Halls of Hell

The bus was crowded, full of students laughing and talking to one another. The only one who wasn’t laughing, was the driver, a fat man with thin greasy hair, who spent only half the watching the road, the other half was spent looking through his rear-view mirror at the students, all with the depressed look of a man who didn’t want this job anymore.

About halfway down the Bus, Will and Jackson sat together. Will was not happy about the seating arrangement, he’d thought that it would have been better to sit alone, than to be seen sitting with somebody a couple of year groups bellow him. Not that they were talking, Will was half staring down at his phone, and half looking around the bus, sizing people up. His gaze kept on flicking back to a girl, sitting a few rows in front of him and his brother. She’d been the only one who looked at him normally when he’d gotten on the bus that morning. The rest had either ignored him, or looked at him like he was something close to dog shit.

 As for Jackson, he was simply content with staring out the window, watching the traffic go past.

The noise all around them was reaching a deafening level. And at the next red light, the bus driver, getting increasingly irritated, turned around to face them all down.

“Will you guys shut the hell up!” The driver shouted from the front of the bus. A statement that was meant to convey authority. But was immediately ruined by a shout from the back.

From the very back of the bus, the person that Will guessed was the leader of the group responded. “Why don’t you, Boomer!” The result was still the same though as laughter, went up around the bus at the argument. Will didn’t laugh, but also noted how some of the people that did laugh, seemed to be forcing themselves to do it.

The driver’s problems were not his problem, nothing good came with getting involved with this. And his attention back to the girls.

If he thought that he was going to be able to just stare at these girls in peace, he was dead wrong as he felt his little brother begin to tug at the sleeve of his uniform.

“Will.” Jack said, tugging his sleeve. Will ignores him, continuing to focus on the girls a few rows ahead.

His little brother though, was not about to give up that easily, he continues tugging, trying desperately to get his attention.

“What?!” Will said spinning around and trying to understand why his brother was so desperate to annoy him right nor.

“I saw Dad’s car.” Jack said.

Will freezes at this, and for the first time, his thoughts were not on the girls a few rows ahead of them. Fear crept into him at the mention of their Dad. But then rationality comes back, his Dad couldn’t be here, not yet anyway. They had at least a few more days before that psycho shows up.

“No, you didn’t Jack.” Will said, shaking his head. Trying to convince himself as much as his brother on that statement. He thinks even that it might have worked.

But his brother was not going to take this lying down.

“I did. He was going in the opposite direction. It was a BMW, I saw it.” Jack exclaimed, peering over in his seat to try and get another view.

Will just rolled his eyes. This was so fucking typical of his younger brother. Jackson would see their ‘perfect’ Dad in every single car if that made him happy. And there was nothing that made his younger brother happier than seeing the abusive asshole that his Mum was insisting wasn’t one. Well, he’d learn in time what kind of man their Dad was, and Will would be long gone by the time he’d be able to witness it. Either a runaway, or dead. He still wasn’t sure which though.

“Jack. Loads of people drive Beemers. It could be anyone.” Will said.

Jack looked like he was on the verge of arguing the point. But as the bus pulls to a halt outside the school, he clearly decides that there was no point in arguing with him.

“Alright get off you little shits.” The driver said. He didn’t need to say it twice either, as the second that the bus ad pulled up at the school, everyone was clamouring to get off the bus.

“Well. Welcome to hell.” Will said under his breath as he looked at the dilapidated building that claimed to be his and his brother’s new school. It looked like it had barely survived a medium sized earthquake. Bricks littered the ground around the building, along with several of the roof tiles. Some of the windows had been boarded up whilst others looked like they weren’t far off.

“Abandon all hope, ye that enter here.” Will turned at the voice and saw the girl he’d been watching on the bus, standing a few feet away from him.

“W-what?” Will said.

“Nothing. Just the classic school welcome.” The girl said and walked off through the inner school gates towards a larger group. Will was about to head on after her. Then his brother came up to him.

“Why is Dad here? Do you think he’s going to take us back home? Why did he not come with us?” Jackson asked as the two of them walked into the school.

Will though wasn’t really interested. Bis mind was still on the girl, and what she’d just said to him.

“Yeah man, I’ll talk about it later.” Will said wafting his little brother away.

Jackson was now properly annoyed about both being ignored, and being sent away. So, he decided to use his obvious trump card.

“What do you think is going to happen from you just staring at her, Will?” Jackson asked.

Will could have strangled his little brother, instead he’d had to remain stationary as the crowd of other students directly around them laughed. Worst of all though, was that the girl had apparently heard him; she snickers and walks away with her own friends.

“Thanks man.” Will said, trying to keep his temper under control.

Jackson smirked up at him. Satisfied that he’d now won. “No problem.”

Knowing from past experiences to scarper. Jackson hurried into the school, leaving Will stationary outside the doors. The dying laughter ringing in his red ears.

That lunch, as Jack sat alone on one of the tables furthest away from the noise, more playing with his food than eating it. He thought back to his life before this, before the constant moving. Despite what either his Mum or his brother tried to tell him, he knew why they were moving, and more importantly, he knew the why of that reason. His Dad was crazy, he knew it. Why he was pretending otherwise, he didn’t know. All he knew was that he thought that the act of pretending, might get his old life back. His old life, with his old friends. His Dad was the thing that stood in the way of that though, he’d knew it. Jack saw the way his Mum’s whole demeanour would change at the merest mention of him, the way that his brother would lose all his colour at the thought of him. He just wished they’d stop pretending, it would make the world a lot simpler if they just told him the truth.

Another thing he knew, was that whilst he was here, he was not safe. His Dad may be a psychopath, he’d heard that word and found out what it had meant back at Auntie Joe’s, and he couldn’t argue with the diagnosis, having overheard the stuff his Dad had done. But there was something here, something far worse than his Dad, far worse than what was waiting for them when he found them. The thing at his window, that had asked to be let in.

So lost in his own thoughts, that Jack didn’t realise that he had company until the sound of two scraping noises jolted him back to where he was.

“I said, are these seats taken?” Jack looked up to see two boys looking at him. One was tall, blonde and wore glasses that only served to magnify his eyes, the second was smaller, with dark brown hair and had a nervous twitch, like he was fighting the urge to run. Jack vaguely recognised them from his English class that morning. Not that he knew either of their names. Not that he’d bother either, learning names was never a good idea when you’re on the run and more importantly not settling down anywhere.

Jack only shook his head and returned to his thoughts, his thoughts on what he’d seen outside his window. It had looked human, it had spoken to him with a posh accent. But he couldn’t explain how it had been able to hover in mid-air.

“You’re the new kid right?” The smaller boy said.

Jack looked up, he wanted to tell them to get lost. He wasn’t in the mood for small talk. He had much bigger problems.

“Cause he is idiot. You seen him around here before?” The taller boy said and hit the smaller one, then he turned to Jack. “Sorry. My twin’s a fuckin’ moron.”

“T-Twin.” Jack looked again at them both. If that hadn’t been said, then he’d never have guessed that these two were even related, never mind actual twins. For the first time, he allowed himself to not think about all the crap going on his life.

“Yeah. We get it.” The smaller boy said, sounding bored as if he’d had to explain that point thousands of times before.

“Yeah. We have different Dads.” The taller one explained, also sounding bored. “But his ain’t around anymore.”

Jack was about to ask how that was even possible. When somebody else sat down at the table, or more accurately, on the table. It was the person who’d yelled back at the bus driver that morning. Why he was here now, Jack didn’t know, from what he’d been told, that different year groups ate at different times. So, unless this kid, who he guessed would have been about his brother’s age, maybe older, was being held back to a year seven level, Jack didn’t know what he was doing here.

“Well.” The bigger kid said, a smirk crossing his rat like, and very punchable face. “I see that you two have finally made a friend.”

“Hey Freddie.” The taller boy said, though Jack saw that both boys instinctively shrank in their seats, trying to get as small as possible. At which post Freddie turned his swearing face to Jack.

“Shut it, Noah.” Freddie said as he then addressed Jack. “I’ll give you a warning, new kid.” Jack instinctively hated this kid, they hadn’t been bothering anyone, so why the hell was he even here. But he was smart enough to also know, that even three against one, they wouldn’t stand a chance. “These two freaks-”

At this the smaller boy shot up, his hands balled up into fists.

“Say that again.” The smaller boy said, it wasn’t helpful one bit, mostly because of the voice crack that came right in the middle of the threat.

“Sit down, Joe.” Noah said in an undertone.

“Listen to your brother, Lee.” Freddie said. And Noah after looking around, did sit back down and allowing Freddie’s attention to roll back to Jack. “As I was saying. These two freaks, they’re right at the bottom of the food chain here. Nobodies lower. I don’t want you making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you with that.”

Jack looked first at Noah and Joe, then up at Freddie.

“No thanks.” Jack said and returned to playing with his food. “I don’t think you’d know the right sort if it got up naked and started dancing in front of you.”

Silence. Cold, hard silence followed this as Freddie cheeks went as red as his hair.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Freddie said as he got up off the table and headed towards the kitchens. The entourage followed, all casting the three of them death glares.

As Jack finally got around to eating his food, the job of turning down that thug’s request having given him an appetite, both Noah and Joe stared at him. Eventually the stares became too much for him and he looked up.

“What?” Jack asked watching the looks that he was getting. Like they were looking at a corpse.

“Nobody’s ever talked back to Freddie like that.” Noah said he was still slouching in his seat.

“Why. He’s an idiot.” Jack said. But the looks he got told him that there was probably a very good reason why.

“His Dad.” Joe said and his gaze flickered to where Freddie stood in line. “He’s like the chief cop. Anyone makes trouble for him ends up getting a visit from the police.”

Jack stared for a moment, and then laughed. This response surprised his new friend even more than his comment.

Eventually Jack managed to get control of himself.

“And that works?” Jack asked, looking between the twins, expecting one of them to tell him that this was an early April fool’s joke.

Neither did though.

“We’re not. His Dad’s gone to people’s houses to threaten people who’ve stood up to him. Told them he’d put them away.” Joe explained, and Jack didn’t feel nearly as confident as he had done five seconds before.

He did have one ace though. One thing that would hopefully protect him. His brother.

Will would never admit, least of all to Jack. But he had kept a quiet eye on his little brother back at their old school. He’d just have to hope that protection was still valid here.

Will was nowhere near the canteen when his little brother had been accosted by Freddie and his goon squad. He’d never felt less like eating, a feeling made worse with the thought of eating in front of complete strangers. He didn’t want to be here, he knew nobody.

So, instead of eating, he’d just decided to try and get a start on the massive pile of homework that Mr Notario had set them at the end of their biology class.

He sat himself at the furthest table away from the door, hoping that this would lead to less distractions. But half an hour in, he’d made hardly any progress. Worst of all, his scribbles resembled more something that the ancient Egyptians would write, rather than answers in English. Even when he’d mouth the words to himself, even with the dyslexic glasses his writing was still illegible. Back at both his old schools, he’d been allowed to use a tablet for his work. But it was not the case here. The school having claimed they didn’t have the budget when his Mum had enquired.

“You still have two books to return, Grace. You can’t take out anymore until you do so.” Will heard the Librarian say to someone from the front of the room. He didn’t hear the response as he refocused on his work.

This latest attempt went about as well as the others. And after this latest failed attempt to answer the question in something that was legible, Will through the homework down in frustration. Just as he does so, the girl from the bus walks in, and sits down at the same table.

“What did that paper do to you, newbie?”

Will looked up, and saw the girl from the bus. The one that had spoken to him at the front gates.

“I-I-I. Yeah it’s just these fucking things.” Will said, as he took off the glasses and threw them down on the table. “They don’t work when I fucking need them too.”

It took a few seconds, but he was able to regain control of his temper and puts the glasses back on, un-scrunching his homework as best he could and tried to restart the assignment. Grace takes out her own homework.

“They’re dyslexic glasses, aren’t they?” Grace asked looking at the glasses like she’d never seen the type before.

Will looks up, and takes a moment before answering. Before getting the inevitable over with. He was a freak, let’s gawp at him like he was a fucking monkey in the zoo.

“Yep.” Will said, his teeth grinding.

Clearly seeing the touchiness of the topic, Grace didn’t press the subject. Instead going for something else.

“You’re the one with the loudmouth brother.” Grace asked. Will wondered if this was any better than his disability, he guessed it was.

“That’s me.” Will said, he wondered if he’d ever actually live down what Jack had said that morning. He doubted it. They’d probably still be talking about it by the time he was in year thirteen.

“It’s Will, isn’t it? That’s what your brother said. I don’t wanna keep calling you newbie.” Grace said.

“Yep.” Will said, and then adding. “I’m guessing that vulture on the desk was talking to you?” He wanted to make sure of that before addressing her by the name he’d overheard.

“She was.” Grace said and cast a dark look at the librarian. A look that was equally returned. “I wanna know though. Why didn’t you find that out by asking me on the bus? You were the one staring at me.”

Will felt his face going red. “Sorry.” He added not looking at her, instead focusing with all his might at the homework.

Grace shrugged at the apology.

“Why are you here?” Grace asked. Then at the confused look on Will’s face, she elaborated. “I don’t mean in the library. I mean here, this part of the world.”

Will didn’t reply to that. He guessed that Grace was alright. But that answer was deeply personal, dealing with shit that he really wanted to forget about. Stuff that he hoped he’d never had to think about again, if he was right that his brother was wrong about their Dad being here this soon.

“Just life shit.” Will said, and hoping that Grace wouldn’t press the subject.

Silence fell at this. Will wondered if he’d blown it with this girl. She’d been willing to come up to him, a complete nobody. And he’d just blown her off.

“Is this place any better?” Grace said, breaking the unnatural silence.

Sighing with relief, Will latched onto this resumption of conversation like a life raft. Anything to mend what he’d just broken.

“When my brother isn’t embarrassing me in front of the entire school.” Will replied, he’d been able to avoid the little shit for most of his time at their old school. But now that seemed to be becoming more and more impossible. “This place is still shitty I guess. It’s school.” Then thinking of changing the subject he added. “Is that Mr Notario that much of dick. Giving us all this homework. Fucking shitty tyrant.” Will finished looking up at Grace, who was smiling, though shaking her head at the same time. “Why are you smiling?” Will asked looking at the laughing girl, who managed to stop snickering for just long enough to give her answer.

“Well. Mr Notario is my Dad.” Grace said.

Will’s mouth fell open at this. That had been the last thing he’d expected to hear.

“Sit. Fuck. Fucking shit. I’m sorry. If I knew he was your Dad I wouldn’t…” Will blurted out. But stopped when he saw that Grace was now struggling to breath from her laughing, shaking her head.

“Oh, stop it. You’re making me cry.” Grace said shaking her head and laughing at the way Will was spluttering out an apology. “And those ain’t the worst words I’ve heard people in this place call him. Trust me.”

As the two resume their homework, unbeknownst to them, someone was watching them from a few rows of books back.