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- @"THE PAYBACK BOY" By Andrew Campbell 1993
-
-
-
- "If you ever say that to me again, I'll slice off your pecker and
- feed it to your sister. Comprende?"
- Jason Hock nodded fearfully, pushing Kelly behind him. The teacherless
- class was silent now - all heads were facing the situation that had
- recently formed around the desk at the back of the second row.
- All that could be heard was the gentle flickering of the science
- room's bunsen-burner flames. The windows offered nothing but a dull
- view of a chilly, cloudy, autumn Monday.
- The bully who was currently threatening Jason and his sister was known
- globaly around the school as "Steel". His real name was Fred Slater and
- he had acclaimed his nick-name through three years of violence.
- "Now," Steel commanded in a low voice. "I want you to get down on
- your knees and lick my shoes."
- Jason shook his head. "Please..."
- "Do it or I'll set fire to your sister's pubes."
- Jason swallowed and looked down at Steel's filthy, black Dr Martins.
- They were caked around the edges with dog shit.
- "Please," he whimpered, pushing Kelly further away. "Don't make me-"
- "Do it." Steel interrupted harshly.
- The class stared on as though watching a gripping movie.
- "The teacher might come." Jason suggested weakly.
- Steel tugged at Jason's hair. The boy howled with pain.
- # "Just fucking do it you tight, red-lipped pussy!"
- The class began to titter and whisper frantically. Kelly began to bawl
- harder than ever. She was a plump girl with glowing cheeks and dark
- brown hair.
- "Shhh, Kelly." Jason said to her, tears rolling down his cheek. He
- pushed away her protesting hands as he knelt down to lick the bullies'
- soiled shoes.
- His tongue was a centimetre away from making contact, when the door of
- the classroom crashed open and someone stormed inside. Footsteps, fast
- and hard, thumped across the floor.
- Steel swung around, expecting to see the wimpish science teacher. But
- it wasn't the science teacher.
- In fact, it wasn't a teacher at all.
- It was a tall boy dressed in a black trenchcoat with triangular
- collars lifted around his neck. His skin was white and smooth and
- high-lighted his simple, handsome facial features. His eyes were deep
- blue, his lips were narrow, pinkish and firmly closed and his hair was
- black, styled and overhung his forehead in leaf-like strands.
- Hands in pockets, he was heading towards Jason, Kelly, and the bully.
- "What the fuck is this?" Steel chuckled, examining the boy's clothing
- and pale face with apparent disgust.
- The stranger marched quickly between the first and second rows of
- desks with over thirty pairs of eyes staring at him excitedly. His coat
- lashed like a cape behind him and his shoes thumped, not tapped, across
- the floor.
- "Who the hell-" Steel began crossly, but his words were lost when the
- boy shouted at him.
- "Shut up."
- Steel's eyes widened into shiny compact disks. No one, EVER told him
- to shut up. No one in the entire world.
- "Don't you-" he started, but he was cut off once again.
- "Shut your mouth."
- "Come here and-"
- "Shut up."
- "I'm gonna-"
- "I said shut up."
- "I swear-"
- # "I said SHUT UP."
- "I'll-"
- # "SHUT UP."
- "You're-"
- # "SHUT THE FUCK UP."
- The boy stormed directly up to an infuriated Steel and avoided a badly
- timed over-head swing. He took hold of the bully by his jumper sleeves
- and rammed him into the wall beside the window.
- Jason and Kelly shuffled quickly away from the action, both utterly
- speechless.
- "Get the fuck off me!" Steel roared, feet dangling in the air.
- "Shut up!" the boy bellowed once again.
- "You'll-"
- # "I said SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
- The boy took hold of Steel's cheeks, one in each hand, and ripped them
- from his face as though he were pulling sticky tape from cardboard
- packaging.
- Steel's own trembling hands latched onto the boy's wrists. The entire
- population of the on-looking class screamed with horror. Most of the
- kids nearest to the classroom door used it as quickly as they could,
- whilst others, including the Hocks, remained stunned to the spot.
- Steel's inner-molars and bleeding gums were completely visible from
- either side. He looked like he was grinning broadly into the pale boy's
- face.
- "Noooo!" he shrieked, blood gushing down his chin. His mouth opened up
- wide and every one of the witnessing children screamed, some falling
- backwards off their chairs in horror.
- "Shut up!" the boy repeated, dropping Steel's cheeks to the floor.
- They landed like wet rags slapping against kitchen linoleum.
- "I kill yooooou!" Steel howled.
- "Didn't I say..." the boy began. He grabbed Steel's lower jaw,
- fingers hooking behind the row of bottom front teeth, and tore it out
- of his face in an explosion of hot blood and bone. "...shut up?" he
- finished and tossed the freshly amputated human remains onto a nearby
- desk. It landed with a sickening crack in front of two girls who
- stared at it for a few seconds before screaming and throwing up their
- dinners.
- Steel was at last unable to speak. He slid down the wall by a metre
- and sploshed into a crimson pool of his own blood. He was choking and
- gagging and trying to cry, and his tongue - now a thick red slug
- flopping out of his neck like a grotesque tie - lashed and writhed
- and mopped up brittle splinters of bone from the floor.
- The pale boy crouched down to examine his days work. Both of his
- hands were coated in blood, yet his face remained clean, white and
- expressionless.
- His fingers glided down the back of Steel's school shirt, leaving
- watery trails of redish-pink. They hovered between his shoulder
- blades, then dived down and ripped open the flimsy material, exposing
- an area of twitching, sweating, muscular bare skin.
- His face still blank, the boy dug his right hand deep into the flesh
- of Steel's back and took hold of his spine. He tugged hard, Steel
- shuddered and emmited a hellish wail of agony.
- Ignorant to the horror of what he was doing, the boy wrenched the long
- snake-like bone up and out of the squelching flesh, bringing with it
- Steel's mutilated head. He snapped the spine off like an old tree
- branch just above the pelvis, then brandished it like a wand in front
- of the few remaining kids.
- "Thou shalt not pick on others, sayeth the Lord!" he cried and
- catapulted the spinal cord/human head through the windows behind him.
- The glass exploded in a fountain of shining crystals and dark red
- clumps of flesh and blood, and the remains of Fred "Steel" Slater
- swirled out into the air, headed towards the lower-school playground.
- The boy faced the class again.
- Jason and Kelly screamed and grabbed each other tightly. They began
- to shiver and moan as he slowly approached, skimming his glistening,
- maroon hands across wide open textbooks and abandoned stationary.
- "Don't hurt us!" Jason whimpered. "Please don't hurt us mister. We
- didn't do anything. He was picking on us. We did nothing."
- The boy reached into the inside pocket of his trenchcoat and snatched
- out a small white piece of card. He flicked it over several times,
- staining it with blood, then handed it to Jason, who managed to take it
- on his fifth attempt.
- "That's my card." the boy said sofly and smiled. "Should you need my
- services again, give me a call. The number is triple six."
- He ruffled Jason's hair, touched Kelly's cheek, then walked out of the
- classroom.
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