by Bob Dattolo
She took another step closer, “I challenge you!”
Sounds of shock around the circle.
“Aww, good try, but you can’t. I have six more days where I can’t be challenged. Perhaps you can go find a puppy or kitty that you can murder in the meantime? Or do they not allow you to adopt any longer? I understand that the police have records on things like that and it becomes harder for people to adopt when their prior pets go missing.”
“You fucking whore! I’ll tear you to pieces and eat your fucking heart!”
“Aww, is the murderer that targets the weak and vulnerable upset at me? However will I sleep tonight?”
She started to respond, then stopped, “Wait. I’ve heard of you. You’re the stricken!” Her voice got even louder, “You’re the freak that thinks she belongs here with us?” She looked me up and down again, “I’m not shocked your parents threw you away. You’re worthless.”
Stunned looks from some of the others as I laugh, “Aww, you’re adorable. Like one of those tiny little yappy dogs that the pretentious bitches carry around with them that you see on television. Think you’re so big and strong? That’s even cuter. You just killed Mark because he pushed you, which we all here know is bullshit. He wouldn’t have pushed a fart hard anywhere near you, he sure as fuck wouldn’t have gone near you on purpose. Your crazy might rub off. Instead, you set him up and murdered him because you’re a psycho with delusions of power. Delusions of intelligence. Delusions of beauty. Delusions of humanity.” I looked her up and down as she gaped at me. “I’ve wiped better things than you out of the crack of my ass and flushed it down the toilet. Was I stricken? Yeah, I was. Guess what? I’m not any longer. So, while my parents did that to me and threw me away, I’m thinking your psycho parents did the same to you. Sent you here so one of your classmates can murder you as you beg and plead. Now that, I could salute and clap for. Cleaning up the world, one five-foot-tall bowel movement at a time. Except, like I said, I’ve wiped better things than you out of my ass. You’d be the corn in the bowel movement. The insane corn that no one dares talk back to in case you pop and decide to kill them.” I smiled wider and moved right up to the edge, “Guess what? I’m not afraid of your crazy ass. Not at all. Big bad 20-year-old wants to kill some kid just trying to get by? Get in fucking line, you demented little pixie, you’re not even remotely the scariest thing I’ve had to deal with in my life. The last dragon I belonged to was a psychotic mass murderer, so your I’m in charge and I’m powerful thing? Bravo, you have some academy kids scared of you. As for me?” I leaned over the line of the circle. The fight hasn’t been called yet, so I’m not supposed to cross and interfere. “Your new nickname is unpopped kernel. You want so desperately to be seen as big. As something of worth. Yet you’re that last little kernel left behind because it just doesn’t have what it takes to step up to the big leagues. Yet you’ve convinced the others that you do. That you’re already popped. When inside? You know you’re not. Your pathetic insecurities are hiding behind cruelty and power that you’ve leached from people better than you, and I’m betting you cry yourself to sleep at night when no one’s watching because you’re terrified of someone that has you nailed down calling you on your shit.” I gave her a finger wave. “Hi. You can call me hammer, unpopped kernel.”
She walked up to me, stopping close enough that her spit began hitting me in the face, “How fucking dare you! Do you know who I am? Do you know who my parents are? Weak? Scared? I’ve killed more people than you can dream of! I’ll wear your fucking skin before you die and drain you fucking dry! You don’t come in here to my academy and think you can talk back to me! You’re fucking trash. Lower than trash. Stricken scum that doesn’t know her place. You’re a corpse waiting for a grave. Unwarranted attitude waiting for someone to chop you off at the knees. You’re gonna die screaming and begging, I guaran-fucking-tee that! You have six days? I’ll be back here on the seventh, and then we’ll see who begs and pleads. It won’t be me. You’re dead. You’re mine.” She turned to the others, “If anyone challenges her somehow in the meantime and kills her? I’ll find you. I’ll tear you to fucking pieces. She’s mine. No one elses!”
“Hey, does anyone know unpopped kernel’s parents’ names? I want to reach out to them and congratulate them for bringing to life an actual abortion of a person with the personality of an anal wart. There has to be some sort of genetic tampering going on, which I swear was against the law for the most part, because someone this stupid shouldn’t even be able to breathe on her own without instructions drawn in crayon!”
Her hand came up as her hair lit up with power. “I’ll fucking kill you!”
My power came out harder, but I didn’t let anything trigger as I struggled to keep my hair dark. “You can try, unpopped kernel. For now? You get to go back to your dorm and wait for the lights to go out so that you can cry yourself to sleep, wondering just where things went wrong for you. Why you have no friends that aren’t scared of making you angry. Why no one wants to spend any time with you that isn’t forced. Why your medications keep going up, yet your split personality psycho vibe keeps growing. Take your ice powers, your stolen air powers, and crawl back to your roach-infested hole and stew in your own hate and ignorance, you tiny twat. Next time you try to set someone up, why don’t you go after someone your own size.” I looked down my body, then back up, “Oh wait, would you look at that. I’m your size. Yet you can’t challenge me because I haven’t done anything worth being challenged over.”
Her magic flared more, faltering as I laughed and laughed in her face.
Her eyes darted back and forth a few times, then she took a step back, power going down. “Six days, stricken. I’ll be back.”
“I’m pretty sure the line is seven days, then you have to crawl out of the well and hunt down the person that watched your video. Or am I misunderstanding that movie? I have to say, I’ve never seen it. What with being blind for half of my life up to two weeks ago. Want to come after me? Be my guest. Get in line with the others that want to try me on for size.”
“I’ll wear your skin, trash.”
“And you’ll never look more beautiful than that. People may mistakenly see someone that isn’t you. You can bask in the glory that is being me for a few hours until the maggots infesting your personally ooze out and take over again.”
“You fucking whore!”
“Run along, unpopped kernel. Take your stolen powers and stock up on tissues for your nightly cry tonight. You’ll be back in six days? I shudder in terror at having to smell you again and be near your bucket and a half of crazy.”
She smiled and looked around, coming off as confident, “You talk a big game. I’ll be seeing you next Friday.”
“Don’t forget to email me your parents’ names so I can hit them up and let them know they can get a pet again that you won’t murder and masturbate with the corpse.”
She stared at me for long seconds before turning away, letting her magic die down.
“Have a good cry, unpopped kernel!”
She flashed her middle finger at me and kept walking.
Hmm, I’m pretty sure that’s the second time someone’s done that to me in the past day. Must be a trend.
As she cleared the other side, her classmates fell in line behind her as the headmaster called out the winner. Her, obviously. They left us behind, with most of them watching me over their shoulder. It’s so easy to see the fear for me in most of their eyes. I don’t think there’s a single person there that thinks I can take her in a fight.
Good, because why should I be the only one with questions? She’s powerful as fuck and knows how to use her powers. She hit Mark with spells that I’m still not sure what they were. I have a feel for them, so I have to pick through them. They were rough, though. Designed for agony and suffering.
I have to give it to her. When she sinks into a role, she really goes for it.
That left me in a half circle of fellow year one students staring at me.
<
br /> Levi called out from the side, “You really have a fucking death wish, don’t you.”
Samantha laughed, “I don’t know, that was pretty fucking impressive. She’s got something. She’s got a knack for getting under people’s skin.”
“Yeah, and like Alison said? She’s gonna tear hers off and wear it. Given what I’ve heard about her, I don’t think that’s an exaggeration.”
“Yeah, no, it’s not. Not at all. She’s a fucked-up chick and has the power to back it up.”
Angelica hit my arm, “What the fuck…seriously, do you have some sort of mental disorder that makes you go after everyone that’s powerful as hell?”
“I like to think of it as a gift.”
Good, that got laughter. Also a ton of comments about how I’m gonna die. I guess we’ll see.
No one sat with me at dinner. Not that my allies were there. They said they needed to talk, and it wasn’t about me and what just happened. I just don’t believe them.
Kaylee didn’t say that, so I guess it’s unfair to imply it was all of my allies when it’s only 75 percent of them. I tried not to let it bother me and mostly succeeded. I spent the time thinking of various things, then escaped back to the dorm.
My plan to spend some time with my new book died as I opened the door to find Samantha sitting on one of the couches. “What the fuck do you want?”
“I’d kill for an ice cream cone. I haven’t had one in more than nine years. I know I loved them before everything happened, I just don’t remember who bought them for me or where we were when we ate them. I’d love one, though.”
She shook her head and hit the arm of the couch, “It’s really like you’re fucking stupid sometimes.”
She didn’t react as I plopped into my comfy seat and stared at her for a second. Parece came through from the bathroom. “Seriously, Samantha? I’m not even sure how to answer your initial question. What do I want? I don’t know, how about to be in my own room? Then again, I’m not sure you have the right to question me about something like that in my own room. Did I walk in here and say that to you? No, I didn’t. Why? Because I’m not a bitch to people that don’t deserve it.”
“I swear to God, I’ll be shocked if you make it to next week for Alison to find you and kill you.”
“Right? So many other things could kill me. Asteroids. Random animals. Car accident. I could fall down the steps.” I snapped my fingers and pointed at her, “Ooh, ooh, I could choke on something in the caf!”
Parece sat, “Let it go, Maddie.”
I let my smile die, “Why, Parece? Because she’s your ally? Why should I be nice to someone that’s not nice to me?”
“Nice to you? You’re a stricken.” Samantha looks so proud of that.
“Huh, you don’t say! It’s not like it’s not my last name. It’s not like I haven’t been for nine years. I get that you guys are freaked out by that, but you all call me that as if I’m supposed to be embarrassed. As if I’m supposed to cry and say no, I’m not, stop calling me that! It’d be like me making fun of you for having your period. Or boobs. I’ve been called a stricken or some variation of that so often in my life. Probably not as often as you’ve been called Samantha, but it’s more than likely a decent chunk of it. So please, continue to call me that if you want. It’s an insult to you. It’s not to me.”
“No one wants to be a stricken.” I swear, she wants to spit on the floor.
“And no one wants to be a norm. And some people don’t want to be girls. And some don’t want to be guys. And some don’t want to be black. Or white. Or Jewish. We’re all something. Did I want to have that happen to me? Nope. Ain’t gonna lie about it, either. Most painful fucking thing I’ve ever gone through in almost a solid decade of more pain than I can explain. Yet I did. I am a stricken. Can’t change it. Could I have surgery on my scars to make them better? Maybe? The doctors weren’t sure it’d work. Since they don’t know how my eyes healed, they have no idea why that happened and those scarred. They think it might be something in the magic that’s stopping it from happening since the other things healed. I have the last name. I can change that; I just wasn’t able to before coming. I can’t say that it worries me all that much. Will I change it at some point? Probably. Then again, maybe not. We’ll see. So you calling me stricken? The others calling me that? Like it’s some sort of curse? Or, again, something to embarrass me by? You might as well be trying to make fun of me for wearing shorts. Or shoes. Or writing. Or anything else. Your fear and hatred of something forced on me has so little bearing on me.”
She didn’t know what to say at the end.
Parece stepped in, possibly to distract me. “What’re you gonna do when Alison comes for you? Unless she somehow gets distracted, I have to think that she’ll be back next weekend.”
“No clue. I guess we’ll see if she does or not. I’m planning on fucking with her this week, though.”
Her eyes went a little wide, ”What? What do you mean?”
“I’m gonna have her shipped a bunch of tissues. Some popcorn kernels. Some of the seasoning stuff you put on top. I found a book online called Crying Alone in the Dark. I’m having that shipped to her. Everything is gonna be scheduled to come in on a different day. I also started looking for her parents. I’m gonna send them something. See if I can get them to call her.”
“Why…why would you do that?!”
“Umm, because she’s a psycho murderer?”
Samantha sighed, “It’s like you don’t have a clue! I just don’t get it! You barely made it out of that fight with Colin. Don’t get me wrong, he was pretty strong, but by no means the strongest here. Nowhere near being the most vicious. The only thing that’ll stop some of those from going for you is that Alison will show up and fucking kill us.”
“Huh, feel robbed that she’s stopping you from challenging me somehow?”
She spread her hands, “What can I say? I love an easy target. You’re annoying, so that makes it that much better. I liked being able to meet up in here and it’d just be us.”
“Wow, nice. Wanting to kill someone to get some privacy. Seriously, if you two want to get naked and go for it, just let me know? Hang a bra on the door handle or something, and I’ll make myself scarce for a few hours. Or do it while I’m here. I promise I won’t watch.”
Parece didn’t bother trying to hide that they’d been together. I can’t smell the two of them together, but it’s a reasonable guess given how they’re sitting.
“You have no clue what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t bother, Samantha. Fuck whoever you want. If it’s Parece? Go for it. Anyone else is perfectly fine for that matter. As for challenging me? I don’t want a challenge from you but go for it if you feel you need to.”
“Fuck you and your lies about me. As for a challenge? I’m not fucking with Alison. She’s bad news.”
“Well then I guess I know where you draw the line. You’re like the other opportunistic leaches here. Ready to beat down someone you think is weaker just so you can build yourself up stronger.”
She pushed forward on the couch, “I’m gonna fucking cave your skull in.”
“Apparently not? Alison holds your leash, and she’s yanking on you to heel. You’re a gold dragon that’s a lapdog to a psycho ice mage. That’s a shame. Strongest dragon out there, both physically and magically, and a lowly human ice mage controls you with a snap of her fingers.” Was it too much to snap my fingers in demonstration?
She paled as she stood, arms shaking as her skin roiled, “It’s like…it’s like you want me to kill you. Right here. Right now.”
“Do I? Or do I want to kill you and drain you and wait for Alison to come back after me and walk into something she’s nowhere near ready for?”
Her anger faded over the next few minutes as she fought it back. “You cried and begged Colin. I saw it. We all saw it. You can’t fight for shit. You can’t even do magic. Any dragon in here can kill you with a hit from our tail. You wouldn�
�t stand a chance. As for Alison holding my chain? She’s powerful. She’s motivated. I have no reason to get in her sights. Yet maybe that won’t stop me. I just have to watch and see. You’re being circled. You’re prey. The hunters are surrounding you, and all you keep doing is splashing yourself with blood and begging us to take chunks out of you. You pissed yourself in fear. We all smelled it.” She sniffed long and deep. “I’m gonna smell that from you again. Just you wait.”
“Get in line with the rest of the psychos. Maybe you guys could take numbers or something.”
She stared at me again before smiling, “Good night, Maddie. Pleasant dreams. I’ll be seeing you. Assuming someone else doesn’t beat me to it.” She touched Parece’s hand on the arm of the couch, “I’m gonna head back to my room. You staying here?”
“Just for a bit. We all getting together for a movie?”
“Yeah, Paige and Riley should be ready around 9.”
“I’ll be there.”
“Ooh, can I come? I haven’t seen many movies in my life!”
Samantha stared at me again, not responding. Then she patted Parece’s hand and walked from the room.
I’m not shocked that the nearly always-present silence spell went up almost immediately.
“So, no invite to watch the movie, huh?”
She stared as well, then barked a short laugh. “You’re too much. Seriously. I don’t get it. At all.”
“What’s to get?”
“You know what there is to get!” She took a deep breath. “I know you took Colin’s powers. I know you played him hard. You used every angle you could. Up to and including pissing yourself. Getting naked. You’re not stupid. At all. I’ve been watching you. Just like you’re watching everyone else. You don’t miss a ton. You seem to have insights into things. The things you said to Alison? I saw her twitch just a bit at your digs. How’d you know that she cries at night? About her parents maybe not liking her?”
