The End

The Gift (written when I was 13)

  The boy entered through the large, coal gates into the dreaded grounds of the school, watching his peers flinch away in unease. His eyes roamed over the other students zoning in on his usual target. A haunting smirk slid over his face as he inched closer to the vulnerable victim, purposely slamming into his shoulder. The target fell to the ground from the brute force of the impact, his satchel flying off his shoulder.

"Hello, Victor. Why do we keep running into each other like this?" The bully cackled as he stared down at Victor.

"Leave me alone Lucias." Victor whimpered as he felt the common ache from his back which was littered in bruises all caused by the same predator.

Lucias scoffed at the feeble attempt the sad excuse of a person did to stand up to him before kicking Victor down to the ground where he belonged. Painful punches, strong shoves and karate kicks were delivered to the innocent person who curled into the foetal position to protect himself as much as he could. Students were scattered across the school grounds yet they remained as bystanders, too afraid to help Victor.
Behind one of the burly apple trees grown in the lush grass stood a quiet girl who blended into the background like a chameleon. Her beady raven eyes stalked Lucias, the bully, as he continued to abuse her classmate. This was a common scene she witnessed every day along with the rest of the student body. Her fists clenched as she watched the prey she adored from afar being pummelled to the ground by the muscular, older oppressor. Suddenly, a teacher rushed to the aid of injured Victor but he simply let Lucias be, as all professors usually did. They were too afraid to confront the wealthy, trouble-making student as his mother donated a vast quantity of the money that kept the colossal, castle-looking school standing.

Lucias grinned as he opened up his locker to store his school necessities. His usual treat at the beginning of the day had uplifted his mood drastically. A note fluttered to the ground like a feather flying in the wind. Once he retrieved it, he unfolded the message to see what was written on the crisp, plain paper. Written in a black ink was the following cursive letters;

It is time someone served you a dose of karma. Don't fret as it will be provided tonight. Finally, the bully will be terminated.

The receiver of the threat merely sighed as he scrunched up the paper and lobbed it into the closest bin. This was a norm as he had been receiving letters counting down the days to the time he would be 'terminated'. It was just a petty kid trying to pull his leg. However, a shiver ran down his spine when he recalled the previous threats being posted into his locker and the fact that he never managed to catch the anonymous poster.

As day progressed peacefully and normally, Lucias attended majority of his lessons and continued to torment his selected victims in each of them. It seemed as if he had forgotten the memorandum in his locker. However, it remained in the back of his mind, slowly digging away at his confidence and bringing in a new emotion he had yet to experience - fear. He felt like his prediction that it was simply a student mucking around was exactly that- a prediction. Now, the confused student was contemplating on all the possibilities he could conjure in his imaginative mind. Fortunately for him, Lucias returned home unscathed and continued his daily routine of playing on his computer, cyber bullying Victor and conversing with his mother over dinner about his day. His only parent remained oblivious to her child's devilish ways and presumed he was an innocent angel.

Once the devil in disguise entered into his chamber, he realised that although the day was concluded he remained unmarked. A grin overtook his face as he realised he had fretted over nothing. Lucias made himself comfortable in his bed and slowly drifted to sleep. Just as the arms of his dreams were about to encompass him, he heard his door slowly creak open and then slam shut. He whipped his head towards the noise but he didn't find anyone who could have caused it. Cautiously, he pulled his body up so his legs were the only part of his body protected by his comforter. The light above his head began to flicker and his window groaned as it opened. The harsh gale whipped his curtains and the posters on his wall flew freely around his room. Lucias remained frozen in his crib as the scary phenomena wreaked havoc around his bedroom.

"Did I not warn you Lucias? One would presume you would be prepared for me. Now you have ruined the fun. You seem to ruin everything, don't you Lucias?"

Lucias did not reply to the taunting voice of the masked intruder. He tried to locate them by looking in all the nooks and crevices in his room whilst still remaining in his cot.

"Cat got your tongue, Lucias? Well, isn't that a first!"

The voice cackled at its own joke. It seemed closer to the bed. All hope of escape left haunted Lucias as he saw his bookshelf collapse in front of his door. He pressed himself to the headboard and pulled the blanket tighter around himself. Suddenly, the bulb shattered and his room was drowned in darkness. The wind slowly became silent as if the universe was waiting for the next move on the chessboard between Lucias and the anonymous intruder. The boy felt a presence besides him and the slow minty breath of a person on his neck. A flash, a muffled scream...silence...

---

"Hello, and welcome to MSC News. I am your reporter, Cho In Ha, and today we will be giving you information on a murder case that will haunt us all. Single mother, Darcy Malroy, was scarred for life this morning as she opened her bedroom door to a box wrapped in a red ribbon. Why would this gift permanently scar her, you say? Well. She opened the box to find the decapitated head of her teenage son, Lucias Malroy. The eyes were wide open in fear and his mouth was set in the shape of a desperate teenager screaming for aid. Specialists have finalised that the young victim had been stabbed in the stomach and left to slowly bleed before his head was slowly hacked off whilst still conscious. The resting place of the deceased was painted in red. Written over his body on the wall, was the metaphor; 'He lived by the sword, He died by the sword – Jane Doe'. The signature suggests that the murderer was a girl but apart from this, no further evidence has been found and it seems this case will remain a mystery to us all. This is Cho In Ha, MSC News."