A tear hit the rough pavement. It evaporated instantly on account of the scorching summer heat leaving no trace that the tear ever existed, save for the little boy holding his knee on the warm cement.
“Y-you hurt me!” said the little boy through bleary eyes. Four tall shadows blocked out the sun.
“Uh, yeah. That was kind of the point Toby.” The group of older looking boys snickered amongst themselves.
This had been going on since the first day of school. Being a third grader in a school filled with bigger, tougher kids, puts little, scrawny boys like Toby at a slight physical disadvantage.
Toby wobbled to his feet and wiped away a stray tear that was hanging off the edge of his nose.
“Oho! Feeling tough today are we Toby?” One of the kids took a step closer to Toby.
Earlier that week, Toby had talked to his mom about these recurring encounters. She wasn’t helpful in the least bit. His mom tried her best, but it had been a while since she had fit into third grader’s shoes and she had quite forgotten how it felt.
“Oh I’m sorry Toby.” She had said. “I think the best thing you can do in these situations, is stand up for yourself. Because if you tell the teacher, all the other kids will think you’re a weakling and we don’t want that!”
“Mom.” Toby replied. “I am a weakling.”
She gave him some more reassuring words and tried to convince him that he was most certainly not a weakling and that he needed to have more confidence in himself. Later that day, he got a swirly in the boy’s bathroom.
At this point, Toby was sick and tired of enduring all the teasing and uncomfortable confrontations every single day. Though he was a good head shorter then these other kids, Toby lifted his chin and got right up in the other boy’s face.
“I feel tough every day. You get pretty tough wrestling monsters in your basement.” Now these boys, still being in elementary school, were unbelievably gullible. The bully that had stepped forward earlier took a step back.
“W…What did you say?”
Toby swallowed hard. It was too late to back out of the lie now.
“What, are your ears broken? I said I kill monsters in my basement every night. With my bare hands.”
The older boys shuffled their feet nervously.
“You’re bluffing. Monsters aren’t real. My parents said so.”
“Uh huh. Your parents just tell you that so you can get to sleep at night. My parents aren’t that kind to me. They want me to be tough. They send me down to the basement every night and I am forced to wrestle HUGE monsters. I started out with little five pounders but now I’m taking on one thousand pound monsters!”
The bullies had a look of pure terror on their faces and Toby was on a roll. Unfortunately, one of the boys had the sense to ask, “C-can you prove it?”
This stopped Toby dead in his tracks. He hadn’t anticipated them to call his bluff.
“Uh… Well you see… The monsters only come out if you’re alone and… Umm…”
But his excuses were unsuccessful. The older kids regained some of their former confidence. “Yeah prove it! We’ll come to your house tonight and see if all this monster business is real!”
Toby’s mind felt like it was running a triathlon. If these boys showed up at his house, and he didn’t have any monsters to show them, he’d be teased even more! “I’ll think of something.” He thought.
“Uh… Yeah sure! That’s fine! Unless you guys are too chicken. Theses monsters are pretty rough.”
The bullies eyed each other nervously. “We’ll b-be fine.” After that parting remark, the boys scampered away before they could lose courage.
Toby let out a shaky breath. What had he gotten himself into?
School seemed to pass thirty-seven times faster than usual. Toby figured it had something to do with the feeling of dread that he had in the back of his mind. Somehow he survived Mrs. Kimberly’s math class and took off running afterwards as the bell rang. He had some planning to do.
“How was school sweetie?” his mom remarked as Toby bolted past her in the kitchen.
“Decent!” he shouted before nearly stepping on the cat, nearly tripping over a chair and nearly running face first into a wall. Toby burst into his little brother’s room that was in second grade.
“Hey Luke! Do you want to play with me and some of my friends later?”
Luke raised a skeptical eye brow. This was the first time his older brother had ever requested his presence whenever he had friends over. But his joy outweighed his skepticism.
“Yes, yes, yes! Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Luke wrapped Toby in a brotherly bear hug.
“Ew! Get off of me!” Toby remarked in disgust.
“Sorry.” Luke replied sheepishly.
Night had fallen. Toby stood on his front porch and scanned his dim surroundings. There was always the possibility they wouldn’t show up. He had scared them pretty bad on the playground earlier. His heart sank. Four figures appeared around a car across the street. Toby steadied himself. He had this all under control. His little brother was in the basement dressed up as a monster. With a little luck, the bullies wouldn’t get a good look at him before they run away screaming. But it had to be timed perfectly.
“You guys sure you’re tough enough for what you’re about to see?”
The boys shuffled up. “Just show us the monsters.”
Within half a minute, they were all standing at the top of the stairs that led to the place that they all dreaded. The basement. One of the boys made a move to turn on the light.
“No! Don’t!” Toby snapped. The monster will run away if you turn on the light!”
Step by step, they all descended the wooden stairwell and were slowly swallowed up in the darkness. Toby felt the cold concrete under his bare feet. It was show time.
“All right monster! I’m ready for you!”
He waited for his little brother to come rushing toward him. A figure materialized out of the darkness. To Toby’s surprise, it was not his brother but a large being with four arms, twenty-seven eyes (all which were blood red) and jet black fur. Along with all these frightening attributes, he naturally had an abnormally long row of sharp fangs. He grabbed Toby by the scruff of his neck and ate him in one bite. The monster then let out a loud belch and sauntered off deeper into the basement. The bullies, who were nearly on the verge of tears before the monster attack, now ran off, screaming bloody murder all the while.
I’m still not entirely sure what the moral of the story was, so we’ll leave that up to you. Although it is safe to say those boys never bothered Toby again! Then again, neither did anyone else.
