stabbing in the dark ~fransykes~

25

TW: some homophobic language, bullying and violence. If you don't want to read it, DM instead, I will let you know what has happened! Stay safe💕

He sat at the back of the English classroom, sleepy eyes wide and grip so tight his pen was beginning to shatter. He could feel the judgmental eyes watching him, hear their words ringing through this ears. Everything was heightened, he could feel the blood rushing through his veins and hear his own heart breathing.

He was paler than he was a week ago, that much was obvious. Like the life had been drained from his once flushed skin. But he still looked beautiful in Oliver eyes, maybe even more so now, even if he did look terminally sick. The end was coming, it was so close that the heaviness of it loomed over the whole town that day, rain and thunder perturbing from the grey sky.

And as the final chapters grew near, a naive Josh listened to the final chapters of another book: Romeo and Juliet. He didn't bother engaging in the lesson, what was the point when he had missed most of the school year anyway. He just sat, pretending like the sharp mummers of his name from fellow pupils didn't stab him like a knife.

"Joshua?" The teacher asked. Josh inhaled deeply, finally focusing his vision to look at the teacher. He couldn't even remember his name....

It was at this exact moment that Josh realised that everyone else was gone, the room eerily quite with nothing but the rain pattering on the windows. The hand on the clock had suddenly flown, making Josh furrow his eyes in confusion. He didn't remember the bell going, or the others packing up, or the cup of coffee that was now perched on his teachers desk. He looked down at his own desk, realising he too had packed up his belongings. When did that happen?

"Are you okay Joshua? You don't look too well." The man asked sincerely, his face seeming genuinely concerned. Was this man his teacher? Josh couldn't even remember anymore, his brain suddenly turning to mush as his neck crawled with discomfort. How did he get here? He couldn't remember walking to school, or putting on his uniform, or getting into Jane's car. Jane....

Everything was too bright in here, yet too dark outside. The bright red of the plastic chairs bled into the beige walls, the classroom displays running into the carpet. Don't trust them, his mind whispered in a voice that Josh couldn't tell if it was his own.

"I heard about what happened last week in PE...." the man (teacher?) said sympathetically, his glasses slipping down the bridge of his pointy nose. If Josh's mind wasn't so far at that moment he would have scoffed. It seemed the whole school knows what happened to Josh last week, the news seeming to have spread like wild fire despite Oliver's insistence that he had shut down any speak of it.

Josh only nodded, reality swirling for a moment before his vision finally returned to normal, making him sigh in relief. This had been happening a lot lately, way more often then it should. But Oliver said it was fine, so it was fine, right?

With that Josh left the classroom, deaf to the protests of his teacher and the sound of his desk chair strapping across the shitty school carpet. He didn't look back as he walked through the noisy corridors, barging the shoulders of anyone who didn't move out of the way, which wasn't many considering Josh's newly founded reputation as the schools freak. He knew there were rumours going around about him, yet he couldn't care less. It was just him and Oliver now, against the world. Even if that world was crumbling around Joshua as he did nothing but watch.

Running his fingers through his greasy hair, he started the long journey home. It was times like this when he missed Jane's car journeys to and from school; her unbearable nagging and long winded lectures were something he hated then, but missed now. Now he was alone, alone in the pouring rain.

Suddenly a hand struck his back, making Joshua stumble as reality came crashing down on his once again. His dark rimmed eyes bulged, feet stumbling over each other until he found balance once again. He looked over his shoulder, repressing an eye roll when he noticed it was a group of boys from his year. He didn't know their names, or couldn't remember then at least, but he knew their faces. Blue eyes, blonde hair, wicked smiles that made Josh gulp and step back like a whimpering puppy.

"Look who it is, the freak." One of them sneered, making the others laugh like it was the funniest, most original joke they had ever heard.

"Where are you going freak?" Another laughed. "Home to see your parents? Oh wait you don't have any."

"Doesn't surprise me, they probably fled the country when they saw they had had a fag like you." The first one retorted, Josh wincing at his words like they were daggers through his heart.

"He's probably going to his fag boyfriends house to go suck his dick." Someone else chimed in, making the pale boys blood boil with anger. His eyes grew dark and stormy, a new kind of adrenaline pumping through his veins like a drug.

Before he knew it his anger was climaxing, and then the impossible happened. One of the blonde boys was thrown to the ground like a rag doll, invisible waves of force exploding from snow like skin. Josh gasped, feeling all the energy leave him as he watched the teen bounce across the floor, his head hitting the pavement with a sickening crack.

Josh's knees trembled, waves of nausea hitting him as he saw a trail of blood emerge from his classmates head. The boys gasped in horror, looking at Josh in bewilderment and confusion. They didn't need to say anything to know what they were all thinking: freak.

Josh couldn't speak, couldn't move. His body felt numb, and yet alive. Breathing laboured, he couldn't rip his eyes away from the trickles of blood now staining the floor.

The car. The crash. Jane. The blood.

He gasped, his mind flooded with memories.

Surely he wasn't responsible for this, was he? No, no, the boy must have tripped on his own. He didn't have powers, Josh Franceschi was an ordinary teenager.

The tallest of the teens, the one who had originally slapped Josh on the back was the first to react. He ran at Josh, eyes blazing and mouth falling in to an animalistic snarl. Josh whimpered lowly, waiting for the impact of the other boys fist to blossom across his skin. But it never came.

Hie ocean blue eyes snapped open, panicked gaze instantly meeting Oliver, who had the raging teen in a tight headlock. The teen chocked in Josh's lovers hold, skin tinted blue as he fought for oxygen. Oliver snarled before letting go, walking towards the remaining blonde boy before pressing a small blade into the palm of his hand.

"Hold it against his neck." Oliver ordered calmly, the trace of a sinister smile gracing his lips. The boy stared into his eyes, mesmerised before nodding and going as he was told. Like a mindless robot he walked towards his gasping friend, quickly holding the knife against his own friends neck so tightly a red line of blood began to form.

"You will never go near him again, you hear me?" Oliver yelled angrily, the black abyss of his irises ringed with red, fiery rage. The three boys nodded eagerly, terror struck faces pale as snow. Oliver smiled, striking his hand through the air once in a way that made all three of the boys fall to the floor unconscious. He rolled his eyes, picking up his blade from the floor before walking over to Josh.

"A-are they d-dead?" Josh trembled.

"No, they'll wake up in a couple of hours." Oliver laughed. "As will you, my pretty boy."

And with another wave of his wrist, Josh's body fell limp too, a pair of arms stopping him from touching the wet pavement below.