The subway rattled along, same as it ever did. Nothing ever really changed, Billy mused, on his way to a school he was bored of, with classmates that thought it was fun to pick on him. When he remembered it was Monday, he sighed with the realization that he'd have to try to fit in all the usual work the school assigned before helping clean the group home in time to meet the foster parents looking to interview. It rarely happened. 'Oh well. I can probably find the change for a soda to stay awake and finish. Maybe. At least I get Mondays off at the station,' he mused. He scrounged his bag for coins until his stop approached.
The train slowed and stopped, allowing the normal early morning press of students in uniforms, businessmen in their constricting looking ties, and the last few laborers of the morning. Billy couldn't shoulder his way through like most did, but he slipped through the throng and slid his way out of the car and up the stairs, for once thankful he was short.
The walk was as uneventful as the ride, and as deep in thought as Billy was, he nearly missed his friend Freddy on the entrance stairs. "Billy. Billy. Hey! Man, are you ok? You look beat."
Billy's face-splitting yawn gave lie to his garbled denial, but Freddy just laughed as he prodded Billy along with his crutch. 'His leg must not be troubling him today,' Billy thought, allowing himself to be ushered up the last steps and into the entrance of Fawcett High.
He wasn't distracted enough to miss the usual crowd of burnouts that spent most mornings harassing Freshmen, though. Freddy was a common target of theirs, despite being taller than some of them and a sophomore. "It started," Freddy had explained, "with being crippled. But my mouthing off to them is what made sure I was their favorite." Billy had always been privately sure that it had something to do with hanging around the Honors class enrolled, secondhand clothes wearing, freshman aged Billy. Not that Freddy would ever admit it.
In unspoken agreement, they attempted to time their approach to blend in with the crowd. The average student was kind enough to avoid jostling Freddy, so their chameleon approach was defeated by the empty space around them and the empty space that always seemed to surround the bullies. This early in the morning, the harassment was never much. Just enough to give a bad start to the day. This morning it was limited to just some malicious laughter and a barely audible "Cripple." Freddy breezed past, but Billy stopped short for just a moment, and only resumed walking when Freddy said, quietly, "C'mon. It's not worth it." Billy scowled and, once he had caught up, said "It is to me. You're ten times better than they are." Freddy just laughed and said, "I know. I don't need to get beat up to prove it."
Classes were as they always were. Honors chemistry, honors math, honors english, each assigning work like they were the only one that mattered, and then a too-short lunch that Billy ate alone while trying to get a head start on the work. Mr. Hayman, the group home leader, had packed him a peach. For all his stuck-up behavior and lectures, making sure Billy had his favorite fruit to enjoy at school showed how much he cared.
After lunch, heading upstairs to his slew of afternoon classes, he saw Freddy heading down towards the lunchroom. His head was down, and he was moving fast. Billy was too far away to get his attention, and he didn't seem to want to wait around. Freddy always tried to get out of the hallway as fast as he could, and never relied on the always hovering excuse of his leg. As the press of students intensified and the jostling backpacks and traffic jams buffeted Billy back and forth, he thought that maybe hurrying to class wasn't such a bad idea.
The afternoon proceeded much the same as the morning, but with more sneaking of his other classes' homework. By the time the day was done, his work was nearly so. After his last class, he felt free to move with a little more leisure. Freddy's ride didn't come until nearly 4, and he had the timing to the Subway down pat to still get the fast train back to the home. He could take his time and get to the first floor before Freddy was ready to leave his last - and worst - class.
He reached the door just as Freddy walked out, calling out his thanks to his teacher for the extra help. When he noticed Billy, he said with a smile "Got all my Lit work done. Why do I keep you around for help when I can have Ms. Morsen explain it, again?"
Laughing, Billy responded "Because she can teach you Lit, but she's not the one who stays up writing your papers with you and pity laughing at your jokes."
When Freddy slung his arm over Billy's shoulder, he knew that Freddy was feeling good that day. He almost never risked taking his crutch's arm brace off in public, and was hardly putting any weight on Billy's shoulder. They walked, separating before they reached the stairs in front of the school, planning to wait there until the van Freddy rode had arrived.
"You crashed last night before you told me your favorite superhero." Freddy said, carefully stretching his leg as he sat.
Billy scoffed, "That's because you talked to me about your crush on Wonder Woman for two hours. I must've passed out from boredom."
"Oh yeah, right. I talked about how cool she was. Her being attractive doesn't have a thing to do with it."
"Keep telling yourself that buddy. I dunno, anyway. I don't really have a favorite. Probably just Superman."
Freddy pulled a face at that. "What a cop-out. Everybody's favorite is Superman. It's boring."
"Fine then, Mr. I'm-So-Smart. Flash. He's funny and everybody likes him. Plus he seems like a lot more fun than most of the rest of them."
The conversation devolved into friendly ribbing and Freddy's crush on Wonder Woman from there.
Just as the last bell of the day rang to release the kids held back for detention, the van Freddy rode in pulled up.
Billy was almost pulled off balance as he helped Freddy up and walked with him to the van, trying to get a little more hanging out done before the night's chores and watching the younger kids.
Freddy pulled Billy onwards, ignoring the same upperclassmen that had mocked him that morning, moving between the back of the van and the front of an empty bus to put his bag in. Just as Freddy was closing the door, Billy was shouldered to the side, tripping on the curb and falling hard on his bookbag, the breath whooshing out of him. Freddy was instead pushed hard against the grille of bus, three rough looking jerks shoving their way to surround him. Faster than Billy could get up, or even call out, the shortest of the lot had grabbed the crutch Freddy had been casually holding and tossed it aside, nearly hitting Billy.
"Look guys, the cripple can walk without his cane! It's a miracle," the bulkier one said, pushing Freddy back up against the grille and held him there with a hand.
"Back off, Kyle." Freddy said, somehow looking confident even with the odds stacked against him. "It's more a miracle you were even allowed back after screwing your grades so badly you got kicked off the football team."
A knee to the bad leg was all it took for Freddy to crumple with a gasp of pain, and Kyle let him slump to the ground.
Billy had stood up with the cane, but was motivated to do more when the tall one on the far side spit onto Freddy as he lay curled around his leg and wound up to kick him while he was down.
He didn't think of a clever quip, or really think at all when he said "Hey, jerk," and promptly jabbed Kyle in the gut with the crutch as he turned. The enormity of what he did dawned very quickly on him after that, and he dropped the crutch and ducked away from Kyle's wild swing in his direction. Wild-eyed, he did the only thing that made sense to him when faced with such overwhelming odds. He turned and sprinted away. The chase was brutal. The older boys had longer legs and weren't burdened by their backpacks, and all Billy had was familiarity with the direction and nimble feet to sneak through closing gaps in pedestrian crowds.
The route he took was longer than his normal path, but he managed to reach the subway with practised timing, approaching the passage down as the train disgorged its exiting passengers and dodging a grasping hand long enough to slide down the railing of the stairs. He slapped his wallet onto the RFID reader and slid through the turnstile, barely aware of his pursuit hopping the gate to chase him. He stepped into the train as the doors closed and turned, just in time to take a fist to his nose through the closing portal, knocking him down for a second time that day.
With his nose throbbing, he hardly noticed the hand that helped him off the ground, and especially didn't notice the dirty nails or shaggy beard of the man he was thanking for his help. "No problem," he responded, smiling wide and asking "Got any change?"
Billy smiled back, suppressing a sigh and fishing out the change he had gathered that morning. The man smiled even wider and said "Thank you, son. You should get that nose looked at when you can."
"I will, sir," Billy said as he placed his bag on the seat and took a close look at his reflection in the window.
A shadow passed over the traincar while he was looking closely at himself, and he didn't notice that the car was emptier and quieter without seeming to change at all. There was a chill in the air that seemed out of season to the spring thaw, and the shadows seemed to come faster and longer, the wheels of the train clacking faster and faster. Billy noticed this all in a rush, and fell flat against his seat. His breath came faster, visible in the chill. Sparks crawled over the doors and the now darkened overhead lights, and he screamed as the wheels and tracks merged their howling into one cacophonous roar.
Just as suddenly, it stopped. The scream caught in his throat as the doors opened to a stop he had never seen, all old stone and distant lights in the tunnel. The lights stayed out, and the doors stayed open, and the eerie silence of the place would have convinced him it was a dream except for his heavy breaths and the persistent throbbing of his nose.
A voice whispered, far down the tunnel, carrying over the still air. He strained his ears listening, hearing three words, repeated over and over. "Come to me," it said. And Billy found his legs moving on autopilot as he walked to the door.
He stepped out into the darkness.