UnfortunateSoul
Member
It was 9:01 in the morning. On a Saturday, you slept in until one past nine. On a Tuesday, the class didn’t start until 10:00 on the morning. But on a Thursday, class started on the dot at 9:00 AM. So, when it’s 9:01 and you’re still in the hall, you’re not in the classroom. And if you’re not in the Classroom after class has started, then you are in fact late. Kassy was outside the classroom at 9:01 in the morning and by 9:02 in the morning the straight A student slammed into door 335, sweat pouring down her forehead as the door gave way under her weight, leaving her to tumble into the room head first.
When she hit the floor the first thing she noted was the growing head aches racking her brain “I’m sorry Miss, I tried to get here as fast as I could, but there was a car and athingandaturtleandohmygodI’msosorry!” By this point she was on her knees, grovelling before the towering form of Miss Bancha, making for quite the pathetic sight. But when your teacher was a screaming banshee, you didn’t care about looking pathetic when trying to appease her.
“I wouldn’t expect such tardiness from you, Miss Bell” The she-demon glowered at her from behind shattered spectacles, stone walls looming over her, boxing them all in. “Do you have your homework with you at least? The due date is today” Towards the back of the classroom, the creaking wood of the desks whined under the weight of other students, leaning in to watch Kassy’s humiliation. The desks all stood so stiff, so tall, squeezing together tightly so they could all fit in the dimly lit room.
“O-of course, Miss. I have it right he-” Her fingers gasped desperately at the the air, hoping that if she gripped hard enough she’d feel the air materialise as her bag. The bag that held the ten-page report she’d spent countless nights refining under the cover of dark.
“I see” A dry voice, but Kassy could feel the emanating annoyance engraved into the she-demon’s blue wrinkles. “Just take your seat, we’ll discuss your new ‘winning’ streak after class” The comment set off the hyenas in the back row, chortling away with laughter that could take this coffin of a building and rattle the hollow walls.
Silently, the girl resisted the urge to sniffle a cry, instead holding a trembling lip as she proceeded to her desk in the sea of leering faces. The desks stood like tall tree trunks, her head only just overseeing the branches, the roots threatening to trip her up, the owls hooted in glee and looked down upon her. It was bad enough being socially awkward, but being the only fairy was the worst. You were always the shortest in the class.
The owls all had mouths, the tree’s all had eyes and the floor had ears. The branches tapped against one another, cackles of ‘hoot’s bouncing between every trunks while the eyes refused to blink. Refused to miss a moment. Refused to miss an opportunity. It took one mis-step, one sob not stifled, for the owls to see blood and start pecking.
A root moved up, catching her foot in a stiff embrace and dragging her down. Roots sprouted, singled fingers scraping against her, dragging her to the floor, dragging her to another violent meeting, dragging out more blood. Her head hurt like hell. The laughing rattled where inner walls as well.
Her brain churned.
The tree’s peeled away.
Tears blurred her vision
“It was humiliating” She didn’t mean to sound so pathetic, but she couldn’t help it. Pressing a packet of ice against the swelling bruise on her forehead, the cold touch snapping at her head like a row of bared teeth.
“Uhuh” The Janitor (Gatekeeper, Grave Digger, Caretaker. He had way too many titles now) didn’t know what sin he committed in a previous life, but it must have been a grave one. First he was stuck in this dead end job, cleaning up after literal slime monsters, wiring an electrical system for an entire pointlessly goth-styled castle (Because normal boarding schools were just too normal). And with this new year, listening to one particular student whine inside his dirty restroom.
Some students would take the woes of their dark days to their room, mull it over with friends in the cafeteria or even wallow in their self pity outside with the forest creatures. Certainly, not many would sit in the grimy abandoned restroom, sitting atop a broken toilet that was still leaking unknown green gunk. “This is the worst day of my life!”
“Meh, wait until they start putting spikes on your seat, kid; your misery’s just starting” The older man with a skin tone of charcoal couldn’t look less like a cleaner. He didn’t have a uniform, just a collection of beat up clothes that had long ago been drained of their original colour, leaving just murky brown and mouldy green. He reminded Kassy of a homeless man, especially the long and curly grey beard. Though, this homeless man was armed with a mop, using it to suffocate a toilet that had a very angry tentacle trying to get out.
Neither were that much phased by this. “I’d rather a spike up the bum” She shifted in her ‘seat’, pulling her knees up to her chest, her pink skin reddening at the pressure. She was weird, she knew that, but she was allowed to take comfort in the Janitor’s ‘office’ if she wanted to. The rest of the school was towering and dark, a sleeping dragon that threatened to wake up in a rage if you didn’t walk quietly enough, but here the disgusting green color pallet spread out over cracks and missing panels… It was gruff. But it didn’t have any room to judge, it was unstable and squidgy in many areas, with just the right height. It was dirty and it had no shame in that, but it would let itself be cleaned. It could change.
The Janitor pulled back from his work, adjusting his hat (Two chipped horns jutting out of the beat up fedora) so his golden eyes could get a better look at the girl. You’d think that after the fifth time she forced herself into his work, he’d have yelled at her to get out. “Don’t you Kids have friends to do all this with? While braiding ye hair or sumthin”
She laughed, almost too happy about what she was saying. “I don’t have any friends” Waving him off as if he made a very obvious mistake. “Oh- Except you, but you don’t have any hair to braid…” She faltered for a moment, thinking. “I can braid your beard!”
“Urg-” He couldn’t completely finish his annoyed grunt before the toilet tentacle shot through the toilet lid, wrapping around his waist and dragging him back into the stall with a roar. “There it blows!” He struggled against the pull of his attacked, stopping only to reach for his mop and, with a battle cry, raised his dripping weapon and charged into the toilet. “It’ll take more than hands from down under to take down Old Jenky!”
Seemingly oblivious to the raging battle going on within the toilet stall, Kassy sighed into a continuous rant. “You’re right, I can’t even tie a knot, let alone tie hair. All this negative buzz is really hurting my ability to be cool…” Her frown fell into an even wider upturned ‘U’,, thinking to the many pencil tricks she could perform, which she considered ‘cool’. “If only I could balance it all out. If they all felt how I felt, knew how much they hurt me-”
Within seconds the Janitor, a struggling wet limb choking him out, had materialised right beside Kassy. He gave no thought to personal space and he towered over the small girl, coupled with the dim lighting he suddenly became a rather creepy figure. “Sounds to me like you’re talking some…” He leaned forward, shadows dancing across his dark skin, flames crawling over his eyes. “Revenge”
“Revenge?‘’
“Payback. Even Stevens. Medicine Tasting. Blind Worlds. Vicious retribution from skies of raining fire, making them regret the day they even entertained the thought of hurting you”
At his approach she shrunk away into the toilet seat, leaning back as he hunched forward, far too into what he was saying. “Oh, so like… They made me feel bad because I embarrassed myself, so… I embarrass them?” Now that she thought about it, that did sound appealing. A little creature within her gut, which she imagined to be a Chibi-fied version of the Janitor, giggled ‘evily’ and gave her an encouraging push. “They’d be sorry, they’d know what they did to me… T-that does sound like it would make me feel better”
“You know, back in my day, people would come to me with all sorts of requests” Unleashing a thick cloud of rotten eggs upon Kassy’s nostrils, the Janitor opened up his coat, showing her the inside. The left side was filled to the brim with small black and white pictures, some with ticks over them, some with crosses. “They called me the Mail Man. I delivered… Vengence”
“Oooo, intense” She paused for a moment, a question biting the tip of her tongue. “Is vengence heavy? Did you have to store it in a van or something?”
“Stored it in my heart, turning it as black as night”
“Your heart turned black? Maybe you were eating too much cheese, lots of cholesterol”
The man sighed, noting that his metaphor was obviously lost on the young girl. “Point is, when people had some deeds to be done, just deserts to be served, with clean hands’ they made a deal with me” With a snap of his fingers, flames exploded out of his finger tips, bursting into separate streams of fire that formed paper, a contract forged in flames. “Like you could now, Make a deal and I’ll take care of all your revenge needs”
“You’d help me?”
“Just don’t read the small print…”
“Wow, this looks really freaky” She took the burning contract from his grip, flames licking at her flesh temptingly. At first she had the brief thought of how this was a tad shady, but looking into those eyes burning with passion, she couldn’t deny that this was a very trustworthy individual. “What do I have to do?”
“Depends. You got any spare souls on hand?” He leaned in closer, checking over his shoulder to make sure no one was eavesdropping. The tentacle too gave a suspicious glance behind.
“Not really…”
“Suppose I could start a tab” His hands clapped together with much more glee than any grown man should when near a conflicted little girl on the topic of revenge, the fire in his eyes raging on and even singing a bit of his greasy hair. “Anyway, onto ideas. Get the ball rolling, make me all squeamish. How’d you like your vengeance? Slow? Quick? Bloody? Smelly? Explosive?”
“Explosive? OH!” She jumped to her feet, a smile ever present as an excited spark jumped her into gear. “THAT GIVES ME AN IDEA! Thank you, soooo much, Mr!” With that she rushed passed him and bulldozed through what remained of the already broken door. “Wow, this ‘soul selling’ stuff does wonders!”
The Janitor Demon watched her leave in stunned silence, looking to the ‘head’ of the tentacle with a raised eyebrow. “Did I just unleash a terrorist and endanger the school?” The tentacle just stared at him blankly, not having the ability to shrug. “Meh, above my pay grade”
Soon, a week rolled by and a Thursday morning reared it’s ugly head again. But today the sweet tempting sways of vengeance lingered in her mind, kept her energised, powered her through slumber. This time she reached the classroom on time, in fact she was early. Homework assignment submitted, apologies were made, clothes were washed, dried and hammered to daily perfection. And of course a big, damn deal was made.
As she stumbled into the classroom, dragged forward by the balancing act she performed with the box in her arms, she grinned in a manner she found suitably ‘evil’. But not too evil or she’d start to feel bad. The box came down upon an empty desk, not even the teacher had arrived yet; perfect. Ripping open the top of the box, she eagerly took in the view of the products that cost her almost all of her pocket money.
Manuvering through the sea of wooden desks was much easier when no one was taking up space in the chairs, today she was a smooth ship sailing. Soon, her work was done and the surprises were planted, leaving her with little more to do than sit on her perch and eagerly watch the clock count down. This was going to be perfect.
In record time for this class the herd of hormonal teenage creatures flooded into the room, spreading out like a disease and infecting every suitable desk. Like a parasite they fed on their desks, draining all stability until a month or so later, it’d give out from under them. Though with that observation, Kassy added the thought that certainly something would give way today. Cue evil silent laugh.
Students arrived at their assigned seats in unison, their moods all worse for ware as they slumped in their seats, groaning. Their teacher was in a particularly shouty mood today and yet even with the volume she still managed to bore. “To pick up where we last left off…” Kassy still watched the clock.
It was on the first tick that many people felt something rather odd just under their chairs.
It was on the second tick that some felt under, finding their fingers connecting with something rubbery.
On the third tick, the teacher chewed out one person who was obviously distracted by what he was feeling.
On the fourth tick, someone sat up quickly, a strange expression on her face as she asked “Is that a who-” But the fifth tick sealed her fate as she was cut off by a whole chorus of volatile explosions... Of sound. Soon everyone found their faces screwing up in disgust, ears offended and noses twitching in unison with the blaring noises.
The entire class had been interrupted by an orchestra of fart noises. “What is it I always tell you? NO BEANS FOR BREAKFAST, YOU NARE DO WELLS!”
“Hehehe” Kassy slid out of her seat, giggling to herself at how buying all those electronic whooping cushions were money well spent. As she walked away from the class, leaving bemused and confused classmates behind her, she thought back to the dictionary entry she’d looked up before class. “I believe they call this… Schadenfrude!”
Silence befell the classroom for only a moment.
“Is she serious?” Came one voice
“Who is she?” Asked another, not really deterred by the events.
“I dunno, I thought it was a bit funny”
“She LOOKS a bit funny” One gruff voice hollered in return. “Fairies, am I right?”
“Dude, you ARE a fairy” The friend beside him tapped the boy’s pointed ears.
“Oh yeah”
A minute later, Kassy came awkwardly slinking back into the room, realizing rather quickly that she still had the rest of the lesson to sit through. She shuffled through the stuffy desk trees, waved awkwardly at the owls looming over head, take up position on her perch and hide behind her school books like a shield
When she hit the floor the first thing she noted was the growing head aches racking her brain “I’m sorry Miss, I tried to get here as fast as I could, but there was a car and athingandaturtleandohmygodI’msosorry!” By this point she was on her knees, grovelling before the towering form of Miss Bancha, making for quite the pathetic sight. But when your teacher was a screaming banshee, you didn’t care about looking pathetic when trying to appease her.
“I wouldn’t expect such tardiness from you, Miss Bell” The she-demon glowered at her from behind shattered spectacles, stone walls looming over her, boxing them all in. “Do you have your homework with you at least? The due date is today” Towards the back of the classroom, the creaking wood of the desks whined under the weight of other students, leaning in to watch Kassy’s humiliation. The desks all stood so stiff, so tall, squeezing together tightly so they could all fit in the dimly lit room.
“O-of course, Miss. I have it right he-” Her fingers gasped desperately at the the air, hoping that if she gripped hard enough she’d feel the air materialise as her bag. The bag that held the ten-page report she’d spent countless nights refining under the cover of dark.
“I see” A dry voice, but Kassy could feel the emanating annoyance engraved into the she-demon’s blue wrinkles. “Just take your seat, we’ll discuss your new ‘winning’ streak after class” The comment set off the hyenas in the back row, chortling away with laughter that could take this coffin of a building and rattle the hollow walls.
Silently, the girl resisted the urge to sniffle a cry, instead holding a trembling lip as she proceeded to her desk in the sea of leering faces. The desks stood like tall tree trunks, her head only just overseeing the branches, the roots threatening to trip her up, the owls hooted in glee and looked down upon her. It was bad enough being socially awkward, but being the only fairy was the worst. You were always the shortest in the class.
The owls all had mouths, the tree’s all had eyes and the floor had ears. The branches tapped against one another, cackles of ‘hoot’s bouncing between every trunks while the eyes refused to blink. Refused to miss a moment. Refused to miss an opportunity. It took one mis-step, one sob not stifled, for the owls to see blood and start pecking.
A root moved up, catching her foot in a stiff embrace and dragging her down. Roots sprouted, singled fingers scraping against her, dragging her to the floor, dragging her to another violent meeting, dragging out more blood. Her head hurt like hell. The laughing rattled where inner walls as well.
Her brain churned.
The tree’s peeled away.
Tears blurred her vision
“It was humiliating” She didn’t mean to sound so pathetic, but she couldn’t help it. Pressing a packet of ice against the swelling bruise on her forehead, the cold touch snapping at her head like a row of bared teeth.
“Uhuh” The Janitor (Gatekeeper, Grave Digger, Caretaker. He had way too many titles now) didn’t know what sin he committed in a previous life, but it must have been a grave one. First he was stuck in this dead end job, cleaning up after literal slime monsters, wiring an electrical system for an entire pointlessly goth-styled castle (Because normal boarding schools were just too normal). And with this new year, listening to one particular student whine inside his dirty restroom.
Some students would take the woes of their dark days to their room, mull it over with friends in the cafeteria or even wallow in their self pity outside with the forest creatures. Certainly, not many would sit in the grimy abandoned restroom, sitting atop a broken toilet that was still leaking unknown green gunk. “This is the worst day of my life!”
“Meh, wait until they start putting spikes on your seat, kid; your misery’s just starting” The older man with a skin tone of charcoal couldn’t look less like a cleaner. He didn’t have a uniform, just a collection of beat up clothes that had long ago been drained of their original colour, leaving just murky brown and mouldy green. He reminded Kassy of a homeless man, especially the long and curly grey beard. Though, this homeless man was armed with a mop, using it to suffocate a toilet that had a very angry tentacle trying to get out.
Neither were that much phased by this. “I’d rather a spike up the bum” She shifted in her ‘seat’, pulling her knees up to her chest, her pink skin reddening at the pressure. She was weird, she knew that, but she was allowed to take comfort in the Janitor’s ‘office’ if she wanted to. The rest of the school was towering and dark, a sleeping dragon that threatened to wake up in a rage if you didn’t walk quietly enough, but here the disgusting green color pallet spread out over cracks and missing panels… It was gruff. But it didn’t have any room to judge, it was unstable and squidgy in many areas, with just the right height. It was dirty and it had no shame in that, but it would let itself be cleaned. It could change.
The Janitor pulled back from his work, adjusting his hat (Two chipped horns jutting out of the beat up fedora) so his golden eyes could get a better look at the girl. You’d think that after the fifth time she forced herself into his work, he’d have yelled at her to get out. “Don’t you Kids have friends to do all this with? While braiding ye hair or sumthin”
She laughed, almost too happy about what she was saying. “I don’t have any friends” Waving him off as if he made a very obvious mistake. “Oh- Except you, but you don’t have any hair to braid…” She faltered for a moment, thinking. “I can braid your beard!”
“Urg-” He couldn’t completely finish his annoyed grunt before the toilet tentacle shot through the toilet lid, wrapping around his waist and dragging him back into the stall with a roar. “There it blows!” He struggled against the pull of his attacked, stopping only to reach for his mop and, with a battle cry, raised his dripping weapon and charged into the toilet. “It’ll take more than hands from down under to take down Old Jenky!”
Seemingly oblivious to the raging battle going on within the toilet stall, Kassy sighed into a continuous rant. “You’re right, I can’t even tie a knot, let alone tie hair. All this negative buzz is really hurting my ability to be cool…” Her frown fell into an even wider upturned ‘U’,, thinking to the many pencil tricks she could perform, which she considered ‘cool’. “If only I could balance it all out. If they all felt how I felt, knew how much they hurt me-”
Within seconds the Janitor, a struggling wet limb choking him out, had materialised right beside Kassy. He gave no thought to personal space and he towered over the small girl, coupled with the dim lighting he suddenly became a rather creepy figure. “Sounds to me like you’re talking some…” He leaned forward, shadows dancing across his dark skin, flames crawling over his eyes. “Revenge”
“Revenge?‘’
“Payback. Even Stevens. Medicine Tasting. Blind Worlds. Vicious retribution from skies of raining fire, making them regret the day they even entertained the thought of hurting you”
At his approach she shrunk away into the toilet seat, leaning back as he hunched forward, far too into what he was saying. “Oh, so like… They made me feel bad because I embarrassed myself, so… I embarrass them?” Now that she thought about it, that did sound appealing. A little creature within her gut, which she imagined to be a Chibi-fied version of the Janitor, giggled ‘evily’ and gave her an encouraging push. “They’d be sorry, they’d know what they did to me… T-that does sound like it would make me feel better”
“You know, back in my day, people would come to me with all sorts of requests” Unleashing a thick cloud of rotten eggs upon Kassy’s nostrils, the Janitor opened up his coat, showing her the inside. The left side was filled to the brim with small black and white pictures, some with ticks over them, some with crosses. “They called me the Mail Man. I delivered… Vengence”
“Oooo, intense” She paused for a moment, a question biting the tip of her tongue. “Is vengence heavy? Did you have to store it in a van or something?”
“Stored it in my heart, turning it as black as night”
“Your heart turned black? Maybe you were eating too much cheese, lots of cholesterol”
The man sighed, noting that his metaphor was obviously lost on the young girl. “Point is, when people had some deeds to be done, just deserts to be served, with clean hands’ they made a deal with me” With a snap of his fingers, flames exploded out of his finger tips, bursting into separate streams of fire that formed paper, a contract forged in flames. “Like you could now, Make a deal and I’ll take care of all your revenge needs”
“You’d help me?”
“Just don’t read the small print…”
“Wow, this looks really freaky” She took the burning contract from his grip, flames licking at her flesh temptingly. At first she had the brief thought of how this was a tad shady, but looking into those eyes burning with passion, she couldn’t deny that this was a very trustworthy individual. “What do I have to do?”
“Depends. You got any spare souls on hand?” He leaned in closer, checking over his shoulder to make sure no one was eavesdropping. The tentacle too gave a suspicious glance behind.
“Not really…”
“Suppose I could start a tab” His hands clapped together with much more glee than any grown man should when near a conflicted little girl on the topic of revenge, the fire in his eyes raging on and even singing a bit of his greasy hair. “Anyway, onto ideas. Get the ball rolling, make me all squeamish. How’d you like your vengeance? Slow? Quick? Bloody? Smelly? Explosive?”
“Explosive? OH!” She jumped to her feet, a smile ever present as an excited spark jumped her into gear. “THAT GIVES ME AN IDEA! Thank you, soooo much, Mr!” With that she rushed passed him and bulldozed through what remained of the already broken door. “Wow, this ‘soul selling’ stuff does wonders!”
The Janitor Demon watched her leave in stunned silence, looking to the ‘head’ of the tentacle with a raised eyebrow. “Did I just unleash a terrorist and endanger the school?” The tentacle just stared at him blankly, not having the ability to shrug. “Meh, above my pay grade”
Soon, a week rolled by and a Thursday morning reared it’s ugly head again. But today the sweet tempting sways of vengeance lingered in her mind, kept her energised, powered her through slumber. This time she reached the classroom on time, in fact she was early. Homework assignment submitted, apologies were made, clothes were washed, dried and hammered to daily perfection. And of course a big, damn deal was made.
As she stumbled into the classroom, dragged forward by the balancing act she performed with the box in her arms, she grinned in a manner she found suitably ‘evil’. But not too evil or she’d start to feel bad. The box came down upon an empty desk, not even the teacher had arrived yet; perfect. Ripping open the top of the box, she eagerly took in the view of the products that cost her almost all of her pocket money.
Manuvering through the sea of wooden desks was much easier when no one was taking up space in the chairs, today she was a smooth ship sailing. Soon, her work was done and the surprises were planted, leaving her with little more to do than sit on her perch and eagerly watch the clock count down. This was going to be perfect.
In record time for this class the herd of hormonal teenage creatures flooded into the room, spreading out like a disease and infecting every suitable desk. Like a parasite they fed on their desks, draining all stability until a month or so later, it’d give out from under them. Though with that observation, Kassy added the thought that certainly something would give way today. Cue evil silent laugh.
Students arrived at their assigned seats in unison, their moods all worse for ware as they slumped in their seats, groaning. Their teacher was in a particularly shouty mood today and yet even with the volume she still managed to bore. “To pick up where we last left off…” Kassy still watched the clock.
It was on the first tick that many people felt something rather odd just under their chairs.
It was on the second tick that some felt under, finding their fingers connecting with something rubbery.
On the third tick, the teacher chewed out one person who was obviously distracted by what he was feeling.
On the fourth tick, someone sat up quickly, a strange expression on her face as she asked “Is that a who-” But the fifth tick sealed her fate as she was cut off by a whole chorus of volatile explosions... Of sound. Soon everyone found their faces screwing up in disgust, ears offended and noses twitching in unison with the blaring noises.
The entire class had been interrupted by an orchestra of fart noises. “What is it I always tell you? NO BEANS FOR BREAKFAST, YOU NARE DO WELLS!”
“Hehehe” Kassy slid out of her seat, giggling to herself at how buying all those electronic whooping cushions were money well spent. As she walked away from the class, leaving bemused and confused classmates behind her, she thought back to the dictionary entry she’d looked up before class. “I believe they call this… Schadenfrude!”
Silence befell the classroom for only a moment.
“Is she serious?” Came one voice
“Who is she?” Asked another, not really deterred by the events.
“I dunno, I thought it was a bit funny”
“She LOOKS a bit funny” One gruff voice hollered in return. “Fairies, am I right?”
“Dude, you ARE a fairy” The friend beside him tapped the boy’s pointed ears.
“Oh yeah”
A minute later, Kassy came awkwardly slinking back into the room, realizing rather quickly that she still had the rest of the lesson to sit through. She shuffled through the stuffy desk trees, waved awkwardly at the owls looming over head, take up position on her perch and hide behind her school books like a shield