In the Span of a Breath

Chapter 4

A week later after much begging and pleading, Erin found himself in front of his small high school. There were around two hundred-forty students attending Erie Falls High and on any given day he turned heads for being part of the only Asian family in town and for being "freakishly" tall. At sixteen Erin was already approaching six feet but now at eighteen he was a couple inches over it and it wasn't even like he put his height to good use. He usually slouched to make himself seem smaller and quietly moved through the halls not wanting to attract any more attention than strictly necessary. 

The stares he received right then weren't like the ones he was used to, these were intent. He could feel them looking him over then hear the whispers as they turned and spoke about him. It made his ears and face burn, his body tried to hunch in on itself to seem as small as possible, which pulled on his wounds and caused him to visibility grimace. He was just there to pick up some assignments and then he was going back home. He needed some space away from his mother and father and Paige could only visit so often. Other than said teen he didn't really have have any friends so there weren't any other visitors either.  

As he walked towards the student counselor's office he wondered just what in the hell he was thinking. He sighed just wanting to be back in bed while he pretended not to notice everyone avoiding him, some even wrinkling their noses as if he smelled bad. The whispers continued even as everyone avoided eye contact, most going so far as to give him a foot wide berth. Sighing and tightening the grip on his bag he continued slowly down the hall when he heard the loud obnoxious laughter of his least favorite person.

                "That stupid kid, everyone knows not to go out during the curfews. It serves him right that he got mauled, shoulda lost a leg or something." The voice's owner was of the indigenous people, a boy with a messy unkempt mohawk and a perpertually smarmy grin, punctuated by dimple piercings. Ace was loud, rude, and a total asshole. His only friend was a guy named Raiden because he didn't put up with his crap.Erin slowed his walk in an attempt to prepare for the common occurrence of Ace's bullying. 

"So did you piss your pants and cry? We have a pool going on both. Don't keep me waiting in suspense, bean pole. How long did you cry while in the hospital this week?"

Erin shook his head at his tormentor; he really was not up for this today. His skin already felt too tight, he hadn't been sleeping well, and when something moved too fast he jumped or flinched away from it. What was worse, he couldn't even get mad about the situation he was now in. He begged his parents to let him do this. Clearly it wasn't a good idea.

"Come now, big boy. Tell us which was it?" Ace came around to his left side and clapped him on the back hard, just like he had every other time he got something up his ass to passive aggressively hurt Erin. The only difference now was Erin had four deep gashes stitched across his back and up his right shoulder. The unexpected pain caused Erin to shout out and crumple in on himself. His vision whited out and tears to prick to his eyes. He noisily gasped as the pain reverberated through every synapses in his brain and took him back to the night of the monster and the deep pure terror of that experience. In his peripheral vision he saw a quick blur of movement that tackled Ace away from him. A low growl cut through his desperate attempt to stave off another panic attack. 

Erin was aware of the sounds of a fight but it only made his nightmare more vivid. He managed to push himself to the other side of the hall gasping for air that eluded him as tears tracked down his face. He realized distantly that he was trembling fiercely and making the most god awful wet, choked sounds. He tried to force himself to breathe to think of something else but a loud sound scattered his already fractured thoughts. A short breath that was cut off immediately by a sob had him heaving and pulling on his hair. Just like the first time he had no idea how long he was sitting crumpled and messy-- sounds of yelling make him flinch. He thought maybe someone was calling his name at some point but it was lost to him as panic swallowed everything up.