Page 55 of The Seducer
Finn
The days after Jack died, we were all quieter than usual. Some of us had seen his body being carried back to the school, bloody and eerily limp.
Mentor Johnson had declared it a tragic accident, but the students who had witnessed Jack falling from the cliff, whispered of suicide.
“He jumped,” one of them insisted.
That comment hit me hard in my chest. I had considered suicide a million times myself. Being on Johnson’s list of favorite targets would do that to you.
For me, there was a gnawing guilt that the episode a few months back, when Johnson pulled Jack out to race me, had caused him to jump off that cliff. Being calledthe most pathetic kid at schoolhad to have hurt Jack’s pride. It had certainly marked him as an easy target for others to pick on.
“What about all the other accidents?” Jacob said in a strained voice. “I wonder how many of the kids killed themselves over the years.” We were doing the log drill, which I hated because it involved carrying large logs in a group of four. With me being the shortest, I couldn’t lean the log on my shoulder as well as the others and I had to compensate by using my arm muscles, which hurt like a bitch.
“Come on, move faster,” Jacob shouted at us. “Magni’s group is winning, and I swear if I have to run another five miles because we lose to them, I’ll fucking kill you all.”
With a grimace of pain and determination, I ignored the acid burning in my arms, and moved my feet as fast as I could. All four of us put everything we had in it, pushing our sore muscles to the max. But it wasn’t enough.
Magni’s group won this round, and his three teammates were raising their fists in the air in relieved excitement. Our group and the other four groups stood panting on the muddy field, bent over with hands clutching at knees, clothes and hair drenched from the heavy rain.
I looked up when the first round of thunder set in, counting in my head until the lightning struck. “It’s close,” I called out to the others.
Jacob lit up. “Maybe Johnson will make us run tomorrow instead. It’s getting dark, and with the lightning we could get hit.”
I shrugged. Not expecting any kind of softness from Johnson, I looked around to see where he was. My heart skipped a beat when I saw little Martin being dragged toward the office. We were at the other end of the school grounds, but I could still see the fear on the kid’s face. Martin was a newcomer and with his disability, he was a prime candidate to take Jack’s place on Johnson’s dreaded list.
I liked Martin, but then I was a sucker for all underdogs. With a speech impediment that made him stutter, and a clubfoot that made him slow, Martin was never going to be the best student at this school. But he was kind and had the ability to laugh at himself, which counted for a lot in my book.
The other ten-year-old kids that Martin had been with stood paralyzed with fear, as their friend was being half dragged, half carried to Johnson’s office – also known as the torture chamber.
“What the fuck, Finn, why are you ignoring me? I asked you a question, man.” Jacob smacked my shoulder and almost knocked me on my ass.
With another quick glance in Martin’s direction, I came up with the only plan I could think of to help the younger boy.
“Don’t you fucking hit me,” I shouted at Jacob as loud as I could, and hammered my fist into his right shoulder.
Just like me, he was already tired and grumpy from being out in the cold rain all day.
“Oh, you shouldn’t have,” he roared and with the strength of a large fourteen-year-old, he charged me – this time knocking me to the ground.
Our peers were quick to circle around us, chanting the words “fight, fight, fight…” with exhilaration.
I took four punches to my stomach and two to my face before Jacob was pulled off of me by a red-faced Mentor Johnson.
“What have I told you about fighting?” he shouted at us.
Jacob pointed an accusing finger in my direction. “He started it.”
Johnson didn’t ask me if it was true. He just pulled me up by my now muddy hair, and spoke to me with a voice sizzling with anger. “What’s your problem, boy? How is it possible for one kid to be this retarded?”
Another round of thunder and lightning lit up the sky.
“All of you get in the shower,” Johnson ordered all the boys around me, and released his painful grip on me with a sneer. “You’re such a fuckhead.”
My eyes shot to Martin in the distance. He was backing away from the office, but it was only a matter of seconds before Johnson would turn around and channel all his anger onto the small boy.
The only way I could protect Martin was by taking his place. Pushing my fear away, I put on an attitude that I knew would set off Johnson in another fit of rage.
“Can I go too?”
