CHAPTER 5: DID THAT JUST HAPPEN?

"This boy should be suspended! Expelled! Hell, might as well lock him up for what he did to our Hunter!"

I couldn't look anyone in the eye. I sat in the principal's office, hands still stained with a red hue. I was there but I wasn't. Office Birch stood by the door in silence. The constant back and forth yelling between the principal and Hunter's parents drowned my ears but it didn't matter. A gun could've gone off next to my ear and I probably wouldn't even flinch. I just kept staring at my hands, and if I tried to look elsewhere I would just imagine those same terrified eyes glaring at me.

After the incident in the canteen, Officer Birch had arrived. I didn't manage to get his reaction to it all but it was probably the same as everyone else. He escorted me out and immediately to the principal's office without saying a word. Everyone watched me being dragged away like some sort of freak show. I guess I was.

God, I still can't get those images out of my head.

"Mr and Mrs Vasquez, please," the principal said in her best calm tone. "What happened today was… unspeakable. Your son was rushed to the hospital and thankfully, the doctors say he's going to be okay. Further, the incident happened on school grounds and so Mr Pride will be dealt with according to the school's decision."

"Where is this boy's parents? I'd like to have a word about their son's disgusting behavior," Mrs Vasquez stated.

I could feel her burning gaze. One of the first things I noticed was that the two Vasquez parents seemed wealthy, and wore clothes to match. Mrs Vasquez was accompanied with all sorts of jewellry and curly hair that shaped around her head like peacock feathers. Mr Vasquez took on a sharp three piece suit, a stern face and flat black hair combed so straight that it looked like it was painted on his head.

"It's just the boy and his mother," the principal replied, " and so far we haven't been able to get a hold of her."

"Hmph, no father," Mrs Vasquez sneered. "Makes sense."

My hands were on fire but I restrained myself. My mind was all over the place. Nothing felt normal. The entire time Mr Vasquez didn't say a single word, his hands clenching his crossed arms.

Mrs Vasquez spoke again to the principal in her harsh voice, "do what you deem necessary. We will be back."

The two Vasquez parents stormed out the room, leaving a tense moment of silence. Principal Thuldritch fiddled with the buttons on the cuff of her grey suit.

"Mr Pride," the principal uttered, "you have been enrolled in Thornbrook for less than a year and yet, you have caused more harm to this school than anyone else in the past decade."

I stayed silent.

"The Vasquez family have every reason to press for assault charges, which they very well might do," the principal paused, "but I have convinced them that since you are minor, it would be appropriate to consult your parent or legal guardian before taking any serious action. You are in contact with your mother, yes?"

There is a slight hesitation before I answer. "Yes but… she's recently been deployed."

The principal let out a deep sigh. "Right. She did let us know but I doubt she would've expected this."

The words hit me like a knife to the chest. Everything she taught me, everything she tried her damndest to raise me to be. I betrayed all of it.

"For now, we will assign you a temporary suspension until we get a hold of your mother. That will be all." The principal stood up from her chair. "Officer Birch, please escort Mr Pride off the premises and ensure he gets home safely."

Birch stepped forward. "Right away, Principal Thuldritch."

The resource officer firmly took me by the arm and before I knew it we were out of the dreadful office and traversing the haunting hallways. I continued to hang my head low, dragging my arms along with me. Officer Birch still refused to say a word. It was the first time I had seen him today but there was no jolly laughter, no obscure cop movie reference, just silence. When we finally reached the entrance courtyard of the school, it began to drizzle, the small drops of water hitting the back of my head like needles.

It was once we reached the entrance gates that the Officer spoke, "you okay?"

I wiped a bit of snot from my nose, "yeah."

No, of course I wasn't and Birch knew it too. There was another long silence as we both stood in the light rain.

"I ain't gonna lie to you, kid," Birch said to me, "what you did was pretty serious."

"Yeah. Pretty serious, he says."

"Hey." He put his heavy hand on my shoulder. "I've only known you a couple weeks, but I know you're a good kid and everyone can tell you feel like crap for what happened. It ain't your-"

"Fault?" My voice grew louder. "It's not my fault that I can't control my own emotions? It's not my fault that even after everything Mom taught me I still can't do anything right? It's not my fault that I almost beat another person to death!?"

Again, Officer Birch didn't say anything.

"You were there Birch!" I rambled. "You saw what happened or… the aftermath. Everyone looked at me like a fiend or some sort of rabid animal! I reacted like one… I was one! And you probably think I'm one too…"

It all started flooding out.

"And what he said! He just– the way he– how could I let that go? How could anyone!? I did what I thought was… but I knew it wasn't– SHIT!"

I kicked the wet ground beneath me. I shut my eyes and clenched my fists trying to slow myself down but everything was going too fast. It was all too much.

"Listen Arthur." He stooped down to meet my eye-level, his hand still on my shoulder. "I'm not saying what you did was right but you're still a kid. There's a lot of things you don't understand about this world. Heck, you're still trying to understand your world. Trust me, I've seen some real monsters - and you're definitely not one of them."

Amidst the whirlwind rampaging in my head, listening to him talk felt soothing. It was so… strange. I just looked at him, a tough face with a soft expression. I tried my best to keep it together but that hasn't been going great for me so far. My eyes began to give in as I felt the tears roll down my cheeks. I had hoped the slight drizzle would've covered it up but Officer Birch just smiled.

"Heyyy come on kid." He lightly punched me in the shoulder. "You'll be alright. I know you're strong."

Strong. To be a Pride… was to be strong.

"Pimp's don't cry," Birch said out of the blue.

"What?" I replied with confusion as I pushed aside the tears on my face. It was bizarre enough that it actually momentarily disrupted my sadness.

"'Pimp's don't cry'", he repeated. "It's from The Other Guys."

A soft smile crept on my face, "oh."

Soon after we both started chuckling. Even after everything that happened, Birch still managed to slip in another movie reference. The moment helped in keeping the emotional storm at bay.

After a while of sitting in silence, as the both of us listened to the soft drizzle of the rain, Birch offered to drive me home. However, I insisted that I wanted to walk alone. I still needed time to clear my head. I thanked him for his counsel and he went back inside the school, probably to help clean up the mess I left behind. The entrance to the school was completely empty, leaving only me in the courtyard with the bronze statue of the three hounds looming over. I touched the stone pendant around my neck that mom gave me. I studied the spartan symbol again.

I remember what she said before she left, 'Keep this close. If you ever feel alone or lost, just remember that I'm here. We all are.'

I grasped the pendant tightly.

So much has happened in one day. There was a lot to process. Even just how the fight went down was strange. How I was able to move like that and take Hunter down. Also that vengeful look Hunter had in his eyes and then the fearful tremble in his voice after, it's like his emotions spiked whenever he interacted with me. Then that sudden outburst I had; I've never ever been that angry before, never hurt someone that bad. It scared me. And those voices I heard, I know one of them was mom, one of them was probably from the chaos between Hunter and I, but there was another one I couldn't quite put my finger on.

I sat contemplating in the shadow of the statue, the rain trickling on my forehead. The more I paid attention to the area surrounding me, the more I noticed the small details and for some reason I thought I caught one of the shadows of the hounds' shift a little.

Weird, must be my imagination.

Then again, another weird movement.

It's been a long day, my eyes are probably getting delirious.

All of a sudden I heard a loud creaking noise above me, like something being scraped across metal. I reactively jumped up and look towards the statue as I stepped away.

Yeah, it's still just a regular statu- wait. Are their eyes… glowing?

I watch as the two hounds, situated on the left and right, begin to morph color as the eyes pulse a sinister red. A sleek black starts to coat the two bear-sized mastiffs as they begin to… wait- that can't be right - they're coming to life!? Like the shattering of glass, the two hounds (once statues) break free from the metal and land on the stone pavement in front of me. They bared their razor sharp teeth with a low growl. They were looking at me like prey.

"What the fu-"

I was cut off as the hound on the right leapt towards me, trying to impale me with its claws. I would've been skewered if I hadn't lunged out of the way in time. However, the other one was too quick and clipped me on the arm, ripping through my sleeve and leaving a bloody scratch as I screamed in pain. It goes for another swipe but this time I manage to move out of the way as I instinctively return with a punch right on its snout. That felt cool but probably wasn't the best thing to do in the moment as it just shook it's head and growled at me louder.

I winced. "Oops… sorry."

Using that small opening, I made a break for the gates but the hounds were too fast. The two of them blocked my exit by herding me up against the stone base of the statue. Crap, this is not good. Every direction I tried to run in, a hound found its way in front of me. I was trapped. My whole world just shifted from 'what the hell is happening?' to 'survive'.

"Goooood scary killer dogs," I said trying to keep them back.

Yeah Arthur, sure, that'll do it. Just wave your hand in front of them… THIS ISN'T JURASSIC WORLD.

The hounds were getting closer, snarling as they edge their way towards me. My mind started running, trying to think of some way out… nothing.

This is it. Oh God… I'M GONNA DI– STOP IT ARTHUR. We are NOT freaking out right now. Stay strong, hold rank. Plus, if this is how you go– I ain't going down without a fight.

I took a deep breath, enduring through the pain of a cut open arm and in one last brave move, I yelled, "Bring it on!"

The first one pounced. I let that internal reflex take over me again. I ducked just as the hound opened its mouth for a bite and I witnessed it fly over me, smacking into the stone behind me. I rolled out of the way. The next one goes for the same diving bite but I'm ready for it. Just before it made contact with me, using all my strength, I came down on it with a hammer fist directly on its head and smacked it into the ground hearing it yelp in pain.

"Boom!" I shouted victoriously. "Who's the big dog now!?"

Not gonna lie, pretty proud of that one.

Too bad I didn't notice the other one. That's what you get for showboating I guess. I didn't realize the other hound would recover so quickly and it came charging straight towards me. My reaction was too slow this time. I was expecting a world of hurt but a thunderous thwack rang through the air.

"Don't get distracted, kid!"

Out of nowhere, Officer Birch swiped the hound on the side of the jaw with his baton. I didn't even see where he came from. He was almost bigger than the hounds.

"We gotta go, now!" he yelled.

I wasn't going to argue with that. After momentarily incapacitating the two hounds, I hastily followed Birch as he led me out of the gates of Thornbrook and straight to his patrol car. I got in the passenger seat as he wasted no time starting the engine.

"Holy shit, Birch!" I exclaimed, struggling to catch my breath. "That was insane! You wouldn't believe me but those- those THINGS came to life and they- they… attacked me… and I hit one but it didn't do much… and I started freaking out but I was like 'No Arthur, you're strong' and I felt really cool– AND THEN YOU CAME IN AND-"

"I believe you kid," he responded, "but we gotta go!"

Birch seemed to fiddle with the pedals for a bit until grunting in frustration.

"Damn these shoes!"

The officer ripped off his shoes to reveal…hooves? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?

"What the hell, Birch!?" I jumped. "Something's wrong with your-"

"Nothing's wrong with them kid! Just buckle up!"

The tires screeched as he pulled out the parking spot and drove at a questionably high speed for an officer, swerving through traffic.

"They're just dogs, they can't catch up to a-"

Just as I said that, one of the hounds appeared out of nowhere and rammed against the side of the car.

"Those aren't dogs, kid." Birch caught the wheel, stopping it from spinning out of control. "Those are Hellhounds, and there's two of them."

Hellhounds?

"What are you talking about!?" I yelled, before being interrupted by another bang, this time from the other side of the car.

"Listen to me kid," Birch said among the chaos, "shit just got real. I'll explain everything later. Right now just make sure they don't steer us off the road."

I looked out from my window and saw the two hounds – sorry, hellhounds – tailing closely behind us at an unnatural speed. Both of them split up and each took one side of the car. Looks like they're gonna ram us again.

"Kid!" Birch shouted, "On my mark, swing open your door as hard as you can!"

"What!?"

"Just listen to me!"

There was no point in arguing, I just had to trust him. I focused on the hellhound that was on my side, watching it creating a larger gap from itself and the car. Taking a quick glance on Birch's side, the other hellhound was doing the same.

"Birch!"

"Just FOCUS Arthur!"

The wait was killing me. My hellhound had positioned itself in-line with the front half of the car whilst the Birch's hellhound moved to the back half. They were trying to completely swerve our car. What came next was the violent charge of both hellhounds as they barreled towards us. Uh oh. I gripped the handle of the door as hard as I could.

Then Birch screamed, "Now!"

As instructed I swung my door open with as much force as possible. The timing was almost perfect. The hellhound on my side was met with a door to the face. With the combined force of its charge and the car, it got knocked completely to the side. The other hellhound, however, made contact with the right rear side of the car causing the car to drift to the left. Birch seemed to know it was coming though as he wrestled with the steering wheel, using the momentum to swing back and slam into the remaining hellhound. I watched as the two terrifying hounds took some serious damage and retreated into the shadows, which only freaked me out even more.

Birch let out a guttural call, "WHOO! Now that's how you drive!"

I just sat there stunned- scared- pumped- honestly I don't know what the hell I was feeling.

"Did that just happen?" I struggled to breathe.

"Just calm down, Arthur," he reassured. "It'll be fine."

I looked back down at his legs and was shocked at the sight of them covered in fur with those same hooves pressing on the pedals.

"Ah! What the fuck's up with your legs man!? Why'd you take your pants off!? You, like, half-bison or something!?"

"CALM DOWN," he ordered, gripping the steering wheel tightly. "My legs are better than ever, thank you very much. And for the record, I'm a satyr. Half-goat, not bison!"

"A satyr!?"

This day just keeps getting weirder.

Birch just continued to drive through the streets of Brooklyn. It didn't take long for me to realize that we were actually leaving Brooklyn, driving further and further into Long Island.

"Hey, wait." I looked at the passing buildings. "Birch, where are we going? This isn't the way home."

He kept his eyes on the road. "Home ain't safe anymore kid. I said I'll explain everything."

My thoughts started racing. "Hold on, I can't just leave. What about school? A-a-and… the apartment!? I have to take care of it while mom's gone! MOM. What's she gonna-"

"Arthur!" Birch stopped me. "It'll be fine. You just have to trust me, and your mother would understand."

What's that supposed to mean?

Once again, I was stuck. I couldn't argue with him. What else am I going to do? Birch was right. I just saw statues come to life and then try to kill me. Who knows what's safe anymore? Next thing you know my bed might try and devour me while I sleep. I hold onto my pendant, even tighter than before.

Birch has been there for me so far, so I'm going to have to trust him… him and his weird goat condition.

"Do you even know where we're going?" I asked him.

"Of course, I do."

"Well, in case you don't..." I pulled out my phone. "Eli hooked me up. Look, we got an upgraded GPS, maps, data, everything."

"No kidding. Let me see that…"

"Yeah, here." I handed him my phone.

"...that's cool. Look at that–" He instantly threw out the window.

"Hey, asshole, what'd you do that for!?"

"It's for your own good, Arthur, trust me."

"Oh, come on!"

"Trust me kid," he said again. "You'll thank me later."

I clenched my fist in frustration before taking another deep breath. "Fine."

I laid back in my seat, annoyed that so much had happened and I understood none of it. It went silent for a bit as we continued to drive.

"Birch," I said.

"Yeah?"

"Did you make two Bad Boys references earlier?"

Birch stopped stroking his moustache and smirked. "Yeah."

And that's the story so far, hope you guys enjoyed those first 5 chapters!