Vengeful

• Jack Thompson
• Short Story
• 2010

Vengeful

As Darren put on his suit for the social, he looked at his own face in the mirror, ‘Wow, two days without a pimple, a record’ said his mum, sounding utterly amazed,
‘Well, mum, why do you sound so impressed’ he said, doing up his tie and going to get his shoes, he was very slim and stringy, he had won the school marathon twice, his trophies sat on the mantelpiece, shining brightly in the well lit room,
‘I’ll drive you’ said his mum, pulling the keys out of her handbag.

The school was packed for once, most of the students skipped school frequently, the party was already in full swing, the music was pounding against the very foundations of the Hanson building, couples, he saw, were kissing in every corner, as he walked down the corridor to the food table a tall, muscular boy called him back, ‘Hey Stringy, come here a second would you’ said Dan, ‘Yes’ Darren sighed.
‘My mates, they want to have a binge contest, you up for five glasses of vodka in a minute’.
Darren frowned.
‘No thanks, but save a bottle, I wanna have one later’.
‘Ok’ and Dan walked back to his friends, and they pulled out five large bottles and opened them, Darren went and got a Hot-Dog and he sat down on the hard plastic seats near the buffet, the boys had emptied two bottles and were starting to get a bit tipsy, Dan sat there, Chanting ‘Chug, Chug, Chug’
Then a girl walked in on the boys, shrugged, then turned to me, it was Liz, ‘I shouldn’t complain, I just had the time of my life with Rodney’, He raised his eyebrows, ‘Isn’t the age of consent sixteen’ he asked, ‘So’ Liz said sharply and walked away, then Darren got up and pulled out a packet of cigarettes from his pocket, ‘I shouldn’t complain either’ and went outside through the fire exit.

As the cold night air filled his lungs, he flicked his lighter and started to smoke the cigarette, after a few minutes he chucked it over the walkway and turned to go back to the party when a familiar voice whispered ‘Hey stringy’, and Dan and his friends stood into view, Dan looked calm but his friends had nothing short of fury etched onto their faces, ‘You know Sophie’ Dan asked, Darren was confused, ‘Isn’t she your girl’ He replied, looking sideways at him, ‘Yes, so why is she saying that you showed her the time of her life’, Darren went rigid with shock, even though he didn’t do it, he now knew why they were here, ‘You think that I Banged Sophie…You’re joking’, ‘DO I LOOK LIKE I’M JOKING!!!’ Dan screamed, then turned to his gang, ‘Don’t kill him’ he muttered, the boys took out pocket knives and advanced on Darren, he tried to fight them off but Michael knocked him down, when they had finished, Darren was lying on the ground, twitching, breathing deeply, and covered in his own blood.
‘Hey, I said don’t kill him’ Dan yelled.
‘So we didn’t’ James whined.
‘He looks screwed, man’ Nic sighed, ‘I think we-NO!!!’, but Darren had already dragged himself to the fire exit and forced open the door, the music still played, and one by one people saw him, screamed and most ran, but some braver people went through the exit and saw the four boys, covered in blood and shaking with horror, Dan whipped out his phone and called the ambulance, screaming “COME QUICK, HE‘S DYING”.

The ambulance came within five minutes, but halfway to the hospital the life support beeped, they did all they could to resuscitate him, but Darren Cutler was buried two days later, the four boys who murdered him were sentenced to ten years jail, Dan Simmons was sentenced to five.

Yet here he stood, in the pouring rain, on his own grave, wearing the same black suit, he looked at his own hands, Not even a blemish on his skin, he looked down, there was a dead tulip on the ground, he picked it up, rage burning inside him, “Sophie liked tulips” he thought, “She‘s gonna go the same way as me, I‘m going to make sure of that”, and he threw the flower to the ground and walked out of the cemetery.

Four girls sat at the bar, the barman came over to them and asked what they wanted, ‘Four light beers, thank you’ said the small, plump girl sitting on the second stool, Sophie now looked more beautiful than she was at high school, her blonde hair pretty much reflecting the light in the dimly lit tavern, ‘And can I have some chips please’ said the tall, redheaded girl sitting on the end, Jessica had long since dumped James, mainly because of what happened at the ’95 school social, but also because he mistreated her so badly, having been arrested for abusing her two years after he got out for murdering that poor boy, Darren, ‘Hang on, I’ve gotta go’ Sophie said, and went to the bathroom, afterwards, she started to reapply her makeup, when she was finally done she looked up, and cried in shock, Darren was standing right behind her, she turned around, he grabbed her by the throat and threw her into the mirror, it shattered on impact, she fell to the ground, he laughed like a maniac and sneered ‘Now your gonna fell what it’s like to be stabbed’ and he picked up a shard of glass, and stabbed her in the back, paralyzing her, she turned pale, ‘Don’t like it’ He asked sarcastically and picked up another shard and plunged it into her throat, she raised her head a little, then it fell back down, she was dead.

The three girls were starting to get anxious, ‘Sophie is really taking her time’ pouted Lynn, the girl on the first stool, she had married frank a year ago, ‘Never mind Lynn, hey can I-’ but Jessica’s voice was drowned by a blood-curdling scream, and a woman came out of the bathroom, covered in blood, Jessica and Rhiannon both shouted ‘Sophie!’ and ran into the bathroom, Lynn a pace behind them, they busted open the door, saw Sophie, the effect was instantaneous, Lynn went green and fainted, Jessica went chalk white and swayed on the spot, Rhiannon went over to the body and pulled the shard out of her throat, her knees covered in blood, she pulled out her phone and called the police.

‘Ok, do you know who would want to kill her’ Asked the policeman, scribbling furiously onto a small notepad, Lynn had finally regained consciousness and was sitting on the bench, rocking back and forth, crying silently into her lap, Rhiannon was the one answering the questions, ‘No, she was a very popular person’, ‘Hmmmm, did you see anyone else go in after her, before Mrs. Henderson here’ the officer nodded towards the girl yelling at another officer and occasionally pointing and shrieking curses, passers by looking at the scene and stopping, then Mrs. Henderson turned to a group of bystanders and shrieked ‘YOU WANNA HAVE A LOOK, COME IN YOU PERVS!!’ and she walked over to the police line, snapped it and dragged a young boy into the area, the police pried the boy from her grip and put her in cuffs, ‘Ok, clear off guys’ said a policewoman, she looked somewhat like a small angel, some of the drunk crowd wolf-whistled her and said things like ‘Oh come on, you don’t have to be a good girl’ and ‘Hey, get off duty and have a round ‘o drinks babe’, she shot them a filthy look and turned to another officer, ‘And did you three see anyone in there waiting’ said the officer, ‘No’ Jessica said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world, ‘Fine, then we’ll let you get some sleep‘.

A week later, Lynn and Frank were sleeping, it was a pleasant night, when all of the sudden a loud crack issued from the roof, Lynn and Frank snapped awake, the roof above their heads cracked, they sat up and a metal support broke from the roof, landing where there heads were seconds before.

The next day, Lynn was in the shower, listening to the waterproof radio, Frank was making lunch, the radio reporter had reached the obituaries ‘Owen, James: Leukemia, Hollis, Britney: Car accident, Carter, Lynn and Frank: Gas Explosion’ at this she tuned out, rigid with shock, she turned off the shower, but gas seeped through the shower head, Darren then appeared out of nowhere and, before she could stop him, he flicked a cigarette lighter, she gasped ‘You’, then she was engulfed in flames, tomorrows headline read “GAS EXPLOSION, TWO PEOPLE KILLED”.

Two weeks later, Rhiannon was working, when her phone rang, she picked it up, it was a text comprised of only one word, ‘Spider… yeah right’ and she turned it off, then she saw a spider running along her desk, before she could move her hand, it climbed onto it and bit her, then died, she grabbed her phone but it fell out of her hand, her whole arm was growing numb, then Darren appeared out of nowhere what so ever, he smiled sadly, then she froze, her eyes went dead, and she fell to the floor, ‘I’ll get your boyfriend too’ he said matter-of-factly, and less than a day later her boyfriend, James, hung himself in their living room…

Darren appeared in a dingy flat, a man with a pale sunken face was sleeping on a couch, a boy that could only be his son was sleeping on a threadbare recliner, wrapped in a slightly thicker blanket, as he looked at Nic, his cheek twitched, and a deep cut carved itself into the side of his face, only one drop of blood fell to the floor, where it sizzled.
The man’s eyes fluttered open, he looked up at Darren, and smiled.
‘Kill me, you’ll gain nothing’ he whispered.
‘Oh I will.’ Darren said conversationally.
‘But spare my boy’ he pleaded.
‘Ok.’ Darren said, felling a hint of mercy.
And Nic pulled a gun from under his shirt, Darren grabbed it and held it to his head.
‘Sorry.’ Was all he had time to say, because Darren pulled the trigger.
‘That’s all right’ he said, and walked into Sarah’s room, her wedding ring was Bronze and she had the only bed in the house, Nic had tried to give her everything she had wanted, and got upset when he couldn’t afford it, he raised the gun to her head and killed her too, the alarm clock read 6am, in an hour the boy would wake up to find his parents murdered, and now only two men remained: Michael and Dan.

Michael was in the bathroom, he was brushing his teeth, he looked up, he looked rather slim, with wavy blond hair, all of the sudden, his toothpaste turned to acid in his mouth, within seconds his lower face was black, and bleeding he looked up again, and saw a familiar boy in a black suit, he held up a machete, and Michael turned and tackled him into the hallway, Darren heaved the machete into the back of his head.

Darren appeared out the front of a fancy manor, His death had not bitten into Dan’s large fortune, and he hadn’t contacted any of his other friends for a week, his wife, Jessica, had heard of all the deaths, and had moved to a safe location, she had figured out that someone was hunting them, he, however, had not believed her, and had even lowered security.
He was not asleep when he saw Darren, he pulled out a shotgun and frowned.
‘So she was right, someone is after us, but your dead’ Dan sighed.
‘By your hand’ Darren said.
‘I see, my sins have come back to haunt me’ He mused.
Dan blasted his shotgun, still frowning, it didn’t hurt Darren in the least, nor did it leave a mark.
They both stared at each other, then Darren ran over and grabbed Dan’s pillow, he held it over Dan’s head, Dan kicked and screamed, than he lost his energy and died, Jessica, however, would live, for now. Darren once again disappeared and found his next victim.

13 years later

Jessica was walking across a bridge with her son, Joshua, a train was just going to pass under the bridge, when Joshua shoved her over the rail, her scream was cut short as the train collided with her Mid-air, Joshua smiled, his blue eyes turned momentarily green, and walked off, his long hair whipped in the wind… Darren had claimed his last victim, and he was very much alive when he did so.