Benji Bones

Chapter Three

When I opened my eyes I was laying in my bed. Sunlight shined in through the window and spilled upon my face. I turned my head to see what time it was. Nine thirty five according to the cheap clock.

My head wasn't aching like it did the night before and I was very grateful for that. I reached over and grabbed the iPad off of my nightstand and turned it on.

It was opened to Facebook and it was on Lenny Erickson's page. I scrolled down and the first thing Lenny had posted was a video. More specifically it was the video of Marcus beating the crap out of me. It was captioned, "Watch this savageness."

Against my better judgement I hit play on the video. It was long and painful to watch. Every hit and kick was right there on the video. The last stomp should have sent me to the hospital. It could have killed me.

They will pay. They will pay.

There were already six hundred views and nearly three hundred comments. It had been shared ninety seven times. I scrolled through them. Most of them were things like "Brutal" and "omg how did he survive?", but there were a lot of them calling the boys assholes. That gave me a little gratification, but not much.

I scrolled down to the end. A string of comments was left by someone called Benji Bones.

Benji Bones: You're going to get what's coming to you, Lenny Lemming.

Lenny: Ok, tough guy. Say that to my face.

Benji Bones: I will, Lenny Lemming. Tomorrow night.

Lenny: Ok. My boys and I will be waiting if u have the balls to try.

Benji Bones: I'm not going to try, Lenny Lemming. I'm going to do.

Lenny: Ok. Bye now.

Benji Bones: I'm going to hurt you Lenny Lemming.

Benji Bones: Good luck walking after I break your leg.

Benji Bones: I'm going to kick you so hard in the nuts that you will never be able to have children, Lenny Lemming. To make sure you don't breed.

Benji Bones: You will be in the hospital for weeks, Lenny Lemming.

Benji Bones: Good luck eating without your teeth.

Benji Bones: I'm coming, Lenny Lemming.

Benji Bones: Get ready.

That was the last comment by Benji Bones. Obviously Lenny wasn't too worried about it since he stopped commenting so long ago.

He should be worried.

I clicked on Benji Bones'a profile. There was no information other than a name. I didn't think they allowed profile's to be blank, but his was. I figured it must have been a troll account.

Suddenly there was a knock on my door and my mom burst in without anymore warning. "Hey, Jimmy," she said. "I have to be at work in twenty minutes. I wanted to tell you that you need to mow the lawn today and that there is some bacon on the stove for you."

I put my iPad back on the nightstand, sat up and looked at her quizmatically. Why wasn't she freaking out when she saw my face? "Okay, mom," I answered, "I will do the lawn."

There was a weird silence in the air as we looked at one another. "You okay, babe?" she asked me.

"Yeah... great," I answered.

Mom got a look on her face like she suspected something was wrong with me, but she wasn't coming out and saying it. "Okay, weirdo," she said jokingly. She then walked over to my bed and gave me a kiss on the forehead. She stopped and looked at my neck.

Running a finger around my  neck she asked, "What's this?"

Your best friend.

Putting my hands up to my neck, I felt the soft material around it and I knew exactly what it was. I hooked the face shield and took it off. I put it on my nightstand. "It's nothing," I replied. "I bought it yesterday."

Mom picked it up and unfolded it in her hands. Stretching it out she said, "Creepy. Is that blood on it?"

"It's suppose to look like it has blood on it," I quickly replied.

"Kids...," Mom said as she put it back down on the nightstand. "Well I'm off. Have a good first day of summer," she said as she walked out the door.

As soon as she was gone I rushed to my closet door and opened it. The rectangular mirror on the other side of the door showed my reflection. My face looked fine. There was not a mark to be found on it.

How? How could this be? Last night my face had been beaten to shit. When I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror I actually Ralphed because I looked so gross. And when I got in the shower I... I... I had no memory after that.

The last thing I remembered was closing my eyes in the shower. When I woke up I was here in my bed with the sun shining down on me. Not a mark on my face. Not an ache in my body. I turned around to check for bruises and there were none to be found.

When I had looked at myself in the bathroom last night I was polka dotted up and down my back from where Marcus had been wailing on me. This was impossible. Nobody can heal that quickly.

Unless they had help.

Something drew me back to the nightstand where the face shield was laying. "It was you, wasn't it?" I asked it. I immediately felt stupid for talking to a mask. It didn't answer, but I slipped it around my neck again. It felt nice. Like it belonged there.

That's good, kid. Now hurry and eat and do the lawn. We're going hunting.