Kel-ta q' Izbak

There once was a small boy who was so very average that everyone simply looked him over. When he would sit in class during the roll-call, the teacher would not call his name. On the field during recess, he wasn't picked last because he wasn't picked at all. Every time he reached out to a fellow student or to an adult he was thoroughly ignored.

 

He soon decided it was best to keep to himself. He walked down the halls and ate at the lunch table in silence, his head down, a ghost amongst the lively living. Being ignored didn't bother him. The same thing had been happening at home for as long as he could remember. Mom and dad would be yelling at each other while he stayed in his room and lost himself in dreams.

 

In dreams, he looked every bit the same, but being noticed was a mainstay. His imagination's creations beckoned him to join them in endless adventures of triumph and folly. Alongside the frogmen of the Izbak Marsh, he helped end the threat of the second great snake invasion. They made him an honorary tribe member. He was greeted with smiles and gifts all throughout the marsh. Frogmen and frogwomen and frogchildren called him by name. (It wasn't his given name in reality; they had dubbed him in the frog language.) 

 

In the clouds above he was given private cloud-riding lessons by the Grape Dragon himself. The key was to be gentle and remain relaxed. Clouds take everything slow. Patience is a must.

 

He even attended school in his dreams. But somehow his dreamschool reflected his real school. His nightmare of reality carried over as he sat in earnest during roll-call, waiting for his dreamteacher to call out his name. She never did. Shocked, he stood up and began to shout aloud, "I'm right here! Hello?" No one heeded his call.

 

He sat down and calmly grabbed a pencil from his desk. He took a deep breath that seemed to last for a whole minute, real-time. He shoved the pencil into his left eye, as the classroom began to recite the alphabet backwards while standing on their heads. There was no pain and no blood. Just the young voices in unison, "..V, U, T, S, R, Q..."

 

Suddenly, he was awake and alone in his room...

 

It was dark. Unusually dark as the streetlights broke through his thin window-shades every night, except tonight. He soon noticed it was too very quiet for his home. He crept into the hall and into the living room to investigate. His parents were nowhere to be found. This wasn't too out of the norm, so he went back to his room and waited for school. It was only in a few hours as he had slept through most of the night. He lay on his bed and looked at the ceiling and waited for the sunrise. 

 

He awoke from a dreamless sleep. The sun had come up, dimmer than he had ever seen it. He ignored that fact and got ready for school. Backpack in tow, he began his walk to the schoolyard. He noticed his parents were still not home but he assumed they had already left for the day, or had never came home the previous night.  

 

As he approached the school, he noticed no cars dropping shouting children off. No yellow buses doing the same. He began to worry. He walked through the front doors and continued inside for a minute or two before he stopped in the middle of the corridor. With lockers on either side of him, he began to listen.

 

The same silence that plagued his home had now spread to his school. He proceeded to his classroom and sat down in his assigned seat. He had never been here all alone before. He had always felt alone, but never like this. At least he could hear his classmates and see his teacher even if he couldn't interact with them. The lack of questions being asked and inane chatter was an isolation he had never experienced before.

 

He waited patiently. The sun crawled across the sky and he remained seated. He also remained alone. The hands of the clock spun and spun silently and he remained seated. The silence never broke. A few times, he screamed as loud as he could, just so the silence would cease, even for just a moment. He stopped this as his throat became sore. Seconds were minutes and minutes were hours. He thought to himself how slow time passed in the real world and reminisced about the memories of his mind, in the dreamscape he had created, where he was noticed, where he was never alone.

 

The boy finally began to ponder what was going on. Where is everyone? Why am I not being ignored? Why am I missing them? This new breed of solitude frightened him. Before, he could hear their mouths move and he felt safe. He could smell their varying scents hang in the air, he could see them smile and he could see them frown. Now he witnessed nothing. He heard nothing he smelled nothing he saw nothing. He broke into a cold sweat as he realized that he would rather be alone among them than alone without them. He missed his disregarding classmates. But, he knew they would not feel the same way. Even if they showed up right at this moment, they would proceed to sit down and continue their daily habit of paying him no attention. He was fed up with their constant tuning out.

 

Laughing at himself, he remembered that the day before was Friday. He thought himself stupid for coming in on the weekend. He was always so disoriented after the vivid dreams he spent so much time in. But, he was done with those silly whims. He knew they were fake. An escape he had created to deal with the isolation. Everything he had done and everything he had seen in his dreamscape was one big sham. He yearned for real recognition. He yearned for the eye contact of his classmates. All of a sudden it came to him. He knew what had to be done.

 

He reached into his desk. He pulled out his barely used pencil, freshly sharpened. The boy thought of the Frogmen and their kindness and of the soft caress of the clouds he rode as he stabbed himself in his right eye. He used all the force he could muster and the sharp object lodged deep into his eye socket. He did not scream. However, there was pain and there was blood. He slouched in his seat as the blood left his body and flowed down his tragically average face. A smile grew as the life left him.

 

All he could think of as he faded away was his classmates noticing him for the first time.

Reviews

[C. Rose]

I like the line "He would rather be alone among them than alone without them".
I like that there was a reason the school was empty (it being the weekend).
I did not see the ending coming. It gave me chills. I like that you foreshadowed it with the dream.

Well Penned :)

[NoelHC]

Well written and interesting, darkly written, I did not expect the twist at the end.

[Jennie Baron]

An amazing story, an original take on the themes of loneliness and isolation, aptly worded and well presented. The ending was truly tragic, chilling and sorrowful in its finality. I'm pleased to have gotten the read request.

[Jaime]

THANK YOU glad you enjoyed reading my work

[Skai Rain]

A great story with a very interesting ending! Thank you for sharing!

[Riley Justine]

That was amazing. I love the ending! The plot twist was very well done. Your character reminds me of myself a lot, being constantly ignored but having an escape from life. Really well written!

[Jaime]

Thanks! It kind of poured out of me out of nowhere. Decided to go dark with it.

[MomzillaNC]

Oh… so tragic and almost flippant in the way he ends his life. There's real talent in your writing. But, your tale left me cold and heartbroken.

NOTES: I recommend you increase the font size. It will make the lines shorter and easier to follow.

[Jaime]

I appreciate you telling me I have talent, means a lot. That's a good thing, I made you feel something, even if it was a sad emotion. That's all I ever want to do with my writing. Thanks for the suggestion, I will try it out, I guess I'm used to small text but if it helps out my readers then it will be a good change. Thanks again

[MomzillaNC]

You're welcome. I hope my recommendations were helpful.

[Mila]

Very nice, the writing flowed well and it seemed effortless. You have a good eye for story telling, I'm shocked that this doesn't have any reviews!
Great job, this was a joy to get to read! Keep up the awesome work.
Well done!

-Mila

[Jaime]

Thank you for the kind words! I think it's because I haven't been on the site too much since I posted this piece. And I need to get myself out there and review other people's writing, i'll read some of your writings sometime. Thanks again, it means a lot.