:Ticci Toby:{A Rewrite}

14

Within the span of three weeks, Toby was interrogated by the police, trying to gather as much information as there is. Toby could recall his nightmare to the man in blue, but that was pretty much it.
Word got around school that Toby could possibly be a threat, but the result wasn't something you'd assume. Toby was bullied even more, being called things that no kid should get called, but that one nickname. That one  particular nickname always punched him in the face.

"Ticci."
He's heard it come from the mouth of almost every kid in school. And the older they get, the more mean they become.
Lyra also thought she would apologize for the night she ran out on him and their dad fighting. She gave him her old work hat. It was white and black with a little yellow postcard on the front, at least, he thought it was a postcard, perchance.

Toby would often get in trouble for wearing it in school, or just in general. People acted like wearing a hat inside of a building was a crime. People would say it's 'disrespectful', to who?!
Toby had finally got his braces off as well. So far for the next few months, life has been okay. Toby hadn't seen that creature in a while, ever since that nightmare.

Toby was finally getting decent sleep, but still not the best. The boy continued to pick at his skin, chew, and scratch at anything he could. He would damage his pants by ripping them apart without knowing it, picking thread after thread.

Toby had to get rid of all of his hoodie strings due to his strange consumption of them. He went weeks almost completely covered in bandages from the amount of damage he was doing to his hands and arms.

Those few months of slight bliss ended as expected. The creature started showing up again, in his dreams first, then again from his window. Sometimes it would watch him as he tried to sleep.

Toby ignored it the best he could, he even suggested getting stronger medication but his mom waved it off. She didn't want him thinking that was his only option, and occasionally she'd bring up seeing a therapist again like how he did when he was 10.

Toby wasn't completely open to that idea but he had no other choice did he?
The idea was thrown around but nothing ever happened. Maybe it was financial problems.

On a specific day, Toby had this odd feeling. It had been an hour after dinner and sitting in the living room to watch a movie with Lyra.  His dad wasn't home. Toby got tired and left for his room quietly. His mom had gone to bed and Lyra fell asleep on the couch. Toby had pulled a blanket onto her before he did leave.

Toby brought something with him, a family portrait. It was taken sometime a year ago, he remembered. He hated how stupidly awkward he looked. He remembered seeing photos in the school hallways, happy families and smiling kids, real smiling kids.
He didn't really like this photo. Everyday he would see the faces staring back at him, and his dad. The way the man looked in the photo just screamed fakery. The smug, careless smile he could throw on to cover up the true man he really is. Something about that made Toby's blood boil.

He put the picture onto his desk and took out a red marker. He pulled the original copy out and started to scribble on his parents' faces. He put a giant symbol over his dad's face and a question mark over his mom's. He also drew the tall creature in the upper right corner, looming over the family as if it was part of it.

At this point it was, at most….a part of him.

••••••