The Scourges 5 First Case Of An Epidemic Of Violence.

The brunette girl he is hostage with discusses with the tall blonde without worrying of the place and decrees that Billy is old enough to open his horizons to wider worlds. She strokes him on the head in the same way that one strokes a dog before taking a step forward.

"Billy, here your mommy and daddy won't come bothering you here. I know you're a prisoner at home and that's why I've taken you to a place where you will be able to play with nice animals and run around as much as you like."

Billy, freed from the arms of this tall brown girl, watches in amazement as his surroundings have nothing in common with his street. His gaze lingers particularly on dark trees, too high for his eyes to be able to discern their tops. The general atmosphere of what Billy thinks is the small forest near his home is quite disturbing. Not far away, he can hear fallen branches cracking and the shrill cries of birds he doesn't know.

"You're not going to leave me here alone, are you?"

The big girl looks at him and smiles. As beautiful as the brunette with the big green eyes is, there's something disturbing about her, even more disturbing than the place where the sun's rays hardly reach the gra.s.s that grows to Billy's waist.

"Of course yes! My presence here would only hinder your development. If little Billy is brave, this forest will allow him to acquire a strength of which he doesn't even suspects exists. However, if Billy plays his wimp as he was when he fell off his bike, he'll probably end up in the mouth of a gluttonous little animal within thirty seconds of my departure. Billy has to make a choice: Either become a superhero like Superman, or end up a pitiful pile of bones and flesh for which small cute animals will fight."

Billy's having a little trouble following that line of reasoning, but he understands the general idea. It's Superman or end up as a meal for the animals.

"But I'm not strong."

"Then you will die! My sister and I have a few kids to visit tonight, so I'll be taking my leave. Oh, I almost forgot I have a present for you. Don't panic like that. In order to even the playing field, I just wanted to give you this. Don't you want it? Okay, I'm throwing it on the ground. If you change your mind, You have until I leave to pick it up. Hahah, I like this sentence. Well, a.s.suming you're still alive, I'll come back for you soon. Bye, Little Billy."

Just as she brought him to this place far away from his mom and dad, Billy sees the beautiful teenage girl disappears. No sooner has she vanished into thin air than the branches on the ground creak in all directions. Howls that freeze the little boy's blood emanate from his right and left.

Frightened, tears come to Billy's eyes, but when a giant hairy head with three horns three times the size of a bear's appears, remembering [Superman or meal], Billy picks up the little knife and starts running straight ahead.

Friday, March 17, 1986 - 11:55am

Sitting with her best friends, 13-year-old Eva laughs happily as she listens to the nonsense of one of them pretending to have made an 25-year-old boyfriend. At the mention of the word, boyfriend, Eva calms down a little and discreetly turns her eyes to a handsome boy that half of the girls at this Middle School are in love with.

He is so handsome, so tall, so muscular for his age, that since she noticed him two years ago, Eva's little heart refuses to leave her in peace. Knowing very well that she is cute without being really beautiful, she has tried to get closer to him by attending each of his basketball games. She has often b.u.mped into him (by accident) in the corridors, yet he has never really looked at her.

Increasingly depressed at not being able to attract the attention of the one she secretly loves, Eva's charming smile leaves her lips. Didn't she do everything she could to make him be nice to her? What did she gain in return if not all her evenings crying when she thought of the indifference of this boy who has never once looked him in the eye? Isn't she cute and pleasant? Wouldn't that boy be so proud not to look at her differently that he looks at a piece of garbage thrown on the sidewalk? Why does he hate her so much when she loves him so much? Why is someone who plays with other people's feelings so adulated, when she does her best to help others, she goes completely unnoticed? Why has she lived such a pathetic existence all this time when the solution to freeing herself from the tyranny of her executioner was so simple?

With her face closed and her eyes narrowed to the boy who is having fun making her life a living h.e.l.l, Eva slips something into the sleeve of her sweater, then without saying a word, she leaves the merry table of girls who are playing the fool.

Only two tables separate her from the one who for two years has been talking behind her back and humiliating her in front of her friends. Eva's determined steps allow her to quickly get around the first table.

The school dining room is as noisy as usual, yet Eva can no longer hear the laughter that contributes to her good mood every day. The girl b.u.mps into a boy whose meal tray falls to the floor, but not realizing this and not hearing the insults the victim is hurling at her, she doesn't slow down her steps as she pa.s.ses the second table.

The back of his worst enemy, who will never leave her alone as long as he lives within reach of her arm, the object in her sleeve, slides along her arm to reach the palm of her hand. This demon who took the form of a human for the sole purpose of tormenting her day and night must have felt the presence of someone behind his back because without hurrying, he turns his head.

"h.e.l.lo Eva, do you want to ask me something?"

Eva can perceive the movement of the lips of the one who makes her life a living h.e.l.l, yet in her present state where only complete silence reigns, she just raises her arm and very quickly directs the object she is holding tightly towards the smiling boy's face.

(Plop) "Ahhhh"

After a sound similar to the jelly served at the school restaurant when Eva dips her spoon into it, the boy's scream of pain, which covers his right eye, crosses the room.

Almost everyone is too stunned to react to this attack of rare savagery. A few tables away, a less impressionable boy pushes his chair and rushes towards the girl whose arm is raised again.

He runs as fast as he can to save his cla.s.smate whose blood is quickly spilling on the floor. Without bothering to avoid the students in his path, he knocks down a young girl who is petrified by the horror of such a scene. He thinks he can intervene when he is only six feet away from the girl armed with a fork, but the teenager's girl arm is quick. At the risk of injuring her, he dives forward. His heart has never beat so fast, but when his hand touches the girl's sweater, which seems to be in a trance-like state, he believes have arrived in time.

(Crack) (Slam) (Boom) A second, very brief scream echoes through the dining room.

The young hero, slightly stunned after having crushed the girl against the table, opens his eyes and as discovers the fork inserted up to the handle in the skull of the boy slumped on his chair, he is overcome by nausea that rises to his throat.

Breathless from the tackle that has crushed her stomach against the table, Eva, whose unstable mind cannot bring her back to this world, thinks back to the night visit that opened her eyes about the reality of this world.

"You're a pitiful girl, Eva. The mere fact that you exist is a mistake that should be immediately corrected..."

It was almost 2:00 a.m. Eva didn't know when this very tall blonde girl had broken into her room. Her bedside lamp wasn't on. Her closed shutters couldn't let the moonlight in, but she saw her as if it were daylight. Her whole being swallowed by her deep blue eyes, every word that this beautiful girl spoke, was repeated tirelessly in her mind. Eva could only listen to the many wickedness and accusations against her. Mute as if a scotch had been placed over her mouth, she could only cry and endured the ordeal.

This conference seemed to last an eternity, but Eva was very surprised that after the disappearance of the very tall blond girl, the needle of her alarm clock had not moved from its previous position.

When she woke up this morning, she thought about the tall girl. Taking into account all the strangeness, such as being able to see her in total darkness or the proof that time had not pa.s.sed, Eva cla.s.sified this night visit as a silly nightmare.

This simple nightmare, however, had an impact on her whole morning. The blonde girl's words never ceased to resonate in her mind and the more time pa.s.sed, the less her spirits were high.

At that moment, Eva felt a violent pain coming from her belly. She doesn't understand why two teachers are holding her firmly by her arms, or why all the students look at her with this fear in their eyes.

"Sons of b.i.t.c.hes, leave me alone or I'll bleed you like sows."

She shouts to the teachers to leave her alone, but they don't listen. Eva insults them, kicks them, spits in their faces and she struggles. Not wanting to let them do what they want with her, her legs drag on the floor, but apparently they have decided to drag her by force out of the dining room. She is about to bite the arm of one of the adults when, coming from the back of the dining room, a scream of pain can be heard.

With his cutter in his hand, a boy with a small pair of gla.s.ses is relentless on the face of the school's most popular girl. Eva watches the scene without emotion. Anyway, she doesn't like this girl. She's haughty, pretentious and mean. The b.i.t.c.h may die, sweet little Eva doesn't care.