Round 9 – Fourth Fiction

Round Nine challenge for Outside Participants was to incorporate the following:

1)  a hoax
2)  a revelation
3) the number four

Word count: 444 words (but we are free to trespass this – there are no limits on outside participants!)

In fact, there was a man across the street.

Fear.  It was a new sentiment for WG.

He came from a public school, but not the kind you see in movies, with big tough boys spanking nerds all around, and mean girls despising not-so-cute-ones.

His school was a regular type, with bad and good, strong and weak, beautiful and ugly, geeks and average people.

So, he had never been “atomic wedged”, locked in his locker or any other “violent-funny” stuffs like these.

In fact, the worst he ever gets were humiliating jokes, as WG.  And even those were not so hard at all. He was an expert on it; people making fun of him was so common that he stopped caring somewhere around 12 years old.

Of course it wasn’t pleasant. He would prefer to be the basketball team leader or the quarterback, for sure.  But he was okay with the way things were.

Him, the geek, them, the athletes.

Back home, his mother is a pediatrician, and his father, a lawyer.  They were both nice and polite people – never hit him.  Not that he’d deserved it anyway…

So, fear wasn’t a normal sensation for him.

But now, he felt goosebumps and started to tremble.

He looked trough the dusted window and saw the man right under the number four painted on the opposite wall.

He couldn’t tell from this distance if he was the same guy who was on the floor a little time ago.

But one thing he could tell – the man was alive.  It wasn’t a dead body or a ghost. And was staring at them.  At least at the house.

“Hon, for how long are you seeing this man over there?”

“I’ve just seen him, love.”

She seems, as usual, relaxed.  Even her tone hadn’t changed.

“Is this the man you’ve shot?”

“I guess…” She squeezed her beautiful eyes and approached to the window to get a closer view. “I’m not really sure, baby, he’s so far…”

“You must tell me all the truth now, Darla!”

“I don’t like when you call me Darla…  I know it’s my name, but I prefer when you call me baby, honey, darling or… wherever like this…”

“Ok, pumpkin! But please, leave the cat just for a second, sit here with me, and explain all this mess to me.”

“I can do this without leaving the cat…”

“Perfect, you won. Just seat and start telling, with the cat.” He’d added the word “damned” before cat on his head, but didn’t say it. It was effortless.

“What do you want me to say?  I already told you everything.  Those bastards came to my home two months ago, picked my Painkiller with them, and…  Oh, please, don´t make me say it again.  It’s too painful.”

“No, darling, you don’t need to talk about painful stuffs, for sure.  But there must be something more there.  Why did they do this to you?”

“Because of the hoax, I believe…” She sounds like a little embarrassed child, talking in a low whispered voice.

“What hoax?”

“You see, I was so young back then…” She frowned  “I just want to have some fun with my classmates.  And it was Halloween…”

“And…?”

“And we made this up; a hoax.  We, I mean, I, came here, knocked on the door and started to yell that my friend was being raped by two men in the alley”

“WHAT??”

“See, you’re mad too. And you love me, I guess…  Nobody likes this story.  I should shut up now…”

“No, I’m sorry.  That’s ok, you talk, I’ll be quiet and understanding, ok?”

“Ok, I guess…  Anyway, they got out with guns, told me to stay inside, and do not let anybody gets in.  I was terrified about the guns, and I’d tried to tell it was just a prank, but they didn’t even listen to me.  They walked away.”

“When they came to the alley, my friend was there, pretending to be forced by a friend of ours, and another friend was hide, to scream “trick or treat” when someone appears.  It was all a joke!  But those guys didn’t even look around – they came shooting!”

“Your friends, they…”

“Yeah…  they killed at first my male friend who was with Esther, acting out the “rape thing”. Then Joe appears yelling ‘nooooo’, and they shoot him too.  They were D.O.A.”

“Oh, my goodness, honey!  That must be devastating!”

“It was.  Esther and I never spoke again.  Her mother moved as far as she could from me.  And the men were in prison until two months ago. Six years”

“Then, when they got out…”

“First thing, they came to my house.  I was alone, but I saw them and run. They’ve picked Painkiller instead of me.”

“And you were hiding since then?”

“Yes!  I was at my nana’s. But I knew I´d to do something or…”

“… Or they would hurt you…”

“Kill, baby.  Kill is the correct word here…”

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