(A/N): A fair warning, the start is quite edgy. It gets better though, trust me.
(Y/N)'s POV
As a light breeze blew through my open window, I felt a rush of cold air enter the room. The combination of the temperature drop and noise of my curtains fluttering pulled me out of my light slumber. I felt myself stir awake, but I didn't open my eyes. I had stayed up a bit too late the night before, despite knowing it was a school night, but I was awake before my alarm so I wasn't particularly worried.
Or at least that's what I thought.
"*BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP*" My alarm clock screamed.
"Shut uuuuuup..." I groaned, grabbing the pillow from under my head and hurling it straight at my alarm. Loud, obnoxious beeps continuously rang out through my room as I fully awoke, only for this morning to worsen once I was hit with a large wave of hunger and the sound of my stomach growling like a tiger. I let out a loud sigh, rolling over and throwing a smaller pillow at the still blaring alarm and luckily nailing the 'off' button on the top. It was a Monday and that meant I had to get up and ready for school, or as it should be called: "hell".
'At least it'll be harder to make fun of what I wear if I keep it plain' I thought, rolling out of bed and sifting through my pile of clothes I had yet to put away. I quickly settled for black jeans, some black and white sneakers and a light gray t-shirt, and then I slid on an unzipped white hoodie. After I was dressed, I then made my way out of my room and went downstairs. But not before glancing at the other rooms and feeling my heart drop slightly. After I got downstairs I made myself (and ate) some breakfast, brushed my teeth, 'fixed' my hair and grabbed my bag and then I made my way to school.
As I arrived in front of the huge building, I took a deep breath to brace myself before entering. This hell-hole was full of surprises, and none of them were pleasant. I walked in and was constantly looking over my shoulder, worried about whoever and whatever this place would throw at me. To call it paranoia wouldn't be inaccurate, but I had my handful of reasons to keep my wits about me. I eventually made it to class, and thankfully I got there without any inconveniences so I considered that a good start to my day.
As I took my seat near the back of the room, the teacher walked in soon after, with someone not too far behind her. Every guy in the room's jaw immediately dropped as soon as the new girl entered the door. She had long, light brown hair, emerald green eyes and fair skin. She wore a dark pink hoodie, white ripped jeans and some white sneakers. "Alright class, we have a new student joining us today" the teacher said, motioning for for the new girl to say something.
"Hi, everyone!" she said happily. "My name is Sally Williams, and I look forward to working with you all" she finished by flashing an innocent smile.
"Well that's nice. Please go take a seat at the back next to... (Y/N)" the teacher decided, pointing towards the empty seat next to me. I felt every guy in the room glare at me so I just pulled my hood further over my head, hoping Sally wouldn't talk to me. Unfortunately, I was wrong.
Not too long after she sat down and the teacher began to talk about the lesson topic, Sally attempted to start a conversation. "Hey, your name's (Y/N) right?" she asked, to which I simply nodded. "That's a nice name" she said, in a friendly tone, one that I found very unfamiliar at the time. To say that it wasn't a nice change of pace however, well that would be a pretty big lie. "Well my name's Sally, it's a pleasure to meet you" she said, still trying her best to be kind.
"You said your name when you were up front" I said flatly, taking down some notes amongst the teacher's rambling.
"O-oh yeah" she said, slightly embarrassed.
"But... it's nice to meet you too" I said, feeling bad for my rudeness. She simply giggled and began to take down notes of her own.
There was fairly minimal conversation for the rest of class, but once it ended I knew I was in for a ride. As I walked out of the class, I was immediately grabbed and slammed against some lockers. The impact hurt, and resulted in quite a loud clanging noise as well. I looked at who grabbed me and saw it was (B/N) and his buddies, the school football team. "'Sup, Nerd?" (B/N) asked rhetorically, throwing me away from the lockers onto the floor before I could speak.
"Hey, (B/N). Good morning" I responded as I came to a sliding stop. After I turned my attention back, I looked up and saw them all walking over. Since I was still on the ground at the time, I took the chance to curl up and cover my face in an attempt to guard myself as best as possible. I was stomped on, punched and kicked multiple times. My decision to curl up ultimately didn't work as someone's foot connected with my stomach, knocking the wind out of me and unconsciously causing me to loosen my 'stance'. This left me open for the rest of their assault, and it was clear that they noticed. But after they had seemingly had enough, (B/N) kicked me one last time. The connection was solid and the hit was hard, which resulted in me rolling from my side onto my back. He then put one foot on my chest and stared me dead in my eyes. "Don't go near Sally ever again, she's mine. If I see you near her again, you're dead" he spat angrily.
"Yeah yeah, whatever" I muttered, slowly rising to my feet. I was certainly in pain but, for whatever reason, I thought a sarcastic response was the smartest move available to me. This evidently came back to bite me, in the form of (B/N)'s fist colliding with the my jaw. As I was knocked to the floor once again, he firmly planted his foot on my chest.
"I didn't hear that but I don't care, shut up before I kill you" he said in a more serious tone before walking off with his goons close behind.
'Well that was just uncalled for...' I thought, keeping my thoughts to myself this time.
The rest of the day was filled with more of the same. I was picked on and just generally annoyed, and of course I was dealt a second beating after another period. But at the time, that was unfortunately the norm. After all of my classes were over I began to walk home, only to be tripped up and fall face first onto the sidewalk. I heard some group laughter pass by as I got back up, but at this point I didn't really care. And I headed home.
"I'm home..." I mumbled to the empty house as I made it through the door, like usual. I immediately went into my kitchen and with a sigh, I opened one of the drawers to take out a large butcher's knife. 'I'm sorry...' I thought as I rolled up the right sleeve of my hoodie. I lowered the blade down to my already damaged wrist, but as the blade touched my skin I stopped. I froze on the spot and felt tears well up in my eyes. I remembered how often I admittedly used to do this, but for some reason that was the day I couldn't bring myself commit. And with that thought stuck in my head, I threw the knife into the sink and did my best to clear my mind from these negative emotions.
After some thinking, I came to the conclusion of eating and ended up making something small for dinner. I admittedly didn't have much of an appetite after my emotional episode but I still didn't want to take long cooking, so I decided on something quick and easy. "Mac and Cheese" I read with a smile, grabbing the boxed ingredients out of the cupboard. After quickly throwing the ingredients together, I took my food in to the living room and sat myself on the couch. I ate whilst watching some TV to pass the time, and since I didn't have any homework I knew I could take the evening to relax. I watched (F/S) until I felt moderately tired, which wasn't long considering my lack of sleep the night before and how exhausting the day was. It was around 11:30PM when I had drifted off to sleep, and for the first time in a while I got at least 8 hours of rest.
The rest of the week continued like Monday. Sally would more than likely have to sit next to me in class. (B/N) would find out. I'd get beaten up, made fun of and picked on. I go home to hurt myself, not follow through. Have an emotional 'moment'. Then I eat. And then I sleep. Then I tried to move on.
Every. Single. Day.
However the end of the week was a tad different. Thursday was the day I followed through with 'it'. The fact that I had no one to turn to, about both my bottled up emotions and my prolonged feeling of hopelessness, had caught up to me. I held the knife to my wrist that night, and something in me struggled to stop. I cut and cut for about a quarter of an hour, not doing any lethal damage to my self however it was evident that the scars that came from this would be lasting a while. I felt woozy and tired due to my blood loss, so I washed my new wounds before sleeping on the couch, deciding to skip dinner entirely. 'I don't wanna stain my bedsheets...' was my last thought before I passed out.
On Friday, I was eating lunch by myself as per usual. I had my hood down for once, since I felt like I should every once and a while. Before long I heard footsteps walking in my direction, I looked up assuming it was (B/N) coming for round 12 - but I was wrong. I realised that it was Sally. And the realisation made me panic more. 'No no no, I can't be seen with her!' I thought as my mental panicking became visible.
"Hey, (Y/N), do you mind if I eat with you?" Sally asked, smiling once again.
"Well actua-"
"Wait, what happened?!" Sally exclaimed in horror once she got a good look at my face. I had a black eye, some other accompanying bruises. There were also now bandages that covered my hands and very clearly went up my arms underneath my sleeves, and since they weren't properly tied up the ends were trailing out of my sleeves.
"Nothing" I said simply, shrugging a little to try and play it off.
"But how do you explain all of the damage?" She asked, no longer yelling but just as concerned.
"Happens all the time" I said brashly, pulling my hood up and making an attempt to tuck my bandages away.
"What does that mea-" Sally started before being interrupted by a loud voice behind her.
"What the fuck?!" The voice I recognised as (B/N)'s yell from behind Sally "What the fuck is the nerd doing talking my girl?!" He yelled, this seemed to annoy Sally as she turned around to yell back.
"For 80th time, (B/N), I'm not into you! I don't want to date an asshole!" She screamed, but saying that only seemed to set him off.
"Oh c'mon, Babe, you're not telling me that you'd rather date the school freak than the school's king. Right?" He said while chuckling to himself a little as he started to walk over.
"I'd choose him over you any day!" Sally yelled, making me go slightly red under my hood.
"...What?" (B/N) asked in a tone of anger and confusion, clearly taken aback.
I took both the situation and his tone of voice as a sign to start getting the hell away, but upon noticing this he immediately began to sprint after me. I did my best to run just as fast away from him, and Sally began to run after us well in an attempt to get (B/N) to stop. Luckily enough for me school was ending earlier than normal that day, it was something to do with the Christmas season and I was certainly thankful that this gave me an out. This allowed me to bolt out of the front door the second that the bell rang. Thankfully, I was able to outrun (B/N) and my knowledge of which bizarre streets and alleyways were the fastest way to my house certainly came in handy. After resorting to some fence hopping, I was confident that I had lost him. I walked the rest of the way to my house, panting fairly hard the whole time. 'Man, I need a nap' I thought to myself as I got through my front door dropped my bag. "I'm hooome..." I mumbled to the floor before flopping onto the couch and passing out, like usual. 'This week has been... rougher than usual' was my last thought before I fell asleep.
(Time skip to wake-the-fuck-up o'clock)
I groaned as my eyes fluttered open. "Well that was nice" I mumbled, yawning as I looked up at the clock. It read 7:10 and as I looked outside, I saw it was dark. After my stomach made a thunderous rumble, I felt a sudden hunger wash over me. Then I realised it, I was really hungry after dropping my lunch in the hall, having to sprint home and not eating much for dinner this week. I went to the fridge to get something to eat, but after opening it I sighed in disappointment. 'Looks like I'm off to the store' I thought to myself. I walked up to my room and quickly swiped my mask and my knife off of my desk.
The mask was a black neck gaiter, one that sat comfortably around my neck when it wasn't over my face. There was also a white skull pattern on the front, the pattern matched my facial proportions almost perfectly and overall I thought the mask was pretty cool. Alongside this, my knife was a blue stiletto switchblade. The blade itself was around eight inches long, but since it was a switchblade the folding nature of the weapon made it easy to carry around in my pocket.
I always brought these two with me when I wasn't going to school. My hometown isn't too unpredictable, but the news had begun reporting a concerning number of murders and violent crimes, and I didn't want any action traced back to me if I had to do something to protect myself. After putting my mask on and pulling my hood up, I open and closed the switchblade a few times before putting it in my pocket. I kept ahold of my knife in my pocket since it was convenient and comfortable, and since it would save me the effort of having to reach into my jean pocket to grab it. It also minimalized the chance that I'd accidentally pull out my phone against a murderer, but the thought of that made me laugh to myself a little.
I made my way out of the door and headed towards where the grocery store was. It was only a couple of blocks away, but on my way there I heard a scream ring out. It sounded feminine in tone, and like it came from an alleyway beside me. I quickly got out of the alley's view and peered around the corner to see what was happening. And much to my horror, and surprise, I saw that it was Sally. She had screamed and was pinned against the brick wall behind her. Upon further inspection I saw who had her held there and with his hand now covering her mouth, it was (B/N). The street was dead quiet until I heard him speak.
"There's no need to scream, I'll show you why I'm better then that freak you seem to like" he said in an incredibly creepy and lecherous tone. Knowing who he was talking about made me mad, but the anger I felt then was nowhere near the rage I felt when I saw his free hand drift down from her face and hover over her breast. After seeing the terrified and helpless look on Sally's face, I knew that I was not going to let this happen. I felt my blood boil and, with a deep breath in an attempt to compose myself, I bolted towards (B/N) lightning fast. I didn't draw my knife, as my focus was more directed in getting him away than it was causing him harm. After I was a few feet from him, I raised my fist and used all of my momentum to superman punch him as hard as I could. He was launched about twelve feet before even touching the ground, and after he did he slid out of the alley and hit a car. The crash of the impact was loud, and even dented the car slightly, but the noise was nothing in comparison to the now blaring alarm.
Unfortunately, he had of his two goons with him and they had just shown up at the end of the alley that I came through. "Hey, (B/N), we got some weed and some booz- HOLY SHIT!" the first goon said, only to panic when he saw me, Sally perfectly safe, and (B/N) - who was at the other end of the alley and against a car.
"You bastard!" The second goon yelled out, running at me with his fist raised and ready to strike. His attempt at an attack was sloppy, so I just slid backwards due to the fact that I had only turned my body halfway to look at them. His punch missed and he stumbled slightly, giving me an opening to send my knee into his stomach at full force. He hunched over as the wind was knocked out of him, and I quickly followed up with a leg sweep so he'd stay down for little bit longer. The first goon looked at me blankly, stunned on the spot after seeing his friend get swiftly folded. He quickly shook himself awake however, and pulled out a large knife that I couldn't exactly identify. I adjusted my stance into some more suitable against an armed opponent and, after taking a deep breath, mentally prepared myself to avoid being stabbed.
As I he got closer, I was slowly able to make out his stance and equipment. The goon held, what I now could tell was, a black bowie knife in a reverse grip. I smiled a little bit under my mask since that grip makes sense for stabbing, but slashing would make more sense given our distance and spacing. 'Bad move, man, bad move' I thought as he charged me with his knife held high. He brought it down towards me once he got close, but unfortunately for him he was a little too close. He was about a foot away from me when he brought his knife down, and luckily for me he landed in the perfect spot. I ducked down and leaned forward and clutched his throat, jolting him off balance with ease before slamming him down hard. I heard a slight crack but I knew I didn't break anything, the height he fell combined with the force applied wouldn't come up with such a brutal result. I unknowingly let out a low chuckle as he yelled in pain, something that was certainly uncharacteristically dark of me at the time. Ignoring these red flags however, I bent down and swiped his knife and the sheath it was originally kept in.
I turned to walk away, but then I heard some heavy and sluggish footsteps charging in my direction. I spun back around to see (B/N) charging with a butterfly knife, but a convenient glint of light revealed that it wasn't locked open. With a smug smile under my mask, I simply moved out of the way and tripped him. He quickly dropped like a bag of bricks, and the knife closed when he hit the ground and let go of it. It had left a large gash across the fleshy part of his hand, due to how he clumsily fell and dropped it. While he was clutching his wound and screaming like his friend was, I also took his knife for my new 'collection'. I swiftly grabbed Sally's hand and walked out of the alleyway with her in tow. But not before I turned back the give a final kick the still conscious (B/N)'s stomach and spoke in an almost demonic voice.
"Don't keep fucking with people, you'll end up dead next time"