"You ruined my life!"

Fire Starter

Gary August stared outside the window looking across the grass and trees to watch the sunrise.  A collage of colors coursed their way out in pink, red, and violet.  It was a morning like no other and for Gary it was going to be a special day.  He scratched his scruffy chin with his finger.  His grey eyes revealed that he was bitter, angry and hadn’t gotten any sleep for days.  His dirty, black hair drooped over his eyes and ears as he noticed a few snowflakes fall next to his window. 

            It was mid-January and not a day sooner to spring. Tears rose in his eyes as he heard the voices of his classmates ridiculing and beating him up. He would have been sixteen this February if they wouldn’t have changed him into this evil carnage of hate, which brought destruction to his life. It was like a lovely green meadow that had been a victim to a wild fire. His classmates teasing and hurting him was the wildfire that destroyed his innocence.

             Gary inhaled his cigarette as the window fogged up as the memories unraveled through his mind and became alive. He remembered every morning being the same for school.  Every step of the way through the high school of  Ever Grove High was nothing but abuse and torture it was like an inncocent man getting raped in prison by her fellow kin. It was gross and disgusting, but there was nothing Gary could do about it at the time.

             “I didn’t deserve the crap that I got.  I never caused anyone harm nor did I tease anyone the way you did,” his voice was rough with rage as his hands shook.  Just because I’m different doesn’t give anyone the right to persecute me. “I have the right to exist and to learn,” his lips trembled as the words shot to the air like he was a mad man and he thought back to the days of innocence. 

           

            His cold empty hand reached for the combination lock as he twisted and turned it.  He turned his head to see the girl of his dreams, Julie.  He loved the way she parted her long brown hair and the way her brown eyes said hello without  saying a word.  When she did speak, her words served as music in itself. He loved  the way her thin lips flexed and gestured each syllable when she talked to her girly friend.

            Gary walked over to her, his heart pumping faster with each step as he smiled. Julie turned her eyes and head as he moved towards her. Their eyes locked in to the other like a thread of yarn wrapped around their waist. 

            “Hi!” he grinned.

            “Oh hi Gary,” she answered as she pulled out her Algebra book.

            Gary had heard that she broke up with her boyfriend and was interested in asking her out. He stopped to think and wondered if he was making a wise choice. Would she say yes? Of course she would he was good guy, but would  it be ok for the other people if a pretty, smart innovative girl would go out with a guy that wasn’t good at anything? Probably not they would give her a rough time and she would tell him she didn’t like him because she didn’t want to be embarrassed.

            “I was wondering if you weren’t doing anything this weekend if you would like to do something?” 

            “I can’t,” she replied.

             “Can’t” he repeated and he watched her leave and felt his heart crack in two. Gary watched her run into the arms of her new man Mark Swanson, the jock.   

“You ruined my life! You spread rumors in school that I was gay.  Every woman in school believed them and it ruined me.  How dare you come so far as to say you didn’t mean it and that it was just a joke!” he exclaimed as loud he could like a psychotic serial killer talking to himself.

            He twisted back his arm and lunged it forward as hard as he could while the sound of broken glass could be heard. He released his anger, but felt pain in his knuckles and looked at the broken a hole in the glass. He drew it back slowly while staring at the spider legs that spread across window.  It reminded him that there was more to surface in his shattered life. The memories surfaced when he went into training to get bigger.   

             Gary was on the bench press, lifting ten sets of 150 pounds.   It seemed to help get such a troubled mind off the battles from school and it was something he wanted to pursue to build his muscles. Gary walked over to do leg squats when Mark walked in with his four jock friends. 

            “No fairies aloud!” yelled one of the smaller jocks.

             With all the weight lifting that Gary had done he felt confident to stick up for himself, “kiss my ass!”

            Gary lied down on the bench press and began lifting the bar of weights to strengthen his arms and chest. Suddenly he heard the sound of footsteps draw close until they stopped just before him. Garry began to get worried because he had bar of weights over his chest.  

            “So I hear you said something about my mom!” said a deep voice that sounded  like a growling wolf about to strike.

             Gary stopped lifting and rose up to his feet after seeing it was Mark. He could clearly see that the jock just wanted to screw with him. That’s what most bullies did was prey on the innocent so they become scared.

            “I never said anything about your mom and if I did I would say it to your face!” exclaimed Gary.  

            “You want to fight!” Mark challenged as he suddenly pushed Gary against a mirrored covered wall. It shattered in many pieces, just as Mark grabbed Gary and thrust him on the bench press with the help of his friends, who held him there. Mark loaded the bar to 250 pounds and lifted it up with Gary’s own arms and knew that Gary wouldn’t be able to lift that much. 

            “Don’t choke on it,” Mark laughed as he left.

              Gary lifted with all his might to keep the bar above his neck before a couple of fellow weight lifters who walked in a few minutes latter helped him lift it out of way so he wouldn’t hurt himself.

            “Pieces of shattered glass. That is what seems to be left of my life!” Gary declared as he turned his head to the bath tub filled with gasoline with Mark tied up, laying in it.

            “But I’m not going to let you or anyone tell me that high school life is normal. Not compared to the life I had to endure with you.”  Mark opened his eyes and looked around with terror.

            “What’s going on?” he demanded.

            “I’m going to show you how you’ve made me feel for the course of my high school life,” replied Gary as he lit his cigarette and held the match up right to Mark’s face. 

            “No don’t do this! I’m sorry! I was only having a little fun!  I was only messing around!”

            “Well, I’m sick of being messed around with and this is my way of ending it.”

            Gary dropped the match in the bathtub of gasoline and watched as it burst into flames. It massed around Mark’s face like a swarm of bees and began burning his flesh off.  Mark howled for minutes and moved his head back in forth like he was in a seizure.  His skin began peeling off his face, revealing muscles and bone.  As the minutes veered on, Gary watched his victim’s body disintegrate, leaving the smell of death in the air.  He was no longer Gary August; he was the Fire Starter and now there was one less classmate that haunted his memories.

Fire Starter: Twisted Fire Starter
Ryan Keith Johnson
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