Daniel

Chapter 1 - Memories

"He isn't normal. You know that!"

That's what Daniel overheard his mother, Eliza Atophis, saying the other night. The conversation played over in his head like a looped tape recording.

"Oh yes, I'm quite aware of that, Eliza," a man's voice replied.

It isn't my fault! his thoughts screamed. I can't help that I'm different!

"Daniel Atophis!" The raised voice withdrew him from his thoughts and back to the present.

"Focus on your work please," Mr Anderson, Daniel's English teacher, glared at him with beady eyes from behind large-rimmed glasses.

"Sorry, Sir," Daniel replied quickly and looked down at his work, his dark hair drooping over his face. He turned his worksheet over and began writing on the blank side.

Soon the bell rang to herald the end of class and the end of the day. Daniel found himself startled back to reality, the sheet of paper in front of him was no longer blank, but instead completely filled with words, a title I Came From Hell was scribbled poorly at the top of the paper. He scanned over it. The piece of writing, which he had unconsciously written between the middle and end of class, indirectly stated what Daniel was, and what people were likely to see him as if they found out.

He snatched up the sheet and scrunched it up before anyone were to notice, gathered the rest of his books from the desk and exited the classroom, his tall stature causing his head to miss the doorframe by centimetres. After throwing his books into his locker and collecting his bag, he left the building through the open doors at the end of the long corridor.

A boy, Jeremy Schwartz, was standing around near the gate of the school with a group of acrimonious looking males. His thick, dark hair was matted, sticking out in all directions and he scowled at Daniel as he walked past, the other boys accompanying his stare. Daniel knew it was best to ignore them, and just continued walking out of the school grounds.

He stumbled over the footpath and onto the road, groaning in pain, he heard the laughter of Jeremy and the other boys coming from behind him. An oncoming car honked at Daniel as he hobbled along the road. Frowning, he quickened his pace and as he stepped onto the curb he heard somebody shout something vulgar towards him as they sped past in the car.

Daniel started to walk through the town. It was a compact, crowded area, with all the buildings built tightly beside and between one another. He began to pass the old park that was close by the school, and stopped. It reminded him of when he was a child, his mother used to take him there on weekends.

His mother seemed more caring back then, since then she had begun hitting him, it was like what Daniel had was more than the responsibility Eliza could handle. She had always been very strict with him ever using his ability, for any purposes whatsoever. But Daniel had always known better than to use it, there had been many incidents where he could have, but all those times he was too afraid of what his mother were to do to him if he did, because Daniel knows she will do much more than just hit him.

He sighed deeply and advanced into the town, looking over to his right and gazing at the cinema steps for a moment. He remembered the last time he went to see a movie there was with his mother. They had gone to see a children's movie, he and his mother had laughed about it and told each other their favourite parts for quite some time, but that was years ago. They barely spoke to one another now.

Stumbling over a crack in the pavement, Daniel cursed and kicked a stone away, as to make it less obvious that he had tripped. He grunted and trundled onwards, his head was aching from all the thoughts going through his head at once. All he wanted to do was go home, he did not want to go to work tonight. He was so tired.

Daniel had gotten a job at a pizza shop a while ago because of his mother. She was good friends with the manager, and when Daniel had gone there one night to pick up a pizza with her, he had been offered the job.

He stopped walking and set his bag down beside the wall of a building. Kneeling down, he unzipped the middle compartment of it and fumbled around inside for his work shirt. He pulled it out and observed it, the picture of an obese, grinning man holding a whole pizza in one hand and a slice in the other symbolised on the front of it.

He pulled the shirt on over his previous one and knelt back down, zipping his bag back up, then turning left on a corner, and entered the pizza shop. It wreaked of tomatoes and toppings, and Daniel wafted it in. He noticed his workmates smile reluctantly at him as they noticed his presence.

----

Arriving home late in the evening, exhausted, after having finished his shift at work, all Daniel wanted to do was sleep. He walked up to the front door and opened it, stepping inside, he noticed the television was turned on in the lounge room.

"Lock it behind yourself," he heard his mother commanding, and he looked into the darkness of the lounge room, noticing the faint outline of his mothers figure in the shadows, only lit by the full glow of the television screen.

"Hey mum," Daniel replied quietly, turning around to flick the lock on the handle.

"What?" She growled.

"I was just saying hi," he answered, confused.

Daniel heard her grunt in reply as he started walking up the hallway, and he ascended up the stairs leading towards his room. Opening the door, he kicked his shoes off and flopped onto his bed, pulling the blanket lackadaisically over himself and drifting quickly to sleep.