"Boy!"

The moment I heard that voice, I knew I was going to get into trouble. I started sprinting.

"Boy!"

I could hear running after me and a sound of breathing coming closer and closer to me inevitably.

"BOY!"

Suddenly I got tackled to the ground. I looked up, dazed. The face of the cruel school bully filled my eyes. I shook my head and stood up, brushing off the cuts and bruises that I had just achieved from that tackle.

"What do you want?"

"Collection money," the school bully replied. His accomplices started closing on me, and I was feeling even more scared as the clock ticked by.

"Sorry. I will pay you tomorrow?" I said in a timid voice. There was no way I was going to get out of this in a brawl.

"No. I want it now!" The school bully's voice echoed throughout the whole corridor. I looked left and right. No one, not even the school cleaners or the toilet janitor, was around. I looked at the parade square and no one was there. I looked towards the canteen. It was still the same, but with no people.

Strange, I thought. Isn't the recess now? Isn't the parade square supposed to be filled with noises and screaming? Isn't the canteen buzzing? Aren't the prefects supposed to be patrolling around? Why is there nobody except me and the-

"Don't fool around with me," the school bully said, grabbing my collar and pulling me so close to him until I could literally smell his breath. It was minty. Probably used as an excuse for his bad breath.

"Do you think I am?" For the first time, I had managed such a defiant response.

"Well, I am not too," the school bully said, looking at his henchmen. They were either cracking their knuckles, or glaring at me with blazing eyes. "All right..." I assured the bully, as I looked around again, to only be met with merciless faces.

"I will give it to you… 90 years later." I pushed one of the accomplices and he fell to the ground with a hard crack. He must have hit the ground with his ankle and broke it, as I had used force and not just pushing him away, as I wanted to make sure that he would be permanently injured. Okay, maybe not permanently, but at least he wouldn't chase after me.

The rest of the accomplices took out their specially-chosen eco-friendly sticks and waved it in the air and started to chase after me. I could see the school bully walking slowly and on his face was a grin. The last thing I could see as I rounded a corner was his henchmen's determined faces…

5 minutes later…

"Ouch," I muttered as I picked myself up. I looked around. I was in the same spot as where the henchman I had pushed aside was when he fell. Except that it wasn't me pushing the henchman. It was I who was being pushed. It was exactly the same thing that had happened just now in my mind, except that I did not run after pushing down the henchman, I got pushed down instead.

"Are you okay?" A prefect came towards me. He was in his prefect uniform and holding a pen and his handbook.

"Do I look like I am?" I retorted back, rubbing my bruises.

He suddenly ran away without another word, and I shouted at him. After he was gone, I sighed. That prefect was useless after all-

Suddenly, he came back with the discipline master. The discipline master was a former policeman with the local police force. He was very kind to those who were victims, but turned very fierce when dealing with the predators. "Are you okay?" he asked kindly.

This time round I didn't answer "Do I look like I am?" to him as he was the discipline master after all. Prefects were still acceptable. "No," I replied. "You need a lot of plasters and antiseptic," the discipline master said thoughtfully.

He and the prefect helped me up and together we went to the General Office where the discipline master led me to the sickbay. The prefect left after we reached the entrance of the office.

"Now sit here," he ordered firmly. I sat there, wondering why he said that as after all, I couldn't even move.

As I looked around the sickbay, I realized that the sickbay was actually the only part of the school that was like a home. It consisted of three single-storey beds, both side by side, like a mini hospital ward. There was a table beside the beds, which had all sorts of medical equipment.

Plasters, bandages, arm slings, crutches…You named it, they had it. The only thing they didn't have was the machines like CT scanners and X-Ray scanners. It was too big for the school and also too expensive to maintain. I tried to move around and succeeded, but it was very painful. So that meant that I had broken a bone or something.

The discipline master came back with antiseptic, cotton buds, plasters, and an arm sling. He put all those down on the table and put the arm sling around my arm, as my arm had shortened abnormally and it was swollen. Next he put antiseptic with cotton buds all over the bruises and cuts and wrapped it with plaster, but I think he shouldn't have done that as wounds heal faster without plasters.

Finally, he ushered me out of the room and as I was walking out of the office, he told me to call my parents using the phone at the administration officer's desk and go home, as I was injured too much.

As I waited for my father to come and pick me up, I sat on the sofa, feeling relaxed. Suddenly, I froze. What if the bully came back for me again? But I didn't dare tell the discipline master. If not the bully would beat me up even worse than this. What should I do? I was literally brushing my hair back and forth with my good arm.

3 days later…

As I had visited a clinic after that, the doctor issued me a medical certificate stating I had 3 days of medical leave from school to recover my injuries. I kept on lamenting on how boring it was at home and finally realized that school was in fact, occupying our time. Without it, our life would be boring if you kept on watching television and playing computer. Wouldn't you get bored if you kept on playing a particular game? You would just feel like doing something else.

I was practically blaming myself for having accumulated homework until the next day when I returned to school, the teacher apologized for not coming for the past 3 days! That meant that my vacation was worth it! I happily gave him my medical certificate and whistled while I was on my way to my seat.

It seems, from my close friend, that the whole class had been split up for the past 3 days and they had missed English, Math and Science, but surprisingly had been kept on track for Mother Tongue, as my form teacher was the subject teacher for the 3 subjects, the whole class was practically in rage mode.

Even the monitor, Jeremy, was arguing with the form teacher that they should have been taken to the computer lab, while the female monitor, Julie, was trying to calm him down as he was spitting saliva all over as an exaggeration of his anger. Everyone was angry, both at the form teacher, and the mother tongue subject teacher.

Suddenly, Jeremy went towards me and slammed on my table. That gave me a shock. "Yes?" I said in surprise.

"You weren't here for the past 3 days, right?"

"Yes…Why?"

"You were having a great time at home?"

"Not exactly…It was medical leave…"

"Well that's unfair, because everyone here suffered burden except you!" Jeremy shouted.

"But I can't predict when I'm going to be injured, plus I didn't know about our teacher's absence…"

"You can forget about playing with me forever during recess. You are never my friend anymore."

Over the next few days, everyone must have heard about Jeremy's point of view, because they avoided me and played by themselves, while pointing at me and angrily muttering. I held my head low, in embarrassment. What did I do to make them be biased against me? It wasn't my fault that I was absent…

Suddenly, I saw the bully storming towards me. "Protection money!" he jeered. I grabbed his collar while tiptoeing on the ground. "Thanks for making me lose my money and friendship. It's all because of you that Jeremy hates me!"

"Well, it's not my fault, right?" The school bully laughed. His accomplices laughed too, some cursing me as stupid, with no logic and common sense. In the background, I could imagine myself beating the school bully up and down until he couldn't move anymore. His accomplices would run away. And I would emerge victorious. But I couldn't do that…

Suddenly I saw Jeremy approaching me. I couldn't read his eyes, but something told me it was hatred. Could it be he was joining forces with the bully? How could my day get even worse?

As he was approaching me, he called out. "I'm sorry… I know it's not right for myself to say that I'm never your friend again. I was impulsive so that's why… Who are them?" he gestured towards the school bully and his henchmen.

"So he's Jeremy," the school bully asked.

"Yes." I replied.

"Well then, Jeremy. A few days ago we beat him up because he never gave his amount of protection money to us. After that he claimed he lost your friendship because of me and I take outrage because taking protection money is for making sure we don't find trouble with that person. We are bullies who think. We don't just attack anyone on the streets, unless that person hasn't handed up their money."

"This guy told me something that I think is utterly ridiculous. Like what I said, we are bullies who think. We are not careless. We know what is right and what is wrong. And I think this is wrong because our beating is related to your friendship? I don't think so. It is never related whatsoever."

"Hence," he said, gesturing to his henchmen. "I only regain my normalness if I send the person into what I call, the Torture Chamber. If he is tortured until an extent when I feel is satisfactory, I will only release him then. If not he will be continued to be tortured."

"Henchmen," he ordered. "Make sure these two boys are tortured to the fullest extent. I want every single bone in them to be cracked, even blood to come out."

They all nodded and took out their sticks, except now they had upgraded it with sharp ends. It looked scary although I knew they were just sticks. Half of the men went towards Jeremy and backed him against a wall while the other half did the same towards me, with the bully in the middle, surveying the situation again with a grin.

Suddenly, I could hear a very loud crack.

"That is what happens when you mess up with the monitor," he retorted.

Then the henchmen made me kneel down and somewhere in the neck something cracked. "Then this is what happens when you mess with someone of higher authority than you."

Jeremy looked at me. I was becoming more and more unconscious by the moment. Stars started shining at me randomly in my eyes. My muscles felt weak. My bones started to relax. My legs started to have numbness. All of these added up to me wanting to sleep. How nice it was to sleep. Except I didn't know that I didn't know that these actions were happening…

Suddenly, Jeremy started to fight the group of henchmen surrounding him with a right uppercut. I could see the discipline master rushing towards us with all the prefects armed and ready. Of course, it wasn't real again…

I looked up. Jeremy was now being pinned to the ground. He must have fought until he was tired out and fell to the ground selflessly. I looked up at the bully, with mercy. He just returned my begging with a very evil smile. A smile that told me his words just now in the earlier dream did really happen.

"Henchmen, give them the final twist."

I didn't like the sound of that. As I heard the henchmen readying themselves and their weapons to do that, I prayed silently in my mind. Good bye, Mum. Good bye, Dad. Remember to take care about Darius. Continue to live your own lives…

I closed my eyes and opened it again after I heard a loud yell.

The bully had apparently fallen down. And I knew who made him.

The discipline master was standing right in front of me, checking my pulse. I couldn't see him because my eyes were now shut as I was entering a coma stage but I saw his reflection through my eyes.

The henchmen were all scattered around the area, some fleeing the scene while others were being chased by prefects. So it was real after all. My brain didn't project a dream again.

I felt so happy that the bully was conquered finally. I was so happy to return home…

Any relation to real or deceased people is entirely coincidental, and don't even think about it, bachi-bazoouk.

If you have any suggestions, feel free to write it below…

A product of S.D. Studios

February 2015