Ghost Bully

Back starting in 6th grade and up to my senior year, I had to put up with a bully by the name of Keith. To describe him simply, he was a giant of a teenager with not one intelligent thought in his head. The only knowledge he could've been considered an expert in is methods of torment. They included things like wet willies, atomic wedges, swirlies, purple nurples, and extreme Indian burns. These are only a fraction of what he was capable of.

I remember one time when he put superglue on one of the toilet seats. The fire department had to be called out to help remove the poor student who chose to use that particular stall. Despite all this, he'd never face serious consequences. At most, he'd get suspension but never expulsion. Word was that his dad happened to be good friends with the head of the school district which allowed him to get out of trouble. Why he chose me to be his primary target of torment, I'll never know.

The only thing I can think of is that I happened to match him in height and he might've felt threatened by that. In addition to the bullying methods mentioned above aside from the superglue one, I was also the victim of many beatings by him. Honestly, they were preferable over what else he'd do. Bruises healed after a while. However, having to walk home in freezing cold weather without a jacket or shoes because he stole them off me made me wish he'd stick to the beatings.

Karma did eventually catch up with him. Well, that and his own recklessness I should say. During spring break of 11th grade, he passed away. Rumour has it his death involved dancing near the edge of a cliff and a lot of drinking. As I've mentioned, he wasn't too bright. While I wasn't overjoyed at the news of his demise, I'd be lying if I said I felt any sadness when I learned about it.

I thought then I wouldn't have to deal with him anymore but the universe has a funny way of proving us wrong. After graduating, I moved to attend college. I rented a place along with several other students. When winter break came along, everyone in our fraternity headed home from the holidays aside from me. Not to delve into my personal life but when it came to helping me with my problems, my parents pretty much just told me to tuff it out. Fighting back against Keith was out of the question for two reasons.

One, I was pretty scrawny as a kid so any kind of physical confrontation with him would not have ended well for me. The second reason is that any method with which I could have used to beat him would have resulted in me getting expelled and put in juvenile hall. Since I couldn't really do anything about him and my parents chose not to out of fear of consequence from the school district, I didn't really feel like spending the holidays with them. That meant I had the house to myself until the others got back. I was looking forward to over two weeks of binge-watching and gaming. It was all going well until New Year's Day.

It was dark out when I was getting ready to start on another series. As I was about to load it up. I suddenly felt the temperature plummet. Annoyed, I thought that the heating somehow went out. To my surprise, though it seemed to be working fine. Confused, I wondered what the source of the cold could be when I heard a noise come from somewhere within the room. The cold I felt on the outside was nothing compared to how chilled it made my blood feel.

"Nerd..." I heard a ghostly voice full of anger say.

It seemed so familiar which only caused me to experience more fear. I couldn't figure out where it was coming from until my eyes fell on the tv. It was unplugged yet somehow it was on. The picture on it was blank. An image began flickering to life. At first, I had no clue as to what I was seeing because the picture was distorted.

When it became clear, I fell back in horror. What I saw on it I recognized as Keith. He looked similar to the last time I saw him except his face was horribly wounded. His head had been split open up from his fall. Blood covered half his face. His eyes were filled with hatred and I knew he could see me through the screen.