"Swoosh"
A black Oxford shoe with laces on it crashed into Fredrick's ribs with a loud thud.
"Aahhh."
A painful sensation spread through his torso in waves as he folded inward. He clutched his side with both of his arms, as if trying to lessen the pain. His breath was ragged and shallow, and light tremors spread through his body.
Above him stood a tall, macular, broad-shouldered man, with an average appearance-Black hair, Black pupils, fair skin, no facial hair, not handsome or ugly. His face and body were covered in a veil of light shadow because of the light bulb behind him. Even through the shadow, his general qualities were still visible to the naked eye.
Fredrick pierced the guy in front of him with a hateful, rage-filled gaze, with a hint of fright.
The boy met his hateful gaze but didn't even flinch or blink. He continued staring at the kind as if Fredrick were some lowly creature, and that this whole ordeal was something he did because he had to.
"Fredrick, you fat pig."
Another boy, skinnier and uglier-stepped out from behind the muscular boy. His crooked smile stretched ear to ear while slight tremors ran through his body. A satisfied, smug expression was painted on his face.
"Next time you try to flirt with my girl again, I will kill you, Fredrick. You got that?"
He passed the muscular guy and stood above Fredrick, casting a skinny shadow over his face.
He met Fredrick's hateful gaze and shivered a little. The smug look on his face disappeared. A hint of fear appeared in his eyes for a moment before he shrugged it off.
"You think I am afraid of you, you fucking pig."
The guy screamed at Derek and kicked his face with his Oxford shoe.
The shoe's sole connected Fredrick's nose and bent. Fredrick's head jerked backwards, while blood gushed out from his nostrils. Pain spread through his skull as his vision turned red.
"Aaahhh"
"Stay away from Regina, or I will fuck you up worse than this."
Fredrick stared at the back of Charles, and his muscular brother Robert left the room with laughter and mocking words in their conversation.
Then everything went black.
***
"Aaaah....it hurts like hell."
Fredrick weakly opened his eyes and looked at the glowing light bulb above him.
Then he got up from the cold, tiled floor while using his two hands as support. Then he staggered toward the row of faucets.
Every step sent a jolt of pain through his abdomen and nose as he walked.
Blood trickled on the tiled floor, leaving a dotted trail on the clean floor.
Even though it was painful to walk, He managed to get to the middle faucet on the wall.
"Damn, it...those bastards."
He opened the silver-painted tap while cursing the two people who had beaten him into this state.
As the cold water touched his bloody nose, he started thinking about them.
Charles and his oversized guard dog, his brother Robert.
Charles was a fellow eleventh-grade classmate of Fredrick, while his brother was a thirteenth-grade senior.
While his brother showed outstanding talent for both sport and education, Charles was a failure.
On top of being a failure, he was a coward who hid behind his brother for everything.
Except for a couple of light slaps and mocking words, Charles had no problem with Fredrick until Charles started pursuing Fredrick's childhood friend, Regina.
Fredrick and Regina were close, they shared food, walked home together even touched each other frequently.
Even though it was normal for friends to do that, to Charles, it wasn't.
With jealousy burning in his heart, he started to torment Fredrick daily, and today was an example of how it usually went.
"Bang"
Fredrick slammed his fist against the ceramic basin of the faucet. A light pain enveloped the side of his fist, but he didn't care.
Anger at Charles and Robert was swirling inside his heart, but it failed to burn brighter than his hate for his powerlessness to stop them.
"Fuck."
He lightly cursed and looked at the reflection of himself on the cracked, dirty mirror above the faucet. The glass was too dirty to give a clear reflection, but it was clear enough to look at his bloody, swollen face.
Messy black hair covered the upper part of his two brown eyes. A muddy footprint was visible on his sweaty left cheek. His nose was red and bloated with new blood coming out of it. Dried blood painted bloody, indescribable symbols around his mouth.
The fat in his torso bulged with every motion.
"Fuck...I will kill that motherfucker."
He cupped a handful of cold water and washed his mess of a face thoroughly. His nose stung, but he welcomed it.
The bathroom light suddenly flickered, and a reflection of something appeared in the corner of the mirror.
Fredrick saw it through the periphery of his left eye, and his blood turned cold.
Standing in the doorway was a man.
No...Something that looked like a man.
His neck was torn wide open, with parts of it missing. Dried blood was glued to the pale, corpse-like skin, everywhere. Its right eye dangled from the socket, only connected by a string of muscle. The other eye was grey and cloudy, but it fixated on Fredrick.
Goosebumps appeared on his skin as his skin hair stood like sharp spikes. Beads of sweat trickled down his body as his knees nearly gave out. He gulped a mouthful of saliva with a dreaded expression.
'What the hell-'
"Graaaaaaar"
Before he could finish his thought, the bloody human lunged at him with his limping left leg. It shrieked in an inhuman voice as it marched toward him with hunger burning its cloudy eyes.
Fredrik instantly turned toward the lunging human and took the nearby mop into his hand.
He intended to use the mop as a form of defence, but before he could do that, the monster was already upon him. Its mouth was wide open, as if it wanted to take a bite out of him.
With no time to swing, he used its pole to protect himself from the man's bite by putting it between the two jaws, just before they could snap around his throat.
"Raaaarr"
"Thud"
The creature shook from the impact, and Fredrik's back hit the bathroom wall.
He used all of his strength to keep the person away from him, but it wasn't enough.
His dry mouth released a cloud of unbearable stench that smelled like rotting meat straight toward Fredrick's face, causing him to grunt in displeasure.
"Ahh, fuck, what the hell is going on?"
He pressed his head sideways to avoid the bloody teeth that were threatening to tear him open.
'Ding'
A soft bell sound rang near his ear, and a translucent blue panel appeared in front of his eyes. On its surface was something written in white glowing letters.
[Congratulations, you have activated the military store.]