The Monster Inside…
"It's important to face down your demons." –Stephan Jenkins
"I miss my boy, oh I miss you, Rick," A tearful Mrs. Murray sobbed into her hands on October 31, Halloween, which was actually her son's birthday, oddly enough. Rick was her only child, and she had lost him several years ago to a single gunshot. Little did Mrs. Murray know that her son was bullied every single day during his time at Degrassi. She was so used to sending him to school every day, preparing breakfast for him and packing his lunch, and hearing his sweet stories of his fun times with Toby Isaacs, his only friend. She never knew just how much pain her son had endured, until one fateful day at Degrassi. It was the annual Whack Your Brain competition, and Rick had been competing, winning first place. However, her son had stood up to accept his award, and awful yellow paint with feathers was poured on him, humiliating him in front of the entire school. People laughed, people pointed, and people stared. Mrs. Murray didn't even know. Now, as she stands here alone in her house while her husband is at work, she is in Rick's old room, folding and putting away clean laundry into the correct drawers just like she always had. She still expected Rick to come home, never truly accepting that her son is dead.
"I miss you too, mom," you might hear a husky whisper say in the wind. Who does the voice belong to? Why, none other than himself, Rick Murray. He shakily runs his hands over his yellow paint-splattered white dress shirt, which he had worn with black pants to Whack Your Brain. "Why did I do this? I have to go back!" he shouts, wishing his mother could hear him. He's guilty, because he never meant to die. He only meant to kill the people who had hurt him, Emma and Jimmy. He didn't know that Jimmy Brooks had actually been one of the few people that had ever defended him, stood up for him, or even tried to help him. Whose fault was that? Oh, right, Spinner Mason and Jay Hogart. With anger, he leaves his old home, his oldest and only sanctuary that he had left in the year of his death: 2004. What year was it now? You see an upcoming sign that the disheveled ghost stumbles upon: "Degrassi Frostival 2012! Buy $2 tickets now!" It's hard to believe it's been…"Eight years I've been dead."
The sky darkens, and you might see a large school on De Grassi Street. Degrassi Community School, a school with bright and dark history, is about to really see what revenge is. Carved pumpkins line the street, resting comfortably on porches, as the school comes into view. A storm is brewing, an angry one at that. Lightning strikes through the dark sky like a needle through skin. The wind is a scream as it begins to pick up, delicate autumn leaves blowing everywhere. It is not a tornado, you can tell, but as the rain begins to fall, and the thunder roars with inconsolable anger, people get scared.
"Attention, students, a warning has been released to all schools in the greater Toronto area stating that a tornado watch is now in session. The school is now in lockdown. Please stay in your classrooms, and if you must leave the classroom, please ask permission from your teacher to do so. Thank you," Mr. Simpson's voice is heard through the speakers in various places of the school.
Rick rolls his eyes, remembering the days when he had to listen to those stupid announcements every single day, feeling his cruel classmates' glares searing through his back. "Always hated those," he growls to himself as he walks up the concrete steps leading into the school. Yes, I speak of him like he is a living being, but you know that he is not. His ghost enters the building, slipping right through the glass doors. "It's awfully quiet in here. I'll have to fix that," he smiles vindictively before shoving the nearest object to him on the ground. A loud shattering noise is heard, and Rick sees Mr. Simpson, his old teacher, glance up in alarm into the foyer. Rick quickly leaves the scene, leaving Mr. Simpson to discover merely a shattered mirror.
"What the heck?" Simpson mutters, alerting the custodian staff to clean up the shards of glass as he quickly returns to his office, making yet another announcement that whoever had broken the glass would be punished if they were ever caught and for everyone to stay in their classes. After checking with all of the teachers through email in his office, Archie Simpson felt a chill run through his body. No student had left any classroom. You may say that the mirror could have fallen simply due to gravity, and it just fell. No. Someone smashed that mirror in anger, a boy who has smashed many things, such as Terry's life, Jimmy's spine, and even his own life. "That mirror has been hanging on that wall since I can remember first teaching here. Why would it fall now?"
Rick laughs and shakes his head in amusement, watching from the J.T. Yorke memorial garden. "You've got to be kidding me, Simpson. I thought teachers were supposed to be smart," Chuckling darkly, he trudges deeper into the small garden, eyeing the dedication to J.T. Yorke. "You deserved to be stabbed in the back. Pun intended," he spat, and you now see a trail of yellow footprints made by an invisible person, leading down the hallway.
"Students, please quiet down," Mrs. Dawes rolls her eyes as her incredibly immature Grade 12 class, with the exception of Grade 11's Clare Edwards and Adam Torres, is much too loud for a lockdown. "Class, you need to quiet down. This is a lockdown, you know. Oh, and I'd just hate to cancel the open-note quiz on A Midsummer Night's Dream that could really boost some of your grades!" That shut everyone up.
Eli smirks at a snarky comment Adam had made about the immaturity level beginning to saturate the room. "Yeah, not surprised," he agrees, pulling his girlfriend into his lap as they all sit on the ground.
"It's freezing," Clare states softly, a smile creeping onto her face when Eli's arms wrap around her waist, allowing her to lean back into his chest.
"I'll keep you warm, sweetheart." Eli murmurs playfully, earning an eye roll from Adam and a grin from Clare.
Adam looks up from his comic book. "Keep that up, Goldsworthy, and you're going to make me literally puke. Everywhere," he makes a gagging sound and returns to read his comic.
Eli and Clare laugh, and you smile at the cuteness of the couple. What…? They are in love. Love…Something Rick had never found during his life. He thought he loved Terry, but that "love" was cut short when he shoved the girl and put her in a coma. A coma that he wasn't sure she had ever woken up from. Maybe he had killed her too. Either way, Rick is disgusted at the sight of the happiness that he is witnessing between the two, and you see him clench his fists in fury. The heat had turned off the second Rick had entered the school, his spirit icing down the heat radiators.
"Enjoy your happiness while it lasts. Too bad it won't." Rick chokes out, squeezing his hands in furious anger and slamming his fist into three lockers.
Clare's blue eyes widen in fear when she hears a deep, dark voice choking out, "Enjoy your happiness while it lasts. Too bad it won't." What is going on? You see the confused and frightened girl shake her head furiously, trying to get rid of the voice inside her head.
His tone dripping with anger and having no idea that the 16 year old girl could hear him, Rick continued with, "You are all going to feel my pain when I'm done with you. Disgusting bullies, all of you! I don't care if you claim to be innocent. YOU'RE NOT! YOU ARE EITHER A BULLY, OR YOU'RE A BACKSTABBING LIAR. THEY ALL LIED TO ME. EMMA FLIRTED WITH ME. PAIGE JUDGED ME. JIMMY BETRAYED ME!" Rick was so angry that he threw his glasses down the hallway, and you see them skid to a stop right outside Mr. Perino's classroom. He darts away, vanishing like a fog before Mrs. Dawes peers out of her classroom only to find three dented lockers and yellow footprints.
"Clare?" Eli asks, exchanging confused and worried glances with Adam, who put down his comic the second Clare had started shaking in his lap. "Clare, what-"
"Please, stop," she whimpers, drawing her knees to her chest and rocking back and forth, her hands placed firmly at her temples, desperate to quiet the angry voice echoing in her head. "No, I don't know what you're talking about! Who are you? I don't know you! Please," Clare cries in anguish, sobs forcing their way out of her mouth as chills runs up and down her arms and legs. Her goosebumps warned Eli that a panic attack was approaching.
"Your sister kissed me a long time ago…"
"NO! STOP! PLEASE!" Clare shakes her head violently, her chest heaving wildly as the room spins slightly.
Eli quickly scoots over to rest against the desk with Clare, ignoring the looks from the other students. "Hey, hey," he whispers, pulling the shaking girl into his arms. "Shh, Clare, it's alright, you're safe. What's going on?" he sees Adam arrive to Clare's other side, keeping a hand on the frightened girl's shoulder. "Clare, you have to calm down. Shh," he coos into her ear directly, feeling her heartbeat slow down just a bit when she places his hand over her heart and covers it with his.
"It's gone," she shakes and buries her face in her hands, Eli's arm still draped across her red polo clad back.
"What's gone?" Adam and Eli say in unison, and you see Clare slap her hands to the floor and face them.
"The voice," she states before bursting into tears all over again. She retreats into Eli's embrace as he gently says, "Come here," and sobs hard, grateful when he places a hand on her cheek and presses her face into his chest. "It's gone," she repeats over and over again, hearing Eli's reassuring words and feeling Adam's gentle rubbing of her quivering back.
You hear laughter, and there he is, the boy himself, leaning against a locker at the opposite end of the hallway. He can hear through walls, and he hears your sudden intake of breath as you read this story. That's right, he hears everything. Rick Murray also hears the sobs of Clare Edwards, whose older sister had in deed kissed him many years ago during his kissing competition with Toby. Oh, how he misses Toby, the one and only person he could count on. "Cry-baby," he growls, and just like that, he is gone.
Eli and Adam are still desperately trying to calm the frantic girl who just wants to go home as the storm brews even worse outside. Thunder and lightning clash and crash together, creating the perfect time for the lights to flicker.
"Hmm," Imogen Moreno hums lightly in curiosity during her journey down the hallway back to class. "This is Halloween, this is Halloween, la la la la la!" Mr. Perino had allowed her to go to the bathroom when the lights had flickered constantly in the hallway. She skips happily, ignoring the biting reminder that something was wrong. You see, Imogen has a gift. She just knows when something is wrong, and now is that kind of time once more. "What's this?" she peers down at a pair or dirty, old, out-of-style, glasses. "Covered in yellow paint. Someone must have dropped them," she shrugs and skips down the hallway back to class, ready to just go home.
Rick slides out from his hiding place in the crack of a locker, staring down at Imogen. She gasps and turns around, and you only wish she knew who was behind her. "So carefree," he grumbles, being extra quiet as he follows her back to Mr. Perino's room, daring to go inside. "I guess I'll have to explore the school a bit more than I thought."
"I'm back," Imogen smiles sweetly at Mr. Perino, feeling a glare on her back. Who was looking at her this way? She turns around, curious brown eyes wide and staring at what appears to be the outline of a body. It couldn't be.
Fiona sees her girlfriend begin to tremble and the other students stare at her questioningly, as if asking silently why Imogen was so frightened at what seemed to be nothing. "Imogen,"
"Huh? What? Oh, yeah, sorry, I was just…" she trails off, and you witness a few of the students start to snicker and low whispers of, "freak," and "loser,"
Rick's eyes widen angrily as he witnesses the girl frown and trudge back to her spot beside Fiona in front of the bookcase filled with Canadian History textbooks. "So she's bullied too. She knows how it feels." He almost softens his angry facial features, but not quite, when he becomes extremely infuriated and pushes the lamp off Mr. Perino's desk. The older man jumps up in alarm as the students scream. The tiny light bulb within the lamp shatters, glass scattering in a small ring next to the large desk.
"What the hell?" the teacher narrows his eyes and they dart around the room, but nothing is seen except shivering, cold, and frightened Grade 12 students. The man sits down slowly after cleaning up the glass and throwing it into the trash.
Rick stands right next to the man, quaking with fury, and he leaves, slipping his transparent form right through the classroom door.