New Genesis

Two

I was running down the street, and I was happy. I was wheezing and coughing and cursing my weak body, but it was a good time. I skinned my elbow on a brick wall as I passed and laughed as I didn't die. I was immortal. And then I saw them, my tormentors, the boys. And perhaps I was intoxicated by my new freedom, so I told them triumphantly that my hemophilia was cured as I showed them my fingers and my elbow.

A mistake, regrettably.

The thing was, that didn't mean that I somehow, magically, suddenly gained status, it just meant that they could beat me like they've always wanted. So it was quite a blunder.

They pulled me into an alleyway and did their thing. It's just one of those things where you walk away at the end and convince yourself that it was no big deal, and that its all in the past, sticks and stones, one of those things that stays with you for the rest of your life. And I actually cursed the witch doctor, then. Might have been better if I'd just bled to death.

And then it happened, my unraveling.

First, I could see. I could see everything. And it wasn't a bird's eye view like this morning, no, this was something more, something better. I could simultaneously see everything from every possible angle. I mean, for example, that one of the boys somehow had a speck of mustard on the heel of his shoe, and I also knew that the same boy had neglected to fasten his pant button this morning, and I knew that another boy had a mole on the back of his neck, and that there were two safety pins in his pocket. And all this information was crammed into my brain, and I didn't know what to do with it, so I just curled up into a fetal position and whimpered. Call me what you want, because that's what I did. Closing my eyes didn't help; I just saw and saw.

But then came the rush, and it all became so very clear. In the recess of my consciousness, I heard the mad, rhythmic chanting of the witch doctor, and my body became filled with raging power. And I wanted to kill. Oh, yes, I wanted to kill those boys and watch the streets run red with their blood. I wanted to be a murder, for people to look at me with abhorrence, with abject disgust. My jailer of a mother, my ghost of a father, I'll kill them all, the Queen and the King, that old witch doctor, the cute girl next door, I'll kill every single fucker on the planet.

So I stood and grabbed the boy nearest to me, the chant rising to a deafening roar, I grabbed him by the neck and bounced his head against the wall and dropped his crumpled form on the ground. I turned to the others, a delighted laughter bubbling out of my throat. Ha! I was the hunter now! One of the stupid boys took a swing at me, so I snapped the offending arm like a toothpick and listened to his wailing, and I thought, shut up, at least you'll heal eventually, you wuss.

The others tried to run. And I thought, let them run, let them run home and tremble under their sheets. They're really no better off than the ones I'd struck. The fear will destroy them, I thought. They'll have it worse than any cripple. But it really was such a waste for me to stop here, now that I've come so far, so I figured that I'd get one other. There were three boys running from me. I picked up a brick and chose the one farthest from me, the fastest one, and hurled the brick into his heel. He dropped and slammed his head on the ground.