Speak No Evil

Speak No Evil - Chapter 1 | by Mars Stone

Chapter 1

Beau was running, faster than he ever had before. Wind whipping past his ears, not allowing himself to catch his breath, for he did not want to know what would happen had he stop. It felt as though he'd been running for miles, up until he had come across an unanticipated dead end; he had to face what was closely tailing him. His own older brother, Steven, who just happened to be much larger and faster than him. Beau was astounded he'd even been able to outrun his older brother for so long. Although, before he could pride himself on this fact, Steven had punched him hard in the temple. For a brief moment everything went black, no recollection of where he was or what he was doing. Then again, he felt another strike to his head, then another, and again, and again this continued. There was no one to help him: they were home alone; left with only himself and his brother. Not a single soul could come to his aid, yet he didn't care; he yelled and yelled, using the last of his struggling breath, hoping miraculously someone would appear. But to no person's surprise, nobody did indeed show up. This was something Beau had never thought to be scared or even worried about. Nevertheless, the way Steven had glared at him earlier that day had made him feel quite ominous, something bad was going to happen and he instantaneously knew what.

'No! Stop it, no!' Beau yelled, moving restlessly in his own bed, tangled in the sheets.

'Beau, sweetie?' Called a familiar, feminine voice from beside him. 'Are you okay?'

He woke with an abrupt jolt. His mother, Astrid, a tall blonde woman was shaking him slightly. Covered in his own cold sweat and fear still persisting within his almond brown eyes, he wiped his forehead clean from sweat with the sleeve of his shirt.

'Sorry, Mum, I, uh... bad dream.' Said Beau only now starting to catch his breath.

'Well, are you alright-'

'yes, I'm fine.' Beau replied cutting her off sharply.

'It was just a dream, you're okay.' Said Astrid, attempting to comfort her son, noticing this reactive response.

'Yeah, a dream...' Beau replied sounding sluggish, knowing too well it really wasn't.

Beau Ackerman was a short, petite, seventeen-year-old boy, with shoulder length black hair and olive skin. He had always been the typical idea of a maverick in his past school experience; the awkward, individualistic rebel that kept to himself and had no friends, and honestly hadn't cared too. Yet school hadn't been the worst part of his life, it was his family, all but his mother. Beau's mother (unlike his older brother, Steven, and his father, Dmitri) was kind. The only member of his family, besides himself, that had the capabilities to love. She, because of her caring nature, and dainty self, was frequently seen as a punching bag by her husband. And of course, Steven, being the cold-hearted, douchebag that he is, encouraged such behaviour. Steven may say these occasions would be "laughable". The worst part was that Beau couldn't do anything to stop this, yet he still tried (needless to say this never ended well), so naturally what school used to be like for Beau, was simply a walk in the park, when it probably would've seemed like much more for a "normal" kid.

Having reoccurring dreams like this wasn't something new or foreign to Beau, although he couldn't tell people this of course. He wasn't permitted to tell anyone anything due to his family's constrained rules, which no one was to question. He, and his family lived in the more destitute parts of Orange, Australia, rather than the supplementarily, wealthy side of the city.

Beau, having dropped out of school a year prior, had a full-time job at a popular, relatively local café, as a waiter. Many of his fellow employees were fortunate enough to naturally have wealthy-enough families to not have to work a day in their lives, yet they only chose to do so, so they could hopefully meet people to be friends or more with. Beau, on the other hand, knew it was much easier to be contempt about relationships of any kind, and simply saw it as an excuse for egocentric behaviour, and therefore didn't bother.