In a flash, he came toward me, pulled his right arm back and swung it down hard toward my face. As it came, I quickly held up my pinky finger and pushed all of my hatred of him into it. My finger either was going to break, or it was going to break him.
You work it with your heart and with your head.
It broke him. His fist collided with it and you'd think by the agonized look on his face that he had punched his hand straight through a concrete wall. He yelped and staggered back, toward the center of the path. My pinky was still raised. It was untouched. He stared openly at it and then looked down at his hand, which was smashed. "What the fuck!" he yelled.
I got off the rock.
"I told you to stay away from me,” I said. “You don't know who you're dealing with anymore. I will protect myself against you and all of your friends. I've had enough. And here's a warning-I will win every time."
"The hell you will."
He was doubled over, massaging his hand. His head was crooked to the side and he was staring up at me. Now it was my turn to look around-nobody. And so, with my heart still rocking in my chest and my hatred of him still fueling every cell in my body, I decided to give him a show he'd never forget.
I held out my arms at my sides and rose in the air above him.
Frozen, he watched me ascend twenty feet in the air. I turned my eyes into bright spheres of red light and glared down at him like a beast from a nightmare. I made the wind pick up and whip around me. Leaves lifted off the ground and funneled around me like a tornado, turning me into some kind of hornet's nest while he just stood there, paralyzed by what he saw.
And then I saw it. For the first time since we'd known each other, back in first grade when he decided that I'd be his punching bag for life, I saw it-he was afraid of me. He was terrified of me. He backed away from me.
"What the hell are you?"
I looked up at one of the large tree limbs just behind him, waved my arm in its direction and cracked my wrist down. The limb snapped off and fell hard, crashing just feet away from him.
He let out a little squeak and then I lowered my hand down toward him. It was easy-too easy. I lifted him off the ground and let him linger in the air. I waved a finger across his mouth to silence him. His tried to speak, but there was no sound. I drew him near me so we were face-to-face. My ruby-red eyes burned into his. Beneath him, his legs were scissoring. His arms were flailing. And so I paralyzed him and he went still.
I leached myself into his mind.
"This is how it's going to work," I said to him. "You're going to back off me. You're going to ignore me. You're going to remember everything that just happened, but you're going to tell no one about it. I'm forbidding you. Each time you try to tell someone, the words won't come. They'll never come, not even if you try to write them down. You'll never be able to explain what’s happening between us now."
The leaves were spinning around us, swiping across our faces, knocking against our bodies before joining the storm of wind that was kicking up our hair. I looked down at his hand and then snapped my eyes back to his. "Looks like you broke it," I said. "I could fix it for you, but I won't. You were going to hit me with that hand. You were going to punch me in the face for no reason. So, it should be broken. But here's how it happened. You fell over a tree root on your way home. You went down hard and broke your hand. If I were you, I'd get home and have someone take you to the hospital. You're going to need a cast."
I lowered us both to the ground. I waved my finger across his mouth and I released his muscles so he was free to move. The wind stopped, the leaves fell around us like over-sized confetti and my eyes returned to normal. "Do you understand me now, Mike?"
He nodded.
"You're going to stay away from me, aren't you?"
He nodded.
"Good," I said. "Because if you ever do come for me again, I can promise you this. Next time won't be so easy. You treat me and others with respect from now on, or I really will hurt you."
"What are you?"
I shrugged. There was only one reply. "I'm not you. And for your sake, that's good news. Because if I was as ugly as you are on the inside, this would have gone differently. You wouldn't be walking out of here. If I had your soul, I would have ripped you apart for every rotten, humiliating thing you’ve ever done to me. I would have torn off your limbs, severed your head. I would have made your dirt grave and thrown you in it.”
This time it was me cocking my head at him. “So, aren't you happy that I'm better than that? That I’m better than you?"
I stepped aside. "Go see a doctor."
He started to walk past me and as he did, I left him with an undercurrent of a threat.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Mike. Either at school or here again in the woods. Doesn’t make a difference to me. Choice is yours. I can take you down here or I can take you down there. Now, get the hell home."
CHAPTER TEN
Before I went home, I needed to see creepy Jim. Since he didn’t work, there was a good chance he’d be home. If he wasn’t, he probably was downtown at Judy’s, likely drinking with my father. And there was no way I was going there.
But Jim was home.
He was sitting outside his trailer in a metal chair on his dirt lawn. All around him were his cats, who were rubbing up against his legs and purring. They loved him. He was kind to them. Watching him like this gave me a different view of him. Was Jim so creepy? I took a long look at his weathered, sunken face and decided that at least on the surface he was.
He looked up at me as I approached and took it all in-my face and my hair. He couldn’t see the new tooth, but I’d tell him about it.
“Couldn’t even wait an hour, huh?”
I shook my head.
“Well, if you had to do it, at least your face and your hair look better. What else did you do to yourself.”
“The tooth Dad knocked out? It’s back.”
He ran his hand up the length of one of the cat’s tails. “Probably smart about the tooth. Not sure about the rest.”
“It was stupid,” I said. “People noticed. I shouldn’t have done it.”
“They'll forget.”
“No, they won’t. I’ve had that face since puberty.”
“Maybe you’re no longer in puberty.”
I hadn’t thought of that, but I still should have been more subtle with the changes.
“Why are you out of school? They kick you out?”
“They didn’t.” I told him the story. And then I told him what had just happened with Hastings.
“You flew?”
“I kind of hovered.”
“Shit. Even I never thought of that. It’s a powerful kick, isn’t it?”
“Too powerful.” I told him about killing the flowers.
“Well, at least you didn’t knock off Hastings. That could have been a real mess. The red eyes were a nice touch, though-he won’t soon forget that. I like the leaves and the wind, too.” He reached down for the beer at his side and finished it. “Want one?”
“I’m seventeen.”
“So, what?”
“I’ll pass.”
“Jesus, you’re uptight.”
“When the world is coming after you, you think there’s an option?”
“Probably not.” He eyed me. “But already you’re different.”
“How so?”
“You’re standing up straight. Got some confidence. You don’t look like such a pussy.”
“Thanks.”
“It’s a compliment. Take it. With those pimples gone, you’re actually not a bad good looking boy. And that’s what the amulet is for-provided you don’t become one of them.”
“What does that mean?”
He lifted one of the cats into his arms. It was a fat, happy cat, probably loaded with fleas and filled with all the mice it could eat. The cat batted at creepy Jim’s nose and then it licked it. “You know what I mean. You’ve got to control that thing. You’ve got to pick your battles. Not everyone should go down just because you have the power to bring them down. You can use it for good, too, you know?”