Craaven

Part 2 Chapter 20: Mortemville, Montana 1986 April 6

TW: BRIEF MENTIONS OF SH

I sprinted through the halls of Rosewood, chasing after the blonde-headed twat who giggled and cackled like some wretched goblin bent on destroying my sanity. His sounds taunted me because they were too far ahead of me for my liking. Goddamn, this little shit is fast! I thought as I rounded a corner and forced myself to go faster despite being at my limit already.

"Catch me if you can, Birdie!" Max yelled, his voice bouncing off the walls as he ran and causing me to grow irrationally angry at the situation. I knew he was only a kid who didn't really know any better but Jesus... he makes me want to kick him across the yard sometimes.

"MAXIMUS!! You better get your ass back here!" I yelled after him through heavy breaths. My sides were burning from all the running and I wanted to give up and let him take it. But I couldn't. There are things in that journal that are very private and, even though he wouldn't understand any of it, he still knows how to read and he wouldn't hesitate to blurt it out loud for his parents to hear.

Of course, he didn't listen to me when I yelled. Only Lucy seemed to hear me as she appeared in the kitchen doorway to see what all the fuss was.

"Boys! Be careful! The floor is wet!" She yelled after us and I waved my hand to show her I heard. I was hoping Max would slip on the puddle ahead of him and end this nonsense by crying hysterically but no. Just my luck, Max makes it over the puddle just fine and when my moment comes, I'm the one who falls on my face. I landed with a pained grunt and I heard Lucy behind me let out a small laugh.

"Ed, I thought you were better than that, come on!" she laughed and disappeared back into the kitchen. I groaned as I began to push myself back to my feet but just before I could even get to my knees, Max came back to me and started laughing and taunting me for falling. Just when I thought I couldn't get even more annoyed, I found myself acting on impulse and I swiped my hand at his ankles. He fell onto his ass, nearly dropping my journal into the puddle, and began to cry.

I grabbed my journal quickly and stood up, not caring if he was crying and just glad that I got my book back.

"Oh, quit crying, you deserved that," I dead-panned and hoisted the boy to his feet by grabbing his arm. Max continued to cry but the moment he was standing, he shoved me... or at least tried to shove me.

"That's not fair!" he protested and continued to try and knock me over. I only put my hand on his head to keep him at bay and that was enough to keep him away.

"It is fair, you stole my journal. That's just karma," I stated and Max finally stopped swinging his arms at me to cry. All his noise eventually attracted Lucy's attention and she wandered over to see what had happened.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Birdie tripped me!" Max cried out before I could even open my mouth to speak. Lucy's gaze went to me and I only responded by saying, "he stole my journal." Max hurried to his mother and hugged her tightly as if she would protect him from the evil monster that is me.

"Ed. He's a child. He doesn't know any better," she stated. I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes.

"Yeah, but he still should have consequences. He's never too young to learn about that," I explained as I tucked my journal under my arm and pulled my long hair out of my face. Lucy sighed softly.

"You don't need to teach him 'consequences' by hurting him, Ed. If you do that again, I'll be taking your pencils," she warned sternly before walking back to the kitchen with Max eagerly following. He had stopped crying the moment he realised he was safe and it made me only want to beat his ass even more.