The Beast Within

“Good for nothing, that’s what he is,” Kwan leaned in closer to hear. His dad had just gotten home from work and already, his mom was talking about how their son was worthless. “Comes home from school all mopey and then doesn’t help me with anything around the house!”

Kwan winced. If she knew why it hurt his back to bend down, lift things, or basically even move, she’d understand.

“But she can’t know,” he reminded himself. She already had enough on her plate without him adding to it. After all, she was still grieving the death of her daughter, Kwan’s sister.

She had died in a car accident. She’d been coming home from a friends house when the car was hit head-on by another car. She was killed in a split second.

“I’m sure he’s just tired, Lily,” Kwan’s dad tried to soothe her but it only added gas to the fire.

“He has no right to be tired! What does he do that wears him out? huh?” The words hung in the air as his dad tried to come up with an answer.

“I’ll talk to him later,” he finally said. Kwan shook his head.

That’s how it always went. A long talk from dad about how he lives here and he should help keep up the maintenance. Kwan would make an effort to help, he really did, but sometimes he was just physically and mentally tired of the whole world. What happened at school never really helped either. No, Kwan didn’t want to think about that right now. He had the rest of the day to himself before he had to face that all over again.

***

The bus. Kwan hated the bus. It was like a taxi to hell for him. When he stepped on the bus, every morning, the bus driver would nod at him as he made his way to the back. When he’d get there, he’d sit down in the far corner, leaning his head against the window. He’d watch the trees and cars flash by until the bus stopped again. Then, Brandon would get on. He was the principles son, acting as if he was the sweetest kid in the world until the teachers looked away. Then he became the devil’s son. In a way, he was. Kwan hated him to high heavens. It was as if the kid’s face wanted to be punched. Kwan held his breath as Brandon sat down next to him.

“Hey, kiddo,” Brandon greeted him. Already, Kwan felt like whacking him.

“I’m older than you.”

“Not mentally,” was the response.

“Oh, yes, because you just know everything,” Kwan huffed. He rolled his eyes and looked back out the window.

“I know more than you do,” Brandon said after a minute.

“Just because you skipped first grade does not mean you’re smarter than me,” Kwan said with some force. “And just because your parents were a little too hasty to send their son off to school does not mean you’re better than anyone else in this bus.”

Brandon didn’t answer. In fact, he was quiet the rest of the way to the school.

“See you at lunch, kiddo,” Brandon said as he stood up to get off the bus. “Don’t forget. Lunch.”

Kwan’s heart stopped for a split second. Lunch was the most important time of the day for him and now he’d have to put up with some pathetic brat for the whole time. He was the last one off the bus.

****

“Kwan Jengins!” the voice scared Kwan half to death. “How have you been?” It was Brandon’s dad, Principal James.

“I’m good,” he answered as he eyed the folder in the principals right hand. On the front, in big black letters, he could make out his name. “Just headed to lunch.”

“Can I talk to you for a moment in my office?” Of course, it was in his office. That meant he was in even more trouble.

“Um, sure,” Kwan didn’t want to tell him no and he really couldn’t anyway.

Principal James turned and marched back down the hallway with Kwan following him. When they entered the principal office, Kwan took a seat across from Principal James.

“I need to talk to you about your behavior,” he started out. “The teachers say that you’ve been acting very hostile towards my son, Brandon.”

Kwan almost choked on his piece of gum. “Hostile?”

“It means you’ve been very unkind to him. Very antagonistic.”

“Just returning the favor,” Kwan answered with a shrug.

“My son is not antagonistic in any way shape or form!” Redness had crept into Principal James’ face and he started to yell. “He is a perfect student, all A’s and no tardies. Do you hear me? Nothing is wrong with my son!”

“Someone is very prideful of their son,” Kwan muttered.

“Excuse me?”

“What?” Kwan knew he shouldn’t be talking back to an adult but he’d had enough of it all. Didn’t anyone else understand that nothing was as it seemed?

The principal adjusted his tie and opened the file in front of him. “You have two hours of detention after school.”

“Yes sir,” Kwan went to stand up.

“Stay were you are.”

"Why?”

“I went to school with your dad,” Principal James started to tell him ignoring his former question.

“Please not this again,” Kwan silently begged inside his head.

“And your dad was very much like you. Unmotivated, very antagonistic, everything you are,” he sat back in his chair, almost pleased with himself.

“I go to school with your son,” Kwan cut him off before he could continue. “He’s prideful, thinks he’s Mr. Perfect when he isn't, unmotivated, etcetera. And then I realized something.” Kwan stood up and leaned over the desk. “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!” He shot out of his office fast as he could but the receptionist stopped him and handed him a note.

“Give this to your parents,” she ordered. He just nodded and pushed the door open and jogged back into the school hallway.

“Not going to happen,” he stopped inside the cafeteria doorway and shredded the envelope. He dropped it into the big trash can and adjusted his backpack strap.

“Ah! Kwan!” Brandon called to him from a table. “Come on over.”

Kwan was tempted to turn and walk away but he knew that’d just make it worse. If he put up with it in the cafeteria, they couldn’t beat him up. He stood there, mentally calculating his options.

“Why don’t you just give them what they deserve?” a girl over on his right asked.

“Who are you?”

“They’ve terrorized you long enough, why don’t you show them you’re tired of it. Show them the beast inside!” she urged.

“Are you crazy? I’d get expelled!”

“They’d stop,” she pointed out.

“You’re crazy,” he muttered. He looked away when he saw Brandon and his group of brutes standing up and walking towards him.

“Do it.” he heard the girl say. He shook his head no, but his body did something else. It moved forward, towards them.

“Kwan, kiddo,” Brandon reached out and grabbed his upper arm, fingernails piercing his skin. “Let’s go to the library, check out some books.”

A chorus of laughter came from the boys behind him. He heard the girl say something else. He felt himself turning around and going with them, out into the hallway.

His mind fogged over. All he could focus on was the smile on Brandon’s face-- it’d be gone in a minute. He’d had enough. All the sudden, Kwan stopped. Brandon took a few more steps until his brain registered what had happened.

Kwan was ready. He leaped up in the air and came down right on top of Brandon. A yell of shock burst out of the boy beneath him as a war scream came ripping out of Kwan’s throat. His fists rained down on Brandon, shocking the boy even more. Fist after fist, hitting the target. Blood started to seep out of Brandon’s nose as he screamed out for help.

His buddies just stood back and watched for a split second until they saw a teacher running down the hall towards the fight. They quickly fled the scene. Kwan continued to rain punches on the boy. Adrenaline rushed through him, fueling his punches even more. Teachers tried to pull him off Brandon, but not until he got one last punch. He put every once of anger, bitterness, sorrow-- he put it all into the last punch and hit Brandon as hard as he could, causing the boy to go unconscious.

The teachers finally dragged him off the limp boy. One held a hand on his shoulder while the others rushed forward to check on Brandon. Kwan spotted a girl, on the inside of the circle around them. It was the girl from the cafeteria. They made eye contact and she smiled and she said something.

“And he opened the door and he let the beast out.”

He smiled. Yes, he’d let the beast out.

“You’re going to be in big trouble,” the teacher standing next to him said.

“But it was worth it,” he said with an evil smile. “It was totally worth it.”