Sadie watched from behind Mike with some concern - from the way he was throwing those fists, it seemed like he was really going to kill Zach.


    Mike looked like a cat playing around with the mouse it¡¯s about to eat.


    ''How do you like that mother fucker?'' he dropped another bomb - this one was so hard on Zach nose, it bent in an abnormal way, few seconds later, it turned back normal.


    In his furious rage-filled attack, Mike barely noticed that all the cut lips and the bruises on his victim were healing after few seconds.


    ''You''ve got tough skin, uhn? I''ll show you...'' he commented before intensifying his attack, more and harder punches.


    At one point, Zach stopped defending his face from punches. Mike thought he was finally getting weak but, Zach had inserted his right hand under his shirt and, with nails, cut deep in the skin of his lower back, until the cut was big enough to fit a hand but he had to be fast, it would start healing soon.


    Zach''s dipped an arm inside his skin like a pocket, only to drag out the knife.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    Mike didn''t notice any of that happen, he was so focused on trying to knock Zach out.


    Sadie was really worried now, ¡®I think that¡¯s enough,¡¯ she said and Mike stopped.


    In fact, Mike¡¯s hands dropped limp and his body leaned forwards.


    ''Babe, you ok...?''


    He didn''t answer. Instead, Mike''s body fell on top of Zach.


    Zach had pushed the blade in Mike''s throat, and he pulled it out after he fell on him.


    Zach pushed the corpse aside, stood up, and faced Sadie - who¡¯s eyes were momentarily fixed on Mike as he bled to death on the ground.


    Sadie yelled, ''Help! Help!'' and sprinted the opposite way in the path.


    Remember the day before, when Zach was running away from Mike? His only physical advantage over Mike was his insane speed, Sadie couldn''t compete with that.


    Zach chased her, with the knife in hand, still dripping with Mike''s blood.


    Sadie couldn¡¯t outrun him, so she ran away from the path, into the woods - knowing that she wasn''t going to reach the neighborhood nearby before he got to her.


    Zach followed Sadie as she zigzagged between the trees, looking for anything that could save her from certain death.


    At the same time she was trying to understand what happened but couldn''t, how could he be unscathed after such a beating?


    It didn''t really matter, Sadie was the object of  Zach''s revenge, the centerpiece in fact, having her dead would mean the world to him - especially in that moment when, for the first time he saw her terrified as he chased her down the labyrinth of trees.


    Sadie looked behind and realized he was closer than she thought.


    She jumped over large tree root in the way, very swiftly, adrenaline makes you do insane things.


    Sadie breathing got heavier by the second, her body couldn''t handle such speed for much longer.


    Zach instead, was having the best day of his life. He would see her blood today, he had no doubt about that.


    Sadie screamed yet again, ''Help! Help!''


    Dumb bitch, she had ventured in a part of the forest where no soul goes, because it was darker than the rest of the forest - trees were tall, covered the afternoon sun so much that there is more shadow that sunlight.


    Maybe it''s just fate''s perverse way of playing with us humans, but as Zach ran he tripped over the tree root, so small he barely saw it and ended up face down on the forest floor.


    It did hurt but nothing serious. Sadie had seemingly disappeared.


    Other than the sounds of the forest''s animals, there was nothing that could help him find her.


    She couldn''t have gone that far, she probably was behind a tree. So he walked quietly, trying not to step on anything that did make any sound whatsoever,


    Sadie was indeed hidden behind one tree and was sweating more than she had ever done in her life. To stop herself from screaming, or breathing heavily, she covered her mouth with her hands.


    Even if Zach was trying to be quiet, she could feel his presence near.


    Would she dare take a look behind the tree to know where he was?


    No, she was going to stay put and be careful.


    Zach advanced slowly looking left and right.


    He walked past a couple trees facing left, while he should have been facing right.


    Sadie jumped him from the right side. She wrapped herself on his back, holding the right arm, where the knife was.


    Zach spun around while she tried to kick the knife off his hand with her leg - unfortunately for her, he had a tight grip on it.


    Not that Sadie was the strongest girl in the world but the grappling practice on that dummy was paying off. She slowly wrapped her arms around Zach''s neck as he tried to get her off him by running backwards into trees.


    It hurt Sadie every time he did that but she didn¡¯t let go of him and, soon enough, she was able to get her right arm around Zach''s neck, initiating a chokehold.


    She used her left arm as a lever for the right hand to hold on to, thus making the grip way tighter, nearly impossible to get out of.


    Zach felt himself gasping for air while he ran on the trees and struggled to stab Sadie behind him with the knife.


    Sadie succeeded in wrapping her legs around Zach''s right arm, locking it still, and making him lose balance. Zach fell on the ground and the knife slipped off his hand.


    On the ground, she kept the hold on his neck and Zach''s life faded slowly¡­


    Sadie only stopped when sure he was dead.


    She took a deep breath and rose to her feet before pulling out the phone from her pocket, and had just typed on 911, when...


    She felt her leg being grabbed, and pulled, which made her trip. The fall was hard, but not as hard as taking Zach off her once he took the knife and jumped on top. Sadie was able to move her head in time to evade the first knife strike.


    But Zach came at her again with more fury. Sadie wasn''t able to defend this time but she was able to cover herself with her right hand. The huge knife went through her palm and emerged on the other side.


    ''Ah!'' She screamed, pulling back her hand but, in doing so, freeing the knife for another attack, which she was forced to block with her other hand, this too was easily cut through by the knife, only this time Zach used both hands to press on the knife harder.


    With her hand stuck in the knife¡¯s blade, she tried to push him off but couldn¡¯t. He weighed on her with one knee, she couldn''t kick or push Zach off her.


    Sadie looked in his eyes and they felt familiar. If eyes are the window to the soul, she was looking into eyes just as rotten as her father¡¯s.


    The blade was about to touch her nose.


    In a last ditch effort, Sadie begged,'' Please... please, don''t do this... Please...''


    ''Not calling me faggot now, are you?''


    ''I''m sorry, I didn''t mean it.''


    ''Bullshit!''


    ''No, I¡¯ve got family problems and lashed out my anger on you. I¡¯m sorry! Please...''


    Zach stopped pushing but held a tight grip on the knife ''... I see... you had problems...''


    He grinned - Sadie recognized that grin, she had seen it in class more than once.


    Zach put all his weight into his arms and dove the knife deeper¡­


    A scream echoed throughout the forest, other than the wild animals lurking in the woods, no one heard her.