The Domino Effect

The Domino Effect: Ares

A jolt

He took a sharp breath gripping the sides of the desk, his knuckles whitened; he could feel his sweat leaving a thin coating across his body, a drop falling from his nose. Ares felt himself shaking, violently. It had been so vivid, seeing that moment from his past, something he didn’t particularly want to remember, or to be specific never wanted to remember.

That night, it was Ares tenth birthday, it was in his top 5 worst nights with Father. Back then, Ares didn’t even consider Father human, just this horrible creature that had bloomed from Dad’s addictions to alcohol.

He discovered his horrid reason for living was because Father had connections. He knew a man who would fix up kids under his ‘circumstances’ for the right price. The thought of that man turned his cheeks green, he didn’t feel hatred or resentment towards That Man like he did Father. He was flat out scared of him, hated being with him, considered it the most severe of all punishments visiting that scary man. Ares had to take better care of his health, it was the only way he could avoid it, stay away from it.

Ares pried his fingers from the desk reaching up to grasp his shoulder; it was still there, thank god. The nasty scar from that night wasn’t leaving though, probably never actually.

The boy was surprised to find that after that event he hadn’t died, it was oddly comforting in a way. Well, actually, no it wasn’t, because Father was still there, tormenting him making live through these things.

He closed his eyes, his breath quivered he couldn’t even manage to look up.

Slowly he pried his other hand from its hold against his desk it moved robotically up to his head covering his eye, his fingers digging into his hair. He couldn’t look up, his blood was coursing through his veins at unsafe speeds, and he could hear each beat of his heart thumping on the insides of his ears, the daydream- no, nightmare, had really shaken the boy up.

He let his hand untangle itself from his hair and wiped it over his face, the boy was sweating quite a lot, but he couldn’t get it out of his head. Especially that song, that horrid little song that he had clung to so desperately as a child. He didn’t want to remember things like that, he didn’t wish cling to memories of his Mother anymore and he blocked out past events of unbridled abuse from Father.

Ares believed that because he was as good as nothing, he didn’t deserve anything. He never would have anything.

The boy suddenly felt his blood run cold. It was enough of some sort of force to pull him out of the shock and back into reality. Everyone around him was staring at him, as if he was some sort of out of place monster that had just appeared. Well Ares didn’t think himself monstrous, but he was definitely out of place. A poor kid in a rich brat school, that didn’t really mix that well.

Ares suddenly felt another presence, his blood what was already cold frozen, his whole body stiffening. Ares knew threatening presences, he lived with Father after all, but it was way beyond the level of threatening. As if just looking towards it would kill him.

His eyes skipped across the classroom. None of these kids were capable of giving off such an unwelcome vibe, hell he didn’t think an assassin out for revenge could admit such a dangerously under-toned vibe. His peers didn’t seem to notice it though; they were looking at him like he was insane

Then something occurred to the boy. The classroom was quiet, and maybe that wouldn’t be so strange, but even the teacher wasn’t speaking. Ares let his eyes trail to the front of the room; Mr. Eistie was also staring at him. But not in the same, judgmental way his classmates were.

The man’s brown eyes were still, clouded over with the emotion that Ares couldn’t describe, they were more like the eyes a beast, hungry, no, blood-thirsty.