The Tuners

Chapter 11: Red

[This chapter contains bl00d, bu11ying, v10l3nc3, and HEAVY Carter angst.]
Carter was riding in the car with his mom, who Carter talked to about what happened a few days before as she advised him not to go to school to take it easy but Carter insisted on going. "Carter, are you sure you'll be okay going to school?" Amanda asked her son. "I'll be just fine mom." Carter replied. "Okay then. Just let me know if you want me to come get you." Amanda said. "I will." Carter said. A few minutes later, they arrived at the school. "Have a good day at school sweetheart. I love you." Amanda said as Carter got out of the car, "Love you too mom." Carter said. Carter then walked through the hallway to his locker as he heard murmurs from the people as he is walking. After opening his locker, a slip of paper falls out of the locker and onto his foot. After picking the paper up, it reads "FREAK" in red ink. After crumbling the paper, Carter throws it into a nearby trash can before putting his backpack into his locker and grabs his books, closing his locker, and walking to class before tripping over something and dropping his books. "Whoops." a voice said. After picking his books up, Carter turns to see Xavier and Sophie behind him. "Wow. Look at yourself Carter. You're not only a freak but a mess. No wonder the music club kicked you out." Sophie said. "Guys I'm not in a good mood right now. I just want to get to class." Carter said as he walked away from the two. As he gets to his homeroom, he sees Seth talking to some other students before looking away and walking towards his seat, waiting for class to start. A few hours later, lunchtime arrives as Carter walks through the hallway with his lunch in hand. As he is walking, he sees Xavier, who had a mean smile on his face, Zeke, and Cameron, who had sad looks, walking up to him. "Hey there Carter. Going to eat some lunch with the others again? Oh wait, I forgot they kicked you out of the club. Tell me how that feels." Xavier said taunting Carter. "Please leave me alone. I really don't want to talk right now." Carter said as he attempted to walk away only for Xavier to stop him by putting his hand on Carter's shoulder, "Hey now hold on. We just wanted to talk. That's all." Xavier said. "Xavier, please stop. I'm not in a good mood." Carter said. "Did I tell you to talk? Seems like you need to learn when to talk." Xavier said as he smacked Carter into a wall. "Xavier, stop! We don't want to get into trouble." Zeke said. "Tch. Don't think I'm letting you off the hook yet. I'm not done with you." Xavier said as he walked away. Zeke and Cameron then looked at Carter before hearing Xavier call them, prompting the two to leave. As Carter got up, he felt a tear roll down his face before wiping it off and walking up to the roof with his lunch. About an hour later, P.E. class starts as Carter and the other students in the class begin a game of soccer. "Carter! Get your head in the game!" the P.E. teacher yelled. "R-Right sir!" Carter said as he picked up the pace. As Carter received the ball, he immediately ran towards the goal post before Xavier slides in front of him, causing Carter to trip and losing the ball. A few minutes later as Xavier is in possession of the ball, he hears his teammate say "Xavier pass the ball to me!" before seeing Carter. Xavier then kicks the ball at Carter as it hits him straight in the face, causing him to fall to the ground before a whistle goes off. "Xavier that was uncalled for!" the P.E. teacher said. "Sorry. I missed the goal." Xavier simply said as the teacher walked up to Carter, who now has a bloody nose. "Carter, are you okay?" he asked. "Y-Yeah. I'm fine." Carter said as he got up. "Alright. Why don't you go sit down on the bench for the rest of the class?" the P.E. teacher asked Carter, who nods in response before sitting down on the bench. The sound of the bell sounded after a few minutes later, signaling the end of the school day as the students walked to go change. As Carter, who now had a tissue in his right nostril, gathered his stuff from his locker, he saw the music club members walk by him. Carter said nothing as he closed his locker and walked out of the building. As he got out, he saw his mom in the car before getting into the car, "Sweetie, what happened?" she asked. "I just tripped and fell on my face mom." Carter simply said. "Alright then honey." Amanda said as she drove off. A few hours later, nighttime comes as Carter is sleeping in his bed while tossing and turning while sweating. As Carter opens his eyes, he sees that he is in a black void. "W-Where am I?" Carter asks before screaming "Hello! Is anyone here? Hello!". As he looks around, he sees a silhouette of someone. As he runs towards the silhouette, he sees purple hair and realizes it's Sicily. "Sicily, what are you-." Carter asks her. But as she turns around, Carter sees her eyes were gone, replaced with pitch black darkness, "Why did you do this to us Carter?" she asked, scaring Carter as he looks around and sees the other club members, all of which had the same eyes as Sicily, "We trusted you." Seth said. "But you turn around and do this to us?" Maya said. "Tch. And here we thought you thought of us as a family." Michael said. "No. No! NO! I PROMISE YOU I DIDN'T DO IT!" Carter screamed as he ran away from the others, only to be stopped by Xavier and Sophie. "Xavier? Sophie? What are-." Carter asked before they grabbed him by his arms and turned him to face the others, who had put a rope around Carter's neck and hung him up. Next thing Carter knew, he wakes up shouting in cold sweat. As he catches his breath, he feels something running down his face and land on his hand. After Carter turns on the lamp next to his bed, he sees a red dot on his hand before he touches his face with his other hand, only to see blood pouring out of his eyes. In a scared frenzy, Carter runs out of his room and begins knocking on his mom's bedroom door, "Mom!" he screams. A few seconds later, Carter's mom opens the door before seeing the sight of blood flowing down from his eyes. "Honey! What happened!?" she asked terrified. "I-I had a nightmare and woke up screaming. N-Next thing I k-know, I see b-blood coming down from my eyes." Carter said panicking. "Okay okay sweetheart, it'll be okay. I'll take you to the hospital." Amanda said, reassuring her son. A few minutes later, Amanda drove Carter to the hospital. After getting him checked in, the doctor came back. "Ah, Amanda. What happened to Carter?" the doctor asked. Amanda then explained to the doctor what happened to her son. "I see. Well, has anything happened to Carter that caused this to happen?" the doctor then asked. "When I was in gym class today, I got kicked in the face with a soccer ball at close range." Carter spoke up, shocking his mom and the doctor. "But you told me that you tripped." Amanda said. "I lied! My day at school was horrible! I've been getting bullied at school by my old friend Xavier and I've been so stressed about the music club kicking me out because of me destroying their instruments when I didn't do it!" Carter screamed before breaking down into tears. "Oh honey. Come here." Amanda said as she hugged her son. Carter then released all the sadness he had been holding in as his mom comforted him. After 10 minutes of crying, Carter calms down. "Sweetheart. I am so sorry for what you have been going through. How about tomorrow we'll see how you're feeling about going to school?" Amanda asked her son. "...Alright mom." Carter said in agreement. "Good. Love you baby." Amanda said kissing her son on the forehead before leaving.