𝐏ʜᴀɴᴛᴏᴍs || ᵗʸˡᵉʳ ʰᵉʳⁿᵃⁿᵈᵉᶻ ˣ ᶠ ! ʳᵉᵃᵈᵉʳ ⁽ˢˡⁱᵍʰᵗ ᵒᶜ⁾ || ˢᵇᵍ

(𝐒𝟏) 𝐄𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝟐𝟔

May be a long chapter.
TW; Violence

𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐋𝐘𝐍 𝐏𝐎𝐈𝐍𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖.

"𝐌𝐫. 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐬?" I asked him confused. He snapped out of whatever he was thinking and responded. "Oh right! Thank you." He takes the assignment. "Hurry up." I heard Tyler say to me. "How about you shut up?" I ask him. We all walk out the class.

As we walk out, we heard some people gossiping. "Did y'all hear about the fight earlier?" "Yeah! Wasn't it that chick that got expelled from the one school in Mexico before she moved here that fought Barron?"

Our eyes widen. "Someone fought Barron?" Taylor asks. The rest of us shrugged. "None of us knew.. who did Barron fight? They said someone who got expelled from a school in Mexico before moving here.." I say as i get into thought.

"Still no (Your name)?" I ask them. They all shake their head. I sigh and rub my temple.

𝐀𝐓 𝐋𝐔𝐍𝐂𝐇.

"Am i seeing this right?" Tyler asks as the group minus (Your name) was looking over at my shadow.

"Wow, that's pretty rad." Aiden says as he grabs my hair. "Let go before i break your arm." I tell him as i slightly glare at him. "Ha.. another mystery.." Taylor says as her head lays on the lunch table.

"This might have something to do with why our injuries in the phantom world don't transfer into our dimension." Logan says. "Speaking of injuries, how are you holding up?" I ask him.

"Oh, um.. it kinda feels like a rash and it's pretty sore. Like i've been doing sit-ups or something. But, it's nowhere near the pain i felt last night.." He tells me and i nod my head.

"..Now that i'm looking at everyone where's (Your nickname)?" Aiden asks. "We-.." I get cut off. "I'm here." I heard a voice to the side. It was (Your name). She had a red nose with a bandage and she seemed bruised up, along with her hair being a slight mess.

"What happened?!" Tyler exclaimed as he asks her. "Oh, y'know i was just having a chat with someone." She tells us grinning what looked menacingly. My eyes widen in slight realization. "Where you the one who fought Barron?!" I ask her slightly shouting.

All she does is grin and chuckle.

𝐅𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊, 𝟏ˢᵗ 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍 𝐏𝐎𝐈𝐍𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖.

I turned the corner and started to look for Barron. I then get out the school and i spot him with his friends leaning against a locker. "Barron!" I shouted for him. He turned to look at me and glared at me.

"What do you want?" He asked annoyed. "I think we need to have a little chat about who you mess with." I tell him as i narrow my eyes at him as i slowly approach him. I heard him scoff. "Who are you to tell me what to do?" He asked me.

I chuckle dryly. "I'm the one to teach you the consequences of your actions." I tell him as i stand right in front of him. "Yeah? What's a weak looking girl like you going to do?" He asked me mockingly.

"This." I punch him harshly on the cheek. He stumbles back and hold his cheek. "Oh. You're going to regret that." He tells me as he glares at me. His friends move back and snicker.

He approaches me and shoves me. I scoff. "Do you only know how to push?" I ask him tauntingly. He grits his teeth and goes to punch me in my face. I grab his hand and grip it tightly.

"Your movements are slow." I tell him mockingly. I hit him with my knee. At this point i could tell there was a crowd forming around us. He grabs my hair and i yelp. I start to aim for his face as i punch.

He then head butts me on my nose and it starts to bleed. I groan and hit my knee against his abdomen. I could hear him grunt as he tugs my hair tighter. I hit him harshly on the side of his neck. He lets go of my hair and holds his neck in pain. I then stand up quickly. He also seems to stand up and puts both his fist in the air to get ready to hit me.

I could hear the crowd cheer for both sides. "Y'know.. i didn't get expelled from my old school for nothing." I kick him harshly on his side, near his rib and he falls down. A teacher then comes and pulls me away. "Principal's office now!" I heard the teacher say. I scoff and roll my eyes as i walk off to the principal's office.

𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐓, 𝐋𝐔𝐍𝐂𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐎𝐌; 𝟏ˢᵗ 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍 𝐏𝐎𝐈𝐍𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖.

"I'll explain later.." I tell her grinning sheepishly. "Anyways, what happened to you two?" I ask Aiden and Ben. "Ah-.. right that.." Aiden said as he seemed a bit nervous before he went back to his usual self.

He turns to Ben. "Ya sure you want me to tell 'em?" He asks Ben. Ben stays silent and start to type on his phone. A text-to-speech starts to talk. "𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐲𝐩𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐟 𝐰𝐞'𝐫𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐚 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦."We all turned to them a bit confused.

"..'These types of things'..?" Taylor asked a bit confused. The text-to-speech continued. "𝐁𝐮𝐭, 𝐢'𝐦 𝐩𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐲 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐛𝐮𝐝𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐀𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧'𝐬 𝐝𝐨𝐧𝐞."

Ben then take out his earbuds and Aiden shrugs. "..'ight well, that's that then. He is right though, it's probably best to let you guys know before you accidentally set him off or something."

"Set him off..?" Ashlyn asked skeptically. "Yup. But.. 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐠𝐨 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩. 𝐔𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐝?" He asks us a bit menacingly. I nod and give him a thumbs up while the others minus Tyler say "Okay."

Tyler wanted to be stubborn. "Don't tell me what to-.." Tyler gets cut off my Taylor pinching him. "Ow! Fine." He says as he crosses his arms over his chest.

"I don't know if any of you have realized this yet, but Ben has anger issues. Like extreme. Haha-.. Much worse than half-wit over here. And.. the reason also has to do why he doesn't speak." He then begins to explain.

"Ben was in the sixth when the accident happened.. or was it seventh? Anyway-.. He's always been a big guy for his age, and his size tended to intimidate people. Despite his appearance though, Ben was pretty timid. One thing he loved more than anything, he loved singing, it was everything to him. However, because his appearance doesn't match his personality.. he started to get bullied for it." I furrowed my eyebrows at that.

"It didn't start out as bullying. The group of idiots offered to 'fix' him first. Offering to join their group and they would teach him how to fight. Once Ben refused though, that's when it started. They started to beat him up nearly every single day. Afterwards the leader, Shane, would ask Ben to join their group, and every time, Ben told them no. Then one day, Shane decided to take things to a drastic level."

I feel myself grow slightly anxious as he then gets ready to continue speaking. I could feel this gut wrenching feeling in my stomach.

————
Word count; 1210
April 20ᵗʰ, 2024
————

EDIT;
Word count; 1245
June 18ᵗʰ, 2024

————