Thank you catmedium for your review. I hope that this chapter isn't to short…
A pariah: an outcast. That's what I was. As a child I realized this cruel fact. My hatred towards my parents grew as I did and it wouldn't be long before I was consumed by it. At school I suffered the same torment each and every day. Then one day it happened; the prince fought back.
I was twelve when it happened, and it started out as a regular day. "Jeremiah it's time to go to school." It was one of the few servants we had who woke me; my dad didn't care enough to anymore. I flew out to the school bus and was greeted by swear words and glares.
"Poor pwivlaged pwince can get on the bus by himsewf now." If you can believe it I was still sitting next to the fat jerk. I sat down on the small edge of seat that wasn't covered by the other ghost and he glared at me.
"Mistewr skinny here thinks that I am too fat. Ain't thawt wight mistewr skinny? You and your pawents are all skinny littwle weaklings." Anger flared up in my chest. Not because he had called me a weakling, but because he had associated me with my parents. My eyes glowed dangerously.
"Is poowr littwle Jewimiah angwy? I bet youwr pawents-" He never finished his sentence. I had punched him in the gut so hard that it left an imprint of my hand in his blubbery body. He stuttered stupidly and stared at where I had hit him. He was silent the rest of the way.
I left the bus first and was shocked to find that people were whispering about me. Well, more than usual anyway. They stared at me with fear in their eyes- and I loved it. Fred Knightly stalked up to me with an evil look of pure hatred stretched across his face.
"How dare you think that you can take over my spot as a bully Dark! No one is stronger than me at this school, especially not a pampered brat like you!" He leapt toward me and tried to punch me in the face.
I grabbed his fist and twisted it. His face changed from menacing, to surprised, to pain. He screamed in agony but I still didn't let go. All of my hatred for him was causing me to twist harder. Ghosts may not have bones, but we still feel pain.
Finally I let go and Fred stepped back from me. He was crying and screaming still. Then he ran off in the direction of the school. The whispers grew louder and everyone backed away from me like I was poison.
Mrs. Banshee came running out of the school. "Jeremiah Dark, come with me this instant!" She grabbed my arm and pulled me back into the building. She took me to the principal's office again and I saw Fred sitting in a chair holding his wrist in agony.
Mr. Stein was glaring at me with more hatred than I had seen in him before. Mrs. Banshee left and Principal Stein switched his gaze to Fred. "Mr. Knightly, would you please tell me what happened to you out on the school grounds?" Fred let out a fake wail and whimpered a little as he began to speak.
"You see sir; I was just walking on the lawn with my friends when we saw Jeremiah." I blinked and realized that he was going to lie. Anger swelled as he continued. "I walked over to him to say hello when- when…" He broke into false tears.
"Please try to continue if you can Mr. Knightly." Mr. Stein said. Fred blubbered a little bit and then continued.
"Jeremiah turned and attacked me for no reason, sir! Now I'll never be able to use my arm again!" He continued crying and the principal glared at me. Fred had a smirk on his face that only I could see.
"But-" I began. The principal cut me off and glared down at me.
"It seems that we have a future inhabitant of the jail on our hands." He said. "You have been expelled from this school." I didn't know whether to cheer or cry. Now I really was an outcast.
The bus once again took me home early. When I stepped off the bus driver slammed the doors and sped off at a breakneck speed. Maybe he was afraid of me. I entered the big empty castle and went to my room. My parent's probably didn't care that I was expelled. Or they didn't know.
The next morning I was woken up for school again. An idea formed in my head and stuck there. I got on the bus welcomed by whispers and stretched out on my usual seat. My usual partner wasn't there today. I got off the bus and walked behind the school; no one dared to follow.
What was I doing back there? I was training. Eventually I learned new powers and could stay invisible and intangible for hours at a time. A routine formed in my daily life. No one at my castle even knew that I had been expelled. The fat kid on the bus never came back.
After awhile could do other things with my powers. I could create shields, ecto-blasts, and even split myself into four different ghosts. All of my muscles grew bigger and my power grew. Someone stupid enough to venture into my training grounds became a target.
Even the way I looked changed. My hair grew longer, my eyes more red, and I wore more impressive clothing. If you had taken a picture of me then and compared it to a picture of me before I was expelled you probably wouldn't know that it was the same ghost.
My parents were still clueless. In fact I hardly ever saw them anymore. By now all of our servants had left us and the castle echoed eerily. Once I saw my mother staring out one of the windows and almost wanted to say something to her. I wanted to force her to look at what I had become. I remained silent and snuck past her.
Everyone always kept away from me. I didn't mind at all. Actually I preferred it. Some days instead of training I would fly around the Ghost Zone and enjoy the silence. No one saw me because I was invisible, and I always somehow knew where all of the doors led to.
Then there were days where I would stay invisible and listen to what ghosts talked about. One topic in particular came up the most. "What are we planning to do to get rid of the King and Queen?" Instead of feeling scared I felt a strange excitement.
The castle was still empty except for my family. One day I simply decided to walk around. The number of rooms amazed me and most of them were full of weapons. A sword with a skull in the handle caught my eye. I picked it up and from that day forward trained with that too.
I became quite skilled with it and had started combining it with my powers. I could conduct stronger ecto-blasts through it, and it was a backup source of energy if I became weak.
Then one day on the bus it stopped at a strange new place. It was a large castle with gears all around it. Out of the castle came a baby faced kid wearing a purple robe. He had a scar underneath one of his eyes and clocks on his clothes. He floated over and climbed onto the bus.
The only empty seat was next to me. Since the new kid didn't know any better he floated over and sat down. His voice was slightly high pitched but I assumed that it would drop after puberty. "I'm Clockwork! Something told me that I should go to school today." He said.
I blinked and looked at him. He had a secret smile on his lips like he knew what would happen. I liked his attitude. The other ghost's were whispering to each other as they stared at me waiting to see what I would do.
A grin slipped onto my face. "Welcome to the Ghost Zone's worst and only school" I said shaking his hand. "I'm-" I paused. Did I really want to be called Jeremiah anymore?
I smiled wider and said, "I'm the Ghost Zone's future king; Pariah Dark."
Now you know where his name comes from! Who else thinks that Clockwork is cute as a kid?
