The Taboo Topics

The Oddity

The odd one they called me.

They always lowered their voices and spoke in hushed tones, but I could always hear them say, "That's Germanicus Wickburn, the odd one."

I always knew I was different to everyone else. The other children always came and went relatively quickly, always lucky to find new families. Not me, I was the odd one, and no one ever wanted something which broke the mould.

I did have some couples visit me and it always seemed to go well, until they spoke to Mrs Smith that was. Then I quickly faded from their memory, as they didn't want anything which causes too much hassle, as people don't tend to care for oddities.

Due to always being called 'the odd one', I never thought it was strange that I had different powers, special powers. I just assumed that these things came along with the name.

When people repeatedly call you by the same name you tend to morph into it.

That was my reasoning when I took Dennis and Amy to the abandoned garden shed behind the graveyard. They deserved it, after all, I never do anything without a reason behind it. They were taunting me about the fact that no one would ever love me and I would be here forever. Alone and unloved. So I sought revenge, and since then they haven't bothered me.

The same thing happened with Sally Stubbs. I wanted to tend her rabbit, but she had been warned about me, the odd one, so she refused to let me near it, so we fought. After I dealt with the rabbit neither of us could be near it.

People accused me of stealing their things. But I wanted them to see how I felt. To have something precious taken from you is never nice. My parents did that to me by removing themselves from my life. So I decided to inflict the pain I felt onto others. My reason - they needed to be taught how I felt every day.

When that man came to visit me last week, I knew I had found my place. I was worried at first, as I thought Mrs Smith may have thought I had become too strange, and this was a psychiatrist coming to lock me up.

But he understood. He knew that I wasn't odd; I am in fact superior to the others. I was perhaps even more special than the other magical people, as I can speak to animals. He seemed surprised about that, but at that moment I knew I was different, in a good way this time.

He spoke of me going to this special land, where I could be trained in controlling my powers. He did seem a little worried about the extent of my powers already, but I don't see why he should be, after all I am the odd one.

I can't wait until for the moment when I'm fully in control of my powers, then I can finally seek revenge.