The Wrath of Chris

“Chris, Chris time to wake up”, came his mother’s words through a heavy fog of dreams. Her hand nudged at him to wake and show some signs of life. He pretended to ignore it. The hand became more insistent, pushing harder, almost knocking him out of bed.

“Chris, come on, I’m late for work. Get up!”

“Maaaauuum, stop. I’ll get up, just go away”, responded Chris. The only thing he didn’t want was to have to go to school today. There was going to be someone specifically waiting for him there that he didn’t care to confront.  

For months now, Chris had been the whipping boy at the end of “Stanley’s” whip. Ever since Stanley had overheard a conversation he had had with Martin, his best friend, Stanley had made it his mission to torment and humiliate him. He had turned into a real bully over something very trivial.

Unfortunately Chris had been talking to Martin about an imaginary friend he had had since he was 4 years old. He was now 9. Martin never discouraged him from talking about “Abe” because he thought it was kind of cool to see and have someone around that no one else could see. But this time the wrong person knew about Chris’ “friend”.

Why Stanley could not just mind his own business Chris did not know. And even when Chris had tried to cover himself by telling Stanley it was just a joke, it had not stopped Stanley from attacking him anyway. In fact he would go out of his way to purposely find him.

Yesterday, was no exception. Before he had left school to return home he had found a note slipped into his locker from Stanley. It read:

“Imaginations are for losers with make believe friends,

Everyone knows what kind of people need make believe friends,

They are crazy! And crazy people give me a purpose in life.

I’m going to rip the crazy right out of you, because I can. And because I want to see just how crazy you can get.

You tell anybody about this or show this note to anybody and I WILL kill you. You got that Loser?  - S”

Chris had stuffed the note into his jacket pocket and ran all the way home. He just could not understand why he was always the butt of everyone’s jokes, why the other kids always picked on him and played malicious pranks on him.

One of the most recent pranks involved him in the locker room after gym class. He went into the shower - his first mistake - because while he was there someone, probably Stanley and his entourage, broke into his locker and took the only set of clothes he had. They put his clothes in a sink and poured dyes of different colors, mostly pink, all over them. They must have found the dyes in art class or brought them in from home. Either way, Chris didn’t have anything to wear once he stepped from the shower unless he wanted to look like a tye dyed art piece for the rest of the day. No one seemed to want to offer any clothes for him to wear, either. Already being the main target for Stanley on many occasions, Chris had just opted to take the snickers of humiliation by wearing the clothes for the rest of the day, which didn’t turn out as bad as he thought, but he still would rather not have the day repeated. 

So waking today gave him no desire to go face yet another humiliation by the hands of Stanley. But he didn’t want to make his mother late either. So as his mother called for him to get dressed for the last time, Chris decided he would take the day off from school and head into Old Man Thomson’s woods. 

After making the decision he felt much better about getting up. Within 3 minutes he was fully dressed in jeans and a long sleeved cotton shirt, to protect him from the plants in the woods.

He ran down the stairs to the kitchen where he found, on the table, an empty bowl, spoon, a box of his favorite cereal, and a carton of milk, where he normally sat.

He poured the “Lucky Charms” into the bowl followed by the milk, half way up, then wolfed it all down in five spoonfuls. He didn’t have time to savor his food today. He didn’t want to make his mother late or be late for the woods either, because he had a plan.

His mother came into the room surprised to see that not only was Chris dressed and ready for school, but that he had already finished his breakfast and was now waiting on her.

“Well that was fast. What has gotten into you today? No matter, let’s go. I’m late.”

Chris grabbed his backpack and beat her to the car then watched as she shut the kitchen door behind her and locked the deadbolt, in the garage.

He tried to remain calm as to not arouse suspicion about his plan to play hooky from school. Because he knew if she ever found out, she would be his newest tormentor.

So as his mother pulled up to the school he gave her a peck on the cheek, like he always had and walked towards the front door of Grayson Elementary school. After climbing to the middle step of the front doors he turned and watched as his mother drove away. That was his cue to walk back down the stairs and off the school campus. There was only one problem he had not anticipated... Stanley. 

As soon as he got out of the car Stanley had him in his sites, like an eagle. If Chris attempted to leave from here he knew Stanley would surely tattle on him to the principal or someone of authority. 

Chris saw him watching and turned back around and entered the school. Knowing where all the exits were Chris was able to not only lose Stanley very quickly but was also able to locate the closest door for exiting the school and getting to the woods.

Once free of the prying eyes and on his way, he felt much calmer and felt like he had a purpose for the day.

It was an easy walk to Old Man Thomson’s woods from the school. He was able to take the path at the far end of the athletic field to the next street over and from there he walked two blocks to the path into the woods. 

It had turned out to be a warm sunny day with few clouds in the sky. He enjoyed these woods when others had thought them eerie. Their superstitions had gotten the best of them even before they could enter, so they never did. No, he was at home here. Walking the quiet path with the soft padding sound of his own feet below him, made it easy for him to relax.

As he relaxed more and more something unusual happened around him. At first it was the beam of light that he noticed in front of him down the path. It was brighter than normal. Then there was the sounds around him that seemed to fade away, leaving only ringing in his ears. 

Out of the brightness came something he had not noticed at first because it was so small. Minuscule even. But as it came closer to him it got bigger and bigger. The size of a baseball from a speck of nothing. It was round with spikes and knobs at their ends. Its form shifted and morphed into a moving mass. A blob never losing its protruding spikes.

Initially Chris was not afraid, but as the object got closer he began to feel a panic rise in his chest. Even when Stanley was around tormenting him and stringing him up by the ankles, this feeling he was feeling now, never arose. But somehow this was different even though there was no obvious threat.

It spoke to him. At first Chris thought it was “Abe” talking to him, but quickly realized it could not be. The voice was older, deeper, somehow wiser.

“Don’t be afraid. It’s me, Abe.”, was all the voice said.

Chris was really confused now, especially after so many people told him that “Abe” was a figment of his imagination. 

“What do you want?”, asked Chris.

“I want to help give you what you want. But it will come at a cost.”, said the voice. As the words faded in his head bright green light came out of the blob and probed him.

It appeared to be injecting something into him through the light beams. He could feel it begin to course through his viens. This thing was somehow changing the molecular make up of his body. He could feel it happening. He was very aware of the process taking place. What he would be when it was all over, he did not know. He had to sit. His energy was being sapped from all of the molecular turmoil going on within him.

As he sat he closed his eyes and for the first time was able to see exactly what the process looked like. It was not for the faint of heart.

He saw the blood pumping, actually gushing, through his veins. He felt, as well as, saw the tendons and muscles of his arms and legs stitching together as they increased in size. It hurt him very badly, but he was lucky to ‘see’ what was actually happening. If he had not been able to ‘see’ what was happening to him, he knows the pain would have been much worse. Because at least with him focused on the images, it gave him a little distraction from the pain ripping through his body.

The blob he saw earlier was no longer an issue, but it still lingered before him, in his periphery. He could still hear the voice but could not make out what it was saying. 

Little snippets of events earlier in the day resurfaced between images of his body slowly being torn apart, literally at the seams, and being replaced with something he wasn’t yet able to recognize. He vaguely remembers something coming towards him in the woods and how he had begun to panic, then seeing the inner workings of his body. That had been the most unnerving for him to deal with. But as he opened his eyes, what he saw before him was beyond explanation.

There in front of him stood Abe, in the flesh. He knew he was real because of the quality of matter that surrounded him. He looked denser than the last time Chris remembered. He wasn’t as transparent either.

“So, how do you like your new body?”, Abe asked.

At first the words did not penetrate the haze in Chris’ head. He was too busy walking around Abe, examining him in disbelief, examining his body. Wondering how it could be possible to create matter from mist. They had not taught that yet in his science classes and he had only seen it happen with the help of FX in movies. And yet the concept, the idea and the physics was possible, because it was standing right in front of him.

“Chris, how do you like your body?”, came the words again.

This time Chris heard them. Abe had been twisting his head around following Chris as he circled him with his inquisitive eyes. Everything now coming into focus. During this examination Chris had forgotten his own pain and discomfort. He stopped, realizing something in himself had changed. Looking down at his hands he saw they were no longer his. At least not hands he recognized. But hey were attached to his body. 

A body, he could now feel, ripping with energy and strength. 

He felt confident, strong, like he could and would never be bullied again. He knew he would be respected from now on, by everyone.

He just wanted to jump and run, to feel alive, after so much pain.

So he took off down the path. There was a small log across the path that he decided to hurdle, but to his surprise it became more. The hurdle sent him high into the sky just below the canopy of the trees. He panicked because by going so high he feared he would die on the way down. But he landed just as softly as he had taken off. 

He was ecstatic, exhilarated by the new feelings and sensations in his body. He couldn’t wait to show Martin and Stanley.

Stanley would never want to lay another hand on him again.

“Thank you Abe. I thought I would never see you again.”

“Chris, you know me, I will always be with you. Don’t ever forget that.” Abe turned to walk away into a mist that seemed to be forming in the distance. “Trust yourself, Chris. And don’t let anyone change you, except me, of course. Use your body well, just don’t over use it.”

“But...but you can’t leave me now. You just got here.”, Chris said referring to the fact that Abe had just become solid for the first time.

“I have other places to be Chris. I have to go.” And with that he turned and stepped into a bluish green mist, that had been forming just outside of Chris’ periphery. As soon as his last limbs went into the mist, the mist disappeared. Poof! He was gone, leaving Chris with a new life.

“Chris, Chris time to wake up”, came his mother’s words through a heavy fog of dreams. Her hand nudged at him to wake and show some signs of life. He pretended to ignore it. The hand became more insistent, pushing harder, almost knocking him out of bed.

“Chris, come on, I’m late for work. Get up!”

Chris immediately woke thinking of the dream. Was it a dream or had it been real? He felt different somehow.

“Maaaauuum, stop. I’ll get up, just go away”, responded Chris. Deja vu, he thought. This was just like the dream. He lay in bed, reliving the dream in his head. 

Reaching for his jeans and getting dressed he felt more confident, more self-assured, stronger. Chris knew he had a new life and a new body when he bound down the stairs in one step, on his way to his “Lucky Charms”.

Today was going to be a new day, with no more bullying. 

“Thanks Abe, wherever you are.”, he said to his imaginary friend under his breath.