Joshua Clement stood up and emptied his 4-inch revolver into Mrs. Thatcher's body. He evenly lined up his bullets, slowly moving down her body, starting at her forehead and ending with her belly button. He then calmly popped the chamber open, sliding more bullets inside, while giggling to himself. It all happened in the span of about 15 seconds and most of the students, like me, were frozen at first. A few of us jumped at how loud the shots were and some short girlish screams could be heard, but other than that no one moved. Joshua was left in peace to slowly reload his revolver. Thinking back on it, I'm not entirely sure why nobody rushed him or tried to run past him. Perhaps it's because his seat was right next to the only exit, and he was blocking the way. Maybe it was because we were on the second floor, and everyone was to afraid to leap out a window. I, however, think that it's simpler than all that. At that moment everyone shared the same fear as me. "I don't want to be shot." This thought was all that surfaced up when we were faced with death. Nobody, or at least not me, thought about tackling him and being a hero or the well-being of the person next to them. Like we would in our fantasies. In that moment, in those few seconds, we all did what we thought would be necessary for survival and that was to freeze.
"Not a single one of you move." Joshua spoke with a wide smile. Like he commanded, we obeyed. It was obvious we were all terrified. With a few words he had the entire classroom in his hands. I was just another one of them, a scared teenager.
If I had to pick a specific starting point it would be at the beginning of the school year. My junior year of high school had just kicked off, and I still didn't have any idea what I wanted to be. Back then it was like reality just snuck up on me. I was being told to seriously start considering a career and without a dad and a barely involved mother, I had no direction on what to do. So, I took a shot at everything, basketball, baseball, swimming, wrestling, coding, and even chess. Every sport or club our school offered I tried it. Unfortunately, none of it stuck. I found that I didn't particularly find any activity enjoyable. When I realized this fact, everything just meshed together and my life became grey, the only thing I had enjoyment in was dreaming idly. I could have vivid daydream of wonderous places on command and I often slipped away into a trance to escape reality. Eventually I decided to just ignore everything. Ignore that my time of being a teen was trickling down into the sand banks of time. Ignore how confused and scared I was of it all. Just Ignore life. I stopped worrying and just focused on getting by while reading the occasional novel to strengthen my delusions. I stayed up late at night and dreamt with my eyes open until I could no longer fight sleep. I was as blank as the slate gets. Aside from moderately good grades I was just another depressed high school student.
That's when I noticed him. Joshua had always been a quiet kid. He was your average looking Caucasian teen. Straight black hair and pimple scars littered across his cheeks. It didn't take to long for a bully to start picking on him. He was just easy prey. It started with small things like bumping into him on purpose or throwing things at him in class. Then it slowly became more serious. The bully, Randy, and his gang would try their best to isolate him. Openly humiliating him in front of the class and frequently breaking/stealing his things. Everyone, including me, saw this happen, but none of us said anything about it. I'm sure that everybody else had the same idea. We just didn't want to be first one to say anything. We didn't want to end up in his situation, and so his bullies were left to do whatever they wanted. I'll admit, looking his pathetic state made me feel a little better about myself.
I guess that's why he was acting this way because he got pushed around a little. My emotions slowly shifted from fearto anger. So, what if you were being bullied? So, what if nobody helped you? What gave him the right to walk in here and threaten us like he owned our lives? As if his suffering gave him some inherit right to kill us. Of course, I didn't let any anger show on my face. I simply sat quietly with tears flowing out of my eyes and snot dripping from my nose. It was a lot quieter than I thought it would be. I guess after the initial shock nobody would draw attention to themselves by screaming or trying to run like fools. The time for that had passed. We all just silently scowled or sobbed to ourselves.
He looked over our faces with a snobby grin on his face. "Alright, this is what's going to happen," He opened his chapped mouth and began to speak, "No matter what happens, I'm going to shoot five of you." I felt my heart drop as he scanned the gun over the room. "However, who I shoot is up to all of you. You'll vote on the five to die and everyone else can live." He no doubt rehearsed this moment time and time again in his mirror at home. He spoke with a rushed cadence as if he couldn't wait to give out his cringy speech.
"Alright, so whos up first?" To his question everyone made nervous glances across the room. How were we supposed to make that kind of decision? I nervously looked at my desk and tried my best not to be seen. After a few more seconds of nothing he decided to start encouraging us. "If you guys don't hurry up and make a decision, I'll just kill someone randomly." He waved his gun towards my side of the room and my heart almost jumped out of my throat. Thankfully someone shouted out a name before he could choose one of us. "Randy!" A girl with messy blond hair finally couldn't take it anymore and shouted a name. Joshua smiled as everyone turned towards Randy.
He looked horrible, his hair had already become slick with sweat and tears flowed out of his eyes. His eyes darted around frantically as everyone slowly turned on him. "Yeah, Randy." A boy meekly said. "Of all people it should be him." Another girl jumped in. Randy looked around in desperation for anyone to defend him, but nobody did. Not even the people he called his friends. I certainty wasn't going to. In fact, if anyone should die it should be him. If it weren't for him wouldn't be in this situation right now. We were all thinking it. The blond girl that stepped up first was just the bravest of us. Joshua looked over the moon as he slowly walked towards Randy's desk. I imagine that this was the scenario he was dreaming of. Having Randy isolated like he was. Most likely the reason why he asked us to chose who to kill. He wanted Randy to feel the same fear and helplessness he felt.
"No please-"
"Shut up." Randy tried to beg for his life, but Joshua immediately shut him down, slapping him with the barrel of his gun. "Don't blame me. Everyone else asked for this." He swiftly raised the gun to Randy's head. "This your own fault. You bastard."
BANG
A bang resounded out in the classroom, but it wasn't from his gun.
"Are you all okay?!" The math teacher from next door burst into our classroom. Immediately he looked down, saw Mrs. Thatcher's bleeding body and the gun in Joshua's body. It wasn't hard to put two and two together. "Did you do this?" The math teacher asked while slowly walking towards her body. Joshua seemed confused and shocked. He didn't expect someone to just barge in while he was in the middle of his game. Honestly it was kind of reckless, while I appreciated the teacher's attempt to save us, I couldn't help but gawk at how stupidly confident he was. It's true that Joshua was a thin small pebble, only being 5'4 and barely weighing 120 pounds, but he was still armed with a gun!
"I asked you a question!" He slowly raised his voice. The math teacher was a tall and muscular bald man. He had a stern disposition and veins bulged on his head when he spoke. There were even rumors that he was an ex-marine. Needless to say, he easily intimidated the puny loser. Perhaps, his confidence came from the fact that he didn't think Randy could actually shoot anyone while he was scared.
"Uh, uh I." Joshua stuttered.
"Hand me that." He looked at Joshua with a scowl as he approached him. Joshua slowly backed away. Judging by the fact that Joshua seemed to have forgotten that he had a loaded gun in his hand, the teachers plan was working.
"Look. You're going to put that gun down and we're going to walk out that door."
He took another step forward before Joshua suddenly remembered he had a gun and snapped out of his stupor. He stepped behind Randy's desk and put the gun to his head. "Don't come any closer!" He could have just shot the teacher, but I guess he was such a idiot that he couldn't even fathom that. The teacher stopped in his tracks. He didn't expect Joshua to take a hostage of all things. "G-get out." Joshua stuttered for him to leave. The teacher switched from intimidation and tried to reason with him. "Look you're only making this worse-"
"Get out or I'll kill him! I'll really do it!" Joshua shouted at the teacher as he slowly gained more control over the situation.
"…Alright. I'm leaving." The teacher turned around and walked out the door. Why didn't he just evacuate in the first place? Maybe he thought he could save us before the police got here to prevent Joshua from killing anyone else.
As soon as the teacher stepped out of the room Joshua pointed his gun at me. "Close the door." Wait he's pointing his gun at who? My heart pounded and my hands shook. I was angry at him but that didn't overpower my fear of death.
"CLOSE THE DOOR!"
I sprung up and tripped over my desk, knocking it over. I fell right next to Mrs. Thatcher's body, and I swear she was staring me right in the eye. I felt my stomach tuning as I vowed to not share her fate and paced across the room towards the door. Seeing the door wide open in front of me, I realized that I could just dash out and escape this catastrophe.
That would mean abandoning my classmates and possibly angering Joshua further, but what could I possibly do by staying here? Be a meat shield? Besides it's not like I really care. I nervously walked towards the door and prepared to dash out of it.
"Don't get any funny thoughts." My heart pounded. His gun was still pointed at me. I could probably make it out of the door before he shot me, I probably couldn't. I wasn't willing to gamble. I threw away my thoughts of rebellion and closed off my only route of escape.
"Now use that desk to block it." Who does this degenerate think he is? I pushed Mrs. Thatcher's desk with some difficulty and placed it against the door. "Alright sit down." I went back to my seat as I tried to get my heart to calm down.
Joshua took in a deep breath. Are you stressed? Imagine how I feel you psychopath! He walked away from Randy and stood at the front of the classroom. Suddenly he swivled around, lowered his gun and aimed at Randy.
BANG
This time it really was from his gun. The bullet tore through Randy's shoulder and made him scream and squirm in pain. "Alright. Next." Randy was on the floor withering in pain, but he wasn't dead yet. I guess he preferred to make him suffer than to giving him a quuck death.
"Benjamin."
My heart pounded. I looked over and saw that the same blond girl had just announced my name. This blond girl is a total witch. I was going to sit idly by and try to slip under the radar while the people died and now this witch had ruined everything. After that everyone else just hopped on the band wagon. I had no friends to defend me or anyone that would object to my death. My throat clogged up and I could do nothing but hyperventilate. One by one people stated my name. My fate was slowly being sealed. "Alright. Benjamin it is." Joshua got up and walked towards me. My skin felt ice cold and my insides were twisting.
The gun was hovering above my forehead. I was struck with a paralyzing fear, until I looked up at his face. He had a disgusting grin on his face. That's when I remembered how angry I was. Does he think he's the only person in the world being bullied? This coward doesn't stand up for himself one time for almost the entire year but now he suddenly has the guts to kill people? Where was all that when you were being bullied?! Why should I pay for him being pathetic?
"Goodbye." He spat. At that moment my body moved on its own. I smacked the gun away from my forehead and rammed into him. I started pummeling him with my fists trying to wrestle the gun away from him. I called him a pebble, but I wasn't much better than him. Scrawny and bony and all around out of shape. He managed to slowly point the gun back towards me and-
BANG
He fired the gun. He fired prematurely and I retched my head back, yet he still managed to graze my ear. It hurt as if my entire ear had been torn off. I couldn't hear anything except for ringing and my vision grew dizzy. My ear flowed with bleed as I put both of my hands to it and winced in pain. He kicked me away and quickly got up. He pointed the gun at me as I lifted my hand to shield myself.
BOOM
An earth-shattering sound erupted. This time the sound didn't come from the door being burst open or the gun firing. It came from something outside. A blinding flash filled the classroom as I was forced to close my eyes. It was so bright that it gave my skin a burning sensation. As if I was showering in scalding hot water. It lasted for a good three seconds before vanishing.
After I gathered my bearings, I felt strange, calmer. Before I had been angry, scared, in pain, but now I only felt calm. I noticed that Joshua still seemed stunned at what happened. Everyone did. They didn't seem as calm as I was. I didn't know what that flash was, maybe it was the police outside attempting to help us? I decided to make the most of this opportunity. I once again tackled Joshua to the ground. Making sure that this time the gun slid out of his hand.
We wrestled on the ground as he desperately tried to get to the gun. I managed to put him in a sloppy rear naked choke squeezed as hard as I could. That's when I felt a searing pain in my thigh. Looking down I realized that I underestimated him. He had a knife concealed on his person and managed to stab me with it.
I involuntarily let go and withered in agony. Joshua sprung up and kicked me in the stomach. "Not so tough now huh?" He repeatedly stomped on my fresh wound as I struggled to crawl away.
I desperately searched craned my head around for where the gun was. He seemed to notice this as he sent a final stomp towards my head and urgently scrambled for the gun.
Unfortunately for him Randy was already holding it in his hands. "S-screw you!" He scowled as He pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Then something that marked the change of the world as we all knew it happened. The gun exploded as a beam of light almost as bright as the flash that blinded us before fired out of Randy's hand and straight at Joshua's head.
Zap.
It sounded like a bug flying into an bug zapper. There was no blood as his head was burned clean off. It all occurred in the span of about 1 second.
Joshua's decapitated body fell to its knees. As everyone stared at Randy in shock. Everyone in the classroom had the same question. "What was that?"
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It was a superpower. That was the answer. The bright flash we had experienced moments before had bestowed superpowers to every living being that came into direct contact with it. It sounded like the plot of a 99-cent off brand comic book or a trashy third-rate novel, but it was reality. That incident in the classroom was just one of many happenings around the world of people awakening their powers.
Humanity had entered its next big evolution, and the event was dubbed the "Golden Blessing." The most important moment in all human history.