Authore's Notes: I don't think the M rating is in order yet, but this chapter describes bullying that you may find disturbing if you are squeamish. This chapter ends my tribute to the movie Evil (Ondskan). Despite its flaws, the movie had a lot of good things going for it. Kinda like Bully.
Chapter 9: Ondska i sin renaste form
(Evil in its purest form)
Larry could hold a long grudge for someone who wasn't Johnny, but Tad Spencer really was something else. Whenever the two had a close encounter, the usually quite relaxed, even jolly preppie tensed and seemed to inhabit all the cold hatred in the world. When he had still been a greaser, Larry had always gotten a sense of accomplishment from seeing that, but now it wasn't as welcome a sight.
The preppies had dragged him out of the dingy room where he had spent the last hour and found out that the place had been inside the shed of Harrington house, the one where they usually kept the lawn mower. Then, they had gagged him with a knotted kerchief that vaguely smelled of perfume and tied him down, his limbs held in place by padded restraint cuffs that were tied to four metal rods protruding from the ground. Larry's body was mostly supported by the ground, but he was tied just tightly enough so he couldn't move.
The preppies seemed ominously nervous as they stood around him, quietly. They seemed a bit confused, peering at each other quizzically. They seemed to gesture each other to take a good look at Tad: he was content creeping Larry out by staring right into or right through his victim's eyes and it seemed that the ex-greaser wasn't the only one who was creeped out.
Derby Harrington stood a bit further from Larry, looking uninterested. Uncharacteristically of him, he seemed to have voluntarily sunk into the background while Tad pulled the strings. There must've been a reason for that, but it eluded the tied up young man who was feeling increasingly uncomfortable splayed across the cold, damp lawn.
Bif and Parker were missing, so presumably they were waiting for them. Pinky wasn't around either, but Larry assumed that she wasn't supposed to. They usually kept her in the dark when it came to their dirtier business.
Suddenly, something came over Larry and blocked his sight while snorting and sniffing noisily.
"Chester! Don't touch him, who knows where he's been!" Chad scolded as he pulled his stout dog away from the ex-greaser who was trying to move his head away from the slobbering animal. The other preppies chuckled at them lightly, unwinding a bit.
Some minutes passed and then, finally, Parker and Bif came from the preppies' stronghold. As the two were greeted by impatient but half-hearted insults, Larry turned his head to the side to see them. They were carrying four buckets, two of which were steaming in the cool night. What was in them, feces? Well, Larry had always thought that preps were full of shit, but wow...
Tad cocked his brow and walked up to the buckets to inspect them. Then, he dipped his fingers to each one. Okay, whatever was in them probably wasn't crap after all. The preppie seemed to approve of the contents and gestured Bif and Parker to follow him to Larry. The tied up youth tried to move his head higher to see what was in the buckets, but no avail. The preppies were snickering at his nervousness.
"Alright then gentlemen. And dog. Time to bathe this subhuman waste!" Tad said with a snarl and grabbed one of the buckets. Then he threw its contents at Larry.
… It was just water. Hot water. The moment Larry's skin came into contact with it, his entire body tensed. When it splashed all over the boy's skin, he tried to scream, but the improvised gag muffled it.
"Ha ha, too hot for your liking, Romano?" Tad sneered. The preps laughed at Larry as his eyes screwed shut and he furiously shook his head side to side.
"Oh? More of that, then!" Tad said maniacally, his voice cracking a bit in the middle of the sentence. He took another steaming bucket and upturned it above the trapped, struggling boy.
Another wave of searing pain took over him and made him bite his teeth together as far as his gag let him. He tried to concentrate on getting away from the heat while the steam crept from his skin into the cold night. He vaguely remembered the refreshing feeling when you walk to the cold section of a store during summer.
"Don't you dare block it out, Peanut old boy! Next bucket!" Tad ordered, his voice revealing that he was quite exhilarated.
Then, just when he thought things were tolerably cooled down, he was doused with water that was just as cold as the previous had been hot and, for a moment, though, his body seemed to be confused whether it was hot or cold. Nevertheless, it was horrible. Larry let out another muffled shout as he tried to cope.
"Ha ha ha... Well, he should be a clean enough right about now. No need for the last bucket, right?" Gord tittered, his laugh seeming a bit forced.
"Yeah, so um, is he really okay?" Parker asked, sharing the same, slightly uneasy tone.
"He should be, if he's even one fraction the man that I am. The water was hot, but not enough to burn", Tad chuckled. He then inhaled deep and looked somewhere into the distance, looking like he had a feeling of nostalgia.
"Well then, we'll leave him to you, like I promised. Just one thing though", Derby started with a strict voice, "The moment he starts showing anything resembling hypothermia, you let him off."
The blond clique leader was dead serious as he stared at Tad with his cold eyes and the meaning of it was very clear to both. He would not tolerate anything that could possibly be harmful to his family's name or his clique.
"Don't worry, Derby. There's already a messenger on the way and I will personally keep him company until the next phase", Tad promised with a reassuring tone.
The other preppies left, leaving a much amused Tad Spencer with the thoroughly soaked, shivering ex-greaser. As Derby walked away, he gave the remaining preppie and the fourth, unused bucket a doubtful glare over his shoulder.
"Well then", Tad started as his leader vanished from his sight, "was it all worth it, Peanut?"
Larry, of course, couldn't have answered him even if he had wanted to. He was not only gagged, but he was desperately trying to cope with the cold.
"You just have no idea, do you. What kind of a thrashing my father gave me. I mean, it was already bad that you decided to make him cranky by wreaking havoc at the warehouse, you just had to leave a nice little message", the preppie said bitterly as he looked at his victim, who, to him, seemed like he wasn't listening.
"'Tad sucks cock', you wrote", he growled with an utterly disgusted face and picked up the last bucket of water.
"You just have no idea. No idea what I had to go through to convince him that I don't", he said as he dumped the remaining ice cold water on Larry. The already freezing boy twitched and clenched his fists.
"What did I ever do to you, anyway? I bet I didn't do anything in particular, you just decided to come after me because I'm rich. Can't let anyone have anything nice, can you", the preppie hissed and tried to control his breathing, which had picked up some speed. He was getting worked up.
Suddenly, he perked up and turned his head. A look of horror spread across his face as he heard a low voice mumbling about something that vaguely sounded like "rash" and "down there". Immediately, the boy put down the empty bucket and dashed to the shed. It was at an angle that Larry couldn't see, but he heard Tad open the door and pick up something that made a loud shuffling noise. Then, his eyesight was blocked by what seemed to be a green tarpaulin.
Then Larry realized – Tad was going to leave him. He started to make as much noise as possible, which wasn't much in his state. It did resonate to his ears, which blocked any sounds in his surroundings, so he shouted without having any idea if there actually was someone nearby or not. He struggled against his restraints and screamed into his tight gag, but nobody seemed to come.
When he ran out of steam, he was left in the dark fall night, under a tarpaulin. It didn't provide any kind of protection from the cold as the boy lay in the soaked ground, his clothes stuck to his cooled down skin. And time, it went by so slowly it was like torture. Larry had no track of it, but it felt like forever. His shudders had turned into violent trembling and he was starting to lose the feel of his limbs. Only two things went through his mind: how cold it was and the heartrending fear that nobody would come back to let him loose.
Not being able to hang onto anything positive, he started to wonder what the world would be like after his death. Not any different, he supposed. In fact, he starter to think that maybe the world would be a better place without him. From there, it wasn't much of a leap to start wishing that he hadn't ever born. All of the parts of his brain that could've told him that he was being childish and pessimistic were under just as much stress as the rest of them, so no damns were given.
As more time passed, Larry started to feel somehow light-headed. When he heard a human voice, he could hardly even comprehend what it implied: that he could be saved. At first, there was just one voice, but soon there was a whole jumble of agitated voices around him. Then, someone pulled the tarpaulin off him.
"Holy shit", a rather familiar, deep voice said.