It Was a Bad Day for a Bad Kid

Richard Durn was a bad kid; he always had been. He was the third child out of four: two older brothers and a baby sister. His siblings were of an easy nature, sweet children who were about a year apart from each other. But, as his own family often said, when Richard was born the powers that be not only broke the mold, they burned it and buried it. The kid was born rotten.

The eldest brother, and of all the siblings, was a good person. He helped take care of the others, a duty which included shielding them from Richard. It was a good thing that he towered over his younger brother, but from the outside looking in, he didn’t seem that much bigger than his little brother, but in the eyes of kids, he certainly seemed like a wall to Richard. That was part of the magic that inhabited childhood. The heroic deeds the eldest performed on behalf of his younger siblings was to stop Richard from breaking their limbs, breaking their toys, and for the baby sister, preventing him from smothering her with a pillow. The kid was evil, so much so it made a person wonder if he was some sort of anomaly visited on the family.

The Durn children attended the local Catholic school, Holy Family. They walked the half a block from their home to the school. The older boys walked together, chatting and joking with each other, while Richard walked behind them silently. His brothers loved him—well they kind of had to, they were family after all, but they didn’t like Richard very much. He knew it and they knew he knew it. Part of him, most of him, didn’t care.

On one particular morning Richard woke up in a dark mood, worse than usual. He was a bitter child but he decided that this was the day he hated the world and everyone in it more than he normally did and someone had to pay. In his head he plotted all sort of evils much like a super villain would in one of those cheesy television shows. He slowed his pace so he fell behind his brothers who didn’t seem to notice, or more likely didn’t care. He didn’t have a plan, he was living in the moment. He really didn’t want to go to school that day, so why not see what happens.

Richard stopped walking at that point and a slow grin crept across his face. Yes, he was going to see what could happen today. He almost let a laugh out but then he felt as if something or someone was looking at him as if he felt the eyes land on him and the gaze weighed heavy on his shoulders. He turned and saw a man dressed in dark clothing with long, matted, dark hair. Richard couldn’t see the man’s face through all the hair that draped over his features.

“You are not supposed to be!” The man announced this while pointing a long, pale finger at the child. Richard turned to see where his older brothers were; they were not within his sight so he yelled for them to wait for him and he began to run after them. For the first time in his short life he was experiencing stranger danger.

He managed to catch up with his brothers right when they crossed the threshold of the school. They didn't even notice he had fallen behind and for the first time in his short life it bothered him. What if that guy had tried to kidnap him! Boy they would be sorry if he had disappeared, Richard thought bitterly as he made him way to his classroom. Oh yes they would be sorry if…

Richard’s thoughts were interrupted by what he saw through the classroom window. It was the strange, matted man glaring at him, breathing heavily. So much so that he fogged up the glass. The snarling and spitting he was doing was so loud Richard was surprised no one else in the classroom seemed to hear him. No one took any notice of him, which unnerved the kid especially when the man screamed, “You are not supposed to be!”

Lunchtime couldn't come soon enough, but it offered very little comfort for Richard. The man appeared to him in the hot cafeteria but was silent, which didn't matter. His glaring was loud enough to suit the only body that could see him. What unsettled Richard was not just the fact that no one seemed to see the man, but Richard seemed to escape their senses as well. He seemed to have to work really hard to get anyone to notice him.

Then Richard noticed another unsettling thing. Every time his eyes noticed the man, the man seemed to be closer to him. In fact, when the man was about two lunch tables away from him, Richard decided that he needed to leave the building. Again when he left the table and walked out of the room, no one seemed to notice neither him or the horrible man.

After he reached the doors of the school the boy stopped running and looked around. There was no one outside and it looked like there was no one inside either. He was alone and frightened. There was not a sound outside except maybe muffled sounds that were too faint to recognize. Almost silent.

Richard looked around again and saw the man walking through the doors leading outside. He looked angry and he walked as if he had a purpose or some sort of business with the Richard. “You are not supposed to be!”

Richard finally developed the courage to respond to the stranger, “But I AM!”

“You are not supposed to be, child. You must come with me.” The man offered his pale hand to the child who in turn began to run backwards, without looking where he was going. Suddenly there were people around them and clear sounds. Unfortunately Richard didn’t see the truck.