Glowing Eyes- The story of Damien Anderson // UNDER EDITING AND REWRITING

Damien Anderson

Glowing Eyes- The story of Damien Anderson                                        

    Damien Anderson hated a lot of things. He hated his last name, a simple reminder of the family that left him behind. He hated "the home", the place of last resorts and lost causes like himself. He hated most people in general, but the feeling was usually mutual so that didn't matter. But the thing he hated the most was his damn eyes, the main reason his life was practically hell.
  It was still too early and he was too tired to function properly as Damien stood in the small bathroom glaring at his reflection. Messy brown hair in desperate need of a haircut stuck up in every direction. He was fairly tall but scrawny and his pale skin was practically white and seemed to glow in the mirror. He looked like any average 16-year-old boy. Except... Damien forced himself to look at his face. He cringed at the sight of his sharp teeth that looked like they were made for a... monster, not a human. He forced himself finally to look at his damn eyes as two yellow orbs glared back at him.
   Damien had been born with a... mutation you could say giving him yellow eyes. His parents had been hesitant from the start about keeping the child, but after the doctors reassured them that they would turn brown with time, they took the boy home. Only nothing "got better". It only got worse. The pale yellow became more intense with flecks of orange and gold. His teeth became sharp and pointed and not even braces could fix them along with a complexation that would make a vampire jealous. But the cherry on top... it started shortly after he turned five around the time he started kindergarten. One evening his parents had come to his room to check on their son, only to find the room pitch black. Once their eyes began to adjust to the darkness, they noticed him sitting cross-legged on the bed. As if sensing their presence, the young boy turned around, head down and smiled in a way that made his parents back up a step. "Hello mother. Hello Father" he looked up and tilted his head to the side. His mother screamed. Damien's eyes were glowing. His mother hid behind her husband as he yelled "Don't speak to us you... you DEMON!"
   The next day the five-year-old woke up in front of the orphanage with a backpack full of his stuff and a note taped to his shoulder. This was his first "new home".
Shaking his head the teen left the bathroom and entered his bedroom to get ready for hell.. sorry, school. He was trying to find his jeans when a sharp pain shot through his head causing him to yell out in pain as images flashed in his mind as he fell to his knees. The car, blood, pain, Jay.. he gripped his arms over his chest and fought back tears and the urge to pass out. Eventually, the pain stopped and Damien gasped for air as he stood up on shaking knees. Once he calmed down he got dressed, throwing on a simple gray hoodie and black jeans, grabbed his headphones, shoved his laptop and half done homework into his blue backpack and left the house.
   It was only once he was on the bus that Damien let his mind wander to the one thing he had been trying to avoid the past few weeks. Jaggy.  Jaggy Jamison or JJ as Damien called her, was his best friend, practically his little sister. Was. A shiver ran down Damien's spine at the thought and his eyes began to glow softly.
JJ and Damien always had had a bad habit of being in the worst place at the worst times possible. A few weeks ago, a month or something, on January 14th for Damien's 16th birthday JJ had dared him to get a lip ring.  By the time they left the shop, it was early evening, the crisp winter air making their breath freeze as they began the walk back to JJ's house, footsteps crunching in the early January snow. It was just starting to get dark enough that very few people were out as they waited for the light to change to cross the road. As the two teens began to cross, the squeal of tires was suddenly heard as a car sped towards them, out of control on the slippy roads. The two tried to run but the obviously drunk man sped up and barrelled towards. Damien grabbed Jaggy and shielded her small body as the car crashed into them and everything when black.
   When Damien came to he was laying at the side of the road a few feet away from Jaggy who was still unconscious, her legs bent a way they shouldn't be, the car nowhere to be found. He tried to get up but it hurt. It hurt so much. "Jaggy" he mumbled and ignoring the pain as he crawled over and tried to wake her up. She had matching scrapes to Damien everywhere but what concerned him was the huge bleeding gash on her head and the fact she looked like she was barely breathing. Her eyes fluttered open and Damien cradled her in his arms burying his head in her shoulder. They looked at each other and suddenly knew the ambulance wasn't going to make it on time. Damien had no phone and Jaggy's lay a few feet away shattered and useless on the frozen asphalt. So he sang to her, told stories and jokes and when her eyes began to flutter shut he hummed an old lullaby as he kissed her forehead and whispered "goodnight Jagger, sleep well. I love you little sister." She kissed his cheek and whispered " I love you too big brother. I'll watch over you, goodnight Damien." Before her eyes shut and... nothing. Damien blacked out for the second time that night.
  Damien slowly walked into the highschool keeping his head down, hoping he could at least make it to first block unscathed but no such luck. "Oy! Demon boy!" A loud voice called, yanking off his headphones, knocking his sunglasses to the floor in the process. "Good morning to you too Conner" Damien growled, grabbing his headphones, eyes lightly glowing. Conner you could say was Damien main bully. He along with his two goons had made it their goal the yellow-eyed boy's life literal hell.
   Conner slammed Damien thin frame against his locker, his head bouncing against the hard metal." You're lucky it's early freak otherwise..." he traced his finger over the pale boy's throat his goons cakleing behind him. He lifted Damien up against the locker, his feet dangling a  few inches above the ground, despite Damien having a few inches on him, hands around his neck for a few seconds before dropping him and shoved him to the ground as he stalked away.
  Damien sat up rubbing the back of his head, watching them leave before leaning back on the lockers. "You know what" he mumbled under his breath, grabbing his sunglasses and putting them back on as he stumbled to his feet. "fuck school." He grabbed his back before turning on his heel and leaving the school.
This had become common to Damien in the week's since he had woken up in the hospital, wrapped in bandages and Jaggy's mom had come in to tell him that she hadn't made it. JJ and her mom were the only people who really tolerated him and treated him like a normal person. Everyone else just ignored him, was scared of him or hated him. Now without her... JJ was a hard person to hate and everyone liked her so being her best friend gave him a bit of protection and despite everything, he had a fairly normal life for the most part, not the necessarily the best, but a good life never the least. Now with her gone, however, most people blamed him for her death, even though he knew there was nothing he could have done about it. it had started with whispers in the halls, to names and heckling, now to flat out violence, punches, tripping shoves and all because of his stupid eyes, well among other things. You'd think there'd all be used to them by this point. Even at the home suddenly meals were 'mysteriously' missing and he ended up doing most of the chores. He had severe ADHD and could barely afford his medications, but now those were going missing, causing him to become a jumpy distracted mess. Bruises and scratches from school had become so common he had begun to wear hoodies all the time and had to learn how to use concealer. He could deal with the violence however the whispers were a different story. He heard all the whispers and names even if he pretended he didn't.  Monster. Demon. Freak. Fuck up. It went on. It hurt, a lot.
    Before he realized where he was going Damien found himself at the gates of a small cemetery, the rows of graves visible from behind the iron gate. He took a deep breath before opening the gate and walking in, slowly making his way to a small grave close to the back. "Hey Jaggy" he mumbled stopping in front of the grave, "Sorry I'm skipping again." Taking off his bag, he slumped against the grave and slide down leaning against the cold stone. "I found your flower crown finally, you know your favorite one." He laughed thinking of the hours the two of them had spent looking for the rainbow crown. "i'll come back later and give it to you. I also still have this yellow one you gave me" he dug a yellow flower crown out of his bag putting it on remembering how JJ had said it looked good with his eyes, the black vines and little thorns blending with his hair. He spent the rest of the day there talking and drawing, trying to get his mind off... everything. Damien missed Jaggy so much. He missed her death glares and her smile that could light up like the sun. he missed her goofy laugh and her teasing. Some days he would still expect her to tackle hug him as he got off the bus, of poking fun at his when he had a peanut butter sandwich again for lunch.
    He put his head back against the grave and chuckled, tears rolling down his face and he let himself greave properly. A sharp pain shot through his head again and he hugged his knees to his chest, laughing and sobbing as he held his head.  This also had become common to the teen adding to his list of things that sucked. The head aces that would come suddenly and along with that came a glitching memory, huge blank spots expanding over minutes to days. He laughed, "bring on the voices. I'm going insane" as he stood up still laughing as the tears streamed down his face, eyes glowing bright.
    That night Damien emptied his backpack onto the small bed in his room. he didn't own much but he put what he had his bag, some clothes his art book and pencils, his charger, phone, and headphones. Finally, the small framed picture of him and Jaggy on there last day of middle school was carefully tucked in. He looked in the mirror and his appearance. he wore a pair of faded black jeans and a black tee shirt over which he wore a gray hoodie. He still had the flower crown on and around his neck was an old gas mask he had found and fixed up.  He swung the blue backpack on, grabbed his sunglasses and JJ's flower crown and left the room. as he snuck out of the building he turned around and stuck a finger up at the huge house.
As he walked through the old park he noticed a bat laying abandoned in the tall grass. He picked it up slowly and looked at it before strapping it to his backpack before continuing on.
     When he arrived at JJ's grave he removed his sunglasses before gently placed the crown on the grave and stood over the grave, a small tear slipping out and running down his face. "goodbye Jagger. I don't know when I'll see you next but I promise.." he choked back a sob, "I promise I won't stay sad. I promise I will remember everything good about you and-" he fell to his knees. "I promise I will never forget you." He cried for a bit before standing up dusting off his knees and wiping his eyes. "I'll miss you"
   He turned to leave when a voice cut through the silence. "Hey yellow" came Conner's oily voice as Damien froze, the use of Jaggy's pet name for him like a punch to the gut. " what are you doing here?" Damien spat back,  glad his voice didn't break. "Oh I was feeling a little lonely tonight so I decided to pay a visit." Damien could hear the smirk in his voice.
    Damien spun around on his heel and took a step forwards, glaring at Conner, eyes flaring,  yellow fire meeting conners deep blue ocean eyes . "You? Lonely?" Damien laughed bitterly, "you don't know what lonely is." Conner looked at Damien confidence fading as he drew near. "lonely is having your parents abandon and disown you. Lonely is having nowhere to go but a place where you are forced to be. Lonely is having people look through you pretending you don't exist." He grew louder and louder until he shouted: "Loneliness is having the one person who loves and treats you like a human being ripped away from you and there's NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT!!"Damien and Conner stood facing each other in silence for a moment before he continued voice violently calm. "that is lonely." Before he grabbed his bat and swung as hard as he could, bashing the blond boy in his skull, a large 'CRACK' sounding in the night, yellow eyes glowing piercing the dark.
As Conner's lifeless body fell to the ground, blue eyes wide with shock, Damien shoved on his sunglasses and bolted from the graveyard and into the nearby woods. He didn't stop running until he was deep in the woods. He hunched over and threw up, thick black liquid pouring out of his mouth, unsteady as he stumbled forwards, hand over mouth trying to keep in the liquid, before his knees gave out and he collapsed on the ground shaking, the now bloody bat fell from his hands as everything that had transpired that evening came crashing down on him and he began to sob and mumbling. A faint ringing in his ear sounded and he stood up on unsteady legs, swaying as his vision began to fade. The last thing he saw was three figures walking towards him, a fourth looming in the background before a sharp pain shot through his head and he collapsed on the cold forest ground.                                                             ~•~
     The gates of the cemetery creeked as Karla Jamison slowly opened them and tentatively entered the graveyard breath freezing in the early September air.  She hadn't stepped foot in here since her daughters funeral and even then she wasn't alone. However, today was suppose to be Jaggys birthday and her mother felt it necessary to visit. As Karla approached the grave, she stopped.  There sitting cross-legged in front of Jaggy's grave was a figure in a gray hoodie, hood up facing the grave. As she drew near, she heard a familiar soft voice singing and saw a small cupcake with a candle sitting in front of them. "happy birthday dear Jaggy" Karly joined in for the last line "happy birthday to you." A breeze blew out the candle as the figure turned there head hood falling off revealing a yellow flower crown and familiar mess of brown hair the early autumn sun bringing out the soft red. Karla's bright green eyes, so similar to her daughters,  filled with tears as her gaze met with a pair of glowing yellow one, holding the stare for a moment before Damien stood up, mumbled something towards the mound and bolted from the grave.
As he ran past her, she caught a whisper before he dissaperd.
  "Thank you. I'm sorry"

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                                                            I don't want your sympathy
                                                         I want my best friend back
                                                                            ~×~