An End to His Special Drag

Alexander remains silent after his answer, moving his pupils around him. But all of his eyes are blocked by the tight space made by the wall surrounding him, the wall that is Kuga and his boys.


Kuga glares at him after his answer, but then he softens his face, dragging his shutting lips pulling down his cheeks. The boys with apathetic look on their faces suddenly smirk and even break into smiles. Suddenly, they slip to Alexander's back quickly and tell Alexander to follow Kuga commandingly.


"Follow him."


Kuga glances at Alexander and flicks his head to one side at Alexander, he catches Kuga's subtle flicking. Then, Kuga turns his back and starts walking. Alexander follows after Kuga having the other boys behind his back propelling their hands on his back pushing him. Alexander trips towards Kuga back, and twitchingly gets himself on balance again and walks with them. He walks moderately with them, slowly and keeps himself behind until they all arrive, at an abandoned building, constructed by grey cold stone walls mark the perimeters, and some of the framing metal bones of the house thrust through walls and reveal themselves behind the broken walls.


They boys expand the distance with Alexander. Let him loose. He looks around the place, it is so dark and shady. The gray colour of the cold stone walls are shaded over by the evening's darkness, untouched by the moonlights, and the neon lights from the city.


"Alexander, let's talk." - Kuga silently hisses at Alexander.


"You know!" - Kuga roars through the entire house. "You shouldn't have ratted at my image like that! Seems like you're only a fool!"


Huh?- Alexander feels alerted. He takes a step back from Kuga, steps back closer into the shades of this house. In front of him are four boys drawing closer towards him, with their presents and glares. Pressured by them, the frame that he built for his image under their eyes starts to shatter, making a sudden crack and leaking his slimey being through there drop by drop, slowly dripping out the picture. Those drops hit the ground, and they get drained away, faraway from his authority, away from his frame of image.


"You're a scum, Alexander!" - Kuga growls at him. Despite being tens of steps away, yet a lion's nose is pinching against Alexander. "We let you be a part of our group, know us, and see us!"


Anxiety starts to crawl on the walls of his mind, as Kuga starts to growl at him. The heat inside his heart flashes through his body, blood is beaten throughout so strongly.


"And yet, you can't even show your goodwill to pay us a treat for a meal! You can't even use your credit card to pay for the whole meal, pushing us in awkward positions!" - Kuga greets his teeth.


Immediately, he stomps his feet, flapping dust from the cement ground, spreading out around his feet, puffing up around his legs. Earth lumps breaks through the ground under Alexander's feet, then bury his feet deep down the the ground.


"What?!" - Alexander exclaims, widens his eyes as he stares down on his feet.


Kuga still continues, he turns to look at Alex, "Despite everything we did, we welcomed you to be a part of our group, you seem to still hate us, ain't you?"


"No... That ain't true!" - Alexander stutters, word by word.


"Another lie!", "Liar!", "Shameless lie!" - They all say, those words layering on each other through Kuga's boys mouths.


"Oh god, you lie shamelessly, Alexander!" - Kuga says. "Not only did you not pay for our generosity, you also lied to us with a straight face!" - Kuga stomps on the ground once again, after the word 'face!'


A pillar of hard stone mixed in cement springs up behind Alexander's back, then forms the circles sliding at his forehead, strapping his head and torso onto the pillar. Its coldness is sent throughout his spine. At this point, the frame he dwells inside cracks even more, and his being as a whole is flushed by its own liquified skin all over itself.


"Hahahaha" - They all start to chuckle then burst a laugh. "You are afraid, aren't you?" - Connor asks. "He's pissing out", "Look at him, so real!", they say. Their eyes stamp onto Alexander, strapped on the stone pillar, knitted arms crushing his torso, earth lumps are swallowing his feet as they grow up to his calf.


The pain is biting deep into Alexander's body, by the straps and the bindings under his feet.


"Other than being another plain student who's lucky to be in this school, and even more for getting accepted by us," - Kuga says, "You serve nothing for this school, for this life, Alexander. You're just weird-looking, stench in plainness and nobody likes you... You stutter when you talk and it's so weird and abnormal. You have no real worth about yourself, and still, we took you in under our wings." - Kuga says.


"YOU SHOULD BE GRATEFUL FOR US! SAY YOU SORRY AND BE GRATEFUL FOR US!!" - They quickly walk towards Alexander strapped by stone on the pillar as they shout at him in blurting anger, then they swing their fists into his belly and deliver kicks at his shaking legs. Making his belly cry screamingly at Alexander wanting to be caressed, and his shaking legs that are slowly at the point of collapse, were silently wheezing in pain, and growls as they get hit by violent tendency from the boys.


"You serve no purpose, and the least you can do other than putting a nice face on, is to give us a good treat for what we did!!" - Connor says, as he hurls his slap right at Alexander's face. "But then you lied to us, and made us look bad in front of our new friends! Fuck you!"


Alexander perspires after being beaten by the boys, in front of him are their gritty faces, when they look at his terror and wide opened eyes looking frightened in front of them. They smile, hold their arms still yet upwards away from their torso as if blood is rushing through their body, pumping up their hands and ball of fists. At this point, his belly is still crying like a baby as it still hurts from taking excessive kicks and punches. It cries and screams to him, boiling up his heart slowly melting his present being in front of them, a calm and still being with its unexpressive manner, yet it starts to melt down even more with more watering layers over. They leak through the cracks on that picture frame.


"Is it because sometimes we ask you to treat us at restaurants like today? Or is it because we poke fun at you?" - Connor asks.


"If so, then you're even a bigger bitch than I thought!" - Connor continues. "We only tried to have fun with you, made you find us much more comfortable with fun, but then you found a way to get angry with us despite our good intent?"


"It's more like a problem coming from you! You are a coward, too sensitive to have fun with! That's why people don't like you, and want to be your friend!" - Connor exclaims.


As his being drips more and more through several cracks on his frame, Alexander bows his eyes down to the ground, when his face is still strapped straight to be presented towards the boys. He looks down to the blank, dark ground.


"No, a blatant lie, a terrible lie to frame us as evil!" - Connor turns to Kuga. "He is deceiving us! Such a particular thing about rich kids! They are manipulative! Alexander's a psychopath!"


"We're not the villain here, Alexander. YOU ARE!" - One boy adds. "You're a blamer, a traitor, and a blatant liar!"


"You're only a coward, an ingratitude fox and a replaceable scum that we should've thrown out a long time ago, to leave you back in your boring school life!" - Another boy adds. "That's why you tried to assault one of my female classmates, you bitch!"


"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING TO HER, I DIDN'T DO IT!" - Alexander cracks and bursts into tears, pulling his head against the strap and protests in a crying voice. "I only took my chance, because Lawden encouraged me to!"


The frame cackles loudly, and his gooey being starts to drain its skin away from him even more as he bursts out.


"Shut up already you psychopath!" - Connor shoves his balling fist into Alexander's crying belly again. "Shut the fuck up, you shameless liar! You tried to manipulate us so that you didn't assault her, huh?"


"Arrrgghgg" - Alexander groans out, and breathes heavily. He grits his teeth, hoping the pain will go away after a while. And yet, his belly never stops crying.


He hopes the squeezing pain in his legs and thighs, as the earth lumps bite on his calves, soon vanishes or blend into his being entirely so that he will no longer have to hear the scream from his body. But then, their screams never stop.


Kuga steps to Alexander, pushing his face near to Alexander. "See, Lawden pushed you as well? So why 'Kuga pushed me'?"


"See, you just find a way to make us look bad then hate on us." - Kuga says. "That's your biggest mistake, because we're the only ones who take you under our wings despite your ugliness, and still, you can't pay gratitude the right way!"


"You have no worth..." - A floating legless puppet appears next to Alexander's ear, it has been stabbed by a sword behind it. "Your identity has been tied with this group, you can only see yourself in their light."


The boys' Living Areas expand their borders into each other, their Living Avatars come in different colours and all with the same basic humanoid blueprints outline their physical appearances. "Not even your parents love you.", Alexander hears the voices reach him as the Living Areas expand. Slowly, his surroundings get dark in Alexander's eyes when their Living Areas clash into his. "They must have been disappointed to raise you!". Slowly the black shade are their Areas, start to mould darkness figures in pitch black that have the eyes that are their glares at Alexander. Slowly, the boys' avatars embed in those shadows and become the shadow entities themselves.


"You need us to look good, you can't be visible without us." - Kuga says.


'Is that even necessary anymore?I spent my whole life under everybody's shadow, surrounded by the flow of life and tied into people's lights all the time.' - Alexander stares down at the ground, thinking. 'I want to be around "friends", to show myself, to be seen despite the constant flow of grandeur and life.'


"Face it, Alexander." - Kuga says. "Your parents don't want you, you are too superficial. Hanging out with us is the best you can do."


On the ground, shadows expand, taking over Alexander's Area. Then some entities drop down in front of him, crawl onto him and like thorns they stab into his Avatar, they tickle onto his Avatar. The shades start to appear on Alexander's Avatar and slowly spread across its body.


"You go with us, you feel superior to some other people." - Kuga speaks to him, as his dark Living Avatar glares at him with red eyes.


"Exactly!" - The legless puppet whispers.


A drop of sweat runs over Alexander's face as he breathes out an utterance, yet there is nothing he can express. He grits his teeth, shaking tremendously, feeling the shadows slowly taken over his Avatar. His legs want to drop down, and yet, the pillar straightens them up with the biting force from the lumps burying his feet won't let him to fall. He closes his eyes tightly, few beads of tears fall down from his eyes as the fibre in his legs are tearing apart from being locked by the pillar and the lumps. Now, they also scream and shout at him, in his face "Help??? Help me???" and "Why??? Why did you allow this???".


"You should know where you are!" - Kuga stamps his arm with a soft push at Alexander's headstrap. Yet it bangs his forehead against the cold pillar, and strikes his backhead impulsively. Cold pain scatters across his head, and plunges deeply into his skull. "Ouuch!!" - Alexander utters noisily. Few beads run out from his eyes.


More and more, the shadow region has taken over his Avatar even more. His heart beats and squeezes him into breathlessness. He chuckles, but not with a smirking face, but with his lips stretched and dragging his wet face down. He chuckles, but coughs because of the tight presence from Kuga and his male friends. In his Area, to his eyes, Kuga's Avatar isn't just a shadow entity anymore, but now grows into a colossal being with multiple colours as its body of shadow ocean is lumped with green and brown crystals - the earthly colours.


"Are you crying, Alexander?" - Kuga asks. "Do not betray us, again. You hear?"


"We have influences and perhaps it's time a fool like you to learn from us." - Connor says. "To be like us, to succeed in our social games. And along the way, you'll learn some cool talents and your Living Area and Avatar will be flushed in our colours and ways. You'll be at the coolest places, isn't that where you always want to be?"


The shadow region takes over half of his Avatar, but quickly and goes over its head and its entire body except for its chest region.


"Say sorry," - Connor demands. "And you'll be a part of us again, and listen to us in everything, we have all the power over your head."


'Kuga is a mage now, he gains more power and crushes you even more... Now it's a matter of time he climbs the social potency with that, and his birthright.' - The legless puppet clings onto Alexander's neck. 'Better to be with him now, because there is no guarantee you'll have a right resources to burn and make your own light. Go!'


At this time, he hears the sound of stone and dust. He hears the party music run through his head despite that having never happened. 'But it will', to quote the words of that puppet. 'Show that you can climb. Show that you at least understand how it works.'


'You serve no purpose...', 'You need us', Kuga's words soak deeply into Alexander's head until now. He can't remember Kuga's whole talkings, but it soaked deeply in his brain. 'It's simple, just like what they did in your class!' - It speaks bitterly to him.


Alexander stays quiet on the pillar, his legs start to shake even more, and they are crying and crying until they can only cackle in cold. There is a whole stove boiling under his stomach and the steam races into his heart making it pumping the blood with such powerful forces everytime. This shakes his mind chamber. His framed being is drained almost entirely as the liquid keeps busting through the leaking crack away from the frame. Alexander's mind chamber cracks into pieces, and Alexander has to gather the liquid and mushy being of his together, puts his hands on it and yet it still splatters like any liquid. 'Stay with me! Stay with me!' - He squeaks desperately, gathers himself right in that chamber. 'Please!'- speaks to himself. Tears fell more out from his eyes, hearing all the screams from his body.


"You're like us now, Alexander. Rulers, stepping on others." - Kuga says. "Those who're like Harry, get it!?"


"Yes, I hate him." - Alexander opens his tearful eyes looking at Kuga, as the figure of Harry Harriot appears in his Area. Annoying, timid, nothing interesting, obnoxious - Alexander looks at that figure. But the stove still boils and the heart still heats. Suddenly a more clearer animated image plays in front of his eyes, where he sees himself spouting and looking down on Harry who is bowing his face down, as Kuga and Connor are behind his back.


He sniffs, and chuckles in tears.


'What are you waiting for?' - Legless puppet says.

The shadow region takes over Alexander's Avatar most of its body except for where it layers Alexander's heart.


'This relationship benefits you, Alex. It will strengthen the merit for our family!' - Legless puppet says.


The Avatar's heart layering starts to push and looks like Alexander's Avatar has a lump popping out.


'What're you doing?' - Legless puppet suddenly turns to him.


"Hah? What's happening to his Avatar?" - Connor asks.


'Stop!'


"What is that lump doing?"


'No!'
'You can't do this, this is our last chance!'


"Relax, Alexander's getting rid of his 'weakness' and embracing."
"See? The way it is popping out? The shadows will fill up his new Avatar."


'Damn it! YOU FOOL!'
'If you can't do anything for your parents, at least show that you can aid them with this network!'


"That's right, Alexander. Good boy!"
"You don't need that old weakness anymore, now you build your identity with our blocks!"


Finally, that Avatar's lump springs out of Alexander's Avatar just like a pimple bursts out from an acne, a giant and enlarged acne. The pimple springs out, then it drops paddedly on the floor that is filled with a lake of shadows expanding endlessly in the boys' Area, that darken the whole atmosphere and the ever-darkness abandoned house. The lump slowly forms itself under the narrowed eyes of Kuga's group, and shooting red stares that their Avatars layer on the outline of their glaring eyes. The boys exchange their gazes at each other, mouthing silently as the lump moulds its own shape into a humanoid thing. It is slimy and like jelly, it flops its own body like a fat man. The boys stare at the fat stickman that the lump has turned into as it also creates its colour a simple leaf colour green that has been yellowed in an autumn season.


Alexander remains shaking his whole body like electrified earthquake, sobbing with his mouth opened as he chuckles immense breathings from both nose and mouth for he wants to slurp all of it to keep himself up within the unusual of this abandoned house, the darkness dwells where neon light can't reach and limits his sight. His tired legs are still shaking tremendously, in which they strike each other with pounding force as they automatically wiggle collapsing. The long time standing makes him feel wary. Now it has become even more excruciating, as the shadows crawl over Alexander's body as a shaded region expands over his Living Avatar. His existence and body on the cold pillar that aches his spine and backhead, is drowned by the darkness Living Areas of those boys... It chokes Alexander painfully. As his body is still crying, and now it can only sob with him.


"What is that 'lump' doing?" - Kuga wonders.
"It turns into a green fat stickman?" - Connor answers.


Then the green fat stickman makes its steps towards Alexander's shaking feet. It jumps onto him, clings onto him by wrapping its limbs around his legs. Finally, a mouth is torn apart at his face as it opens it widely. The boys are still staring at the stickman. It leans closer to Alexander's legs, gazing at the shady region that has taken over his Avatar. Suddenly, it pushes its wide opened mouth chomping onto his leg and bites onto his leg. Kuga suddenly tilts his head to one side, Connor squints their eyes, and others are still staring. Finally, it bites deeply into his leg, and it starts to shrug its whole body, until it tears apart a piece of shade taken over Alexander's Avatar. Another bite, it plunges its teeth biting down deeply into the shade and tears it apart from Alexander's Avatar.


"What is that?" - Kuga asks in surprise. "What's happening?"


The stickman just tears off all of the shady layering on Alexander's Avatar, with its teeth and its arms grabbing onto them and shrugs them out with its dull might. The shadows over Alexander's head send down a few strands of darkness that whip forcefully onto the stickman, but it turns thin and effortlessly slides on Alexander's body surface and glides through all of their whippings. Kuga grits his teeth looking at the shaded regions on Alexander's Avatar and is slowly getting torn away and chomped off by that lump that grew into a stickman. He takes a deep breath, hiding his teeth behind his shutted lips. As the strands of shadows just keep whipping on Alexander's body and Avatar hunting for that stickman, the shaded region starts to disappear at this rate, the stickman is still determined with biting and tearing, revealing Alexander's Avatar once again, without any darkness layering over. The whippings strike that stickman several times and yet, it still stands up and keeps putting its hands on the shade and rips them off from Alexander's Avatar, or swallows it down after deeply chomping at it.


Kuga exhales boiling in his groaning voice, as he looks at what's happening. Now all of the shaded region is undone by the stickman figure. He glares at Alexander and simply, he screams at him: "YOU USELESS, YOU FOOL! YOU SERVE NO PURPOSE TO THIS LIFE WITHOUT US!"


Just like bullets and rapid shootings of blades towards Alexander, Kuga's words are. They hit into Alexander's Living Avatar cracking and shattering it apart into different pieces, like glass and crystallised substances. At the same time, the shadow strands are shot out from above at high speed, thrust into the ground like steel bars , surrounding Alexander and the pillar that straps him. Those shadow strands beams suddenly bloom and blossom branches with flowers, and those branches start to move like tentacles and start to whip at the stickman figure.


The shadowy tentacles whoop at Alexander's shoulders, scratching his cracked Avatar and strike the fragments away from each other. The stickman just keeps sliding and moving across Alexander's entire body dodging the whoops that impact onto Alexander's Avatar. So now, not only does his Avatar melt itself like liquid, but it is also shatterable like crystallised glass. Until, Kuga walks towards Alexander and sends him a pounding fist right into Alexander's gut once again, delivering staggering pain that clenches his belly, makes it rashes and burns Alexander even more, deepens him further down into the sounds of excruciating cries from his body, wanting to be touched gently and softens the pain. Yet, his arms are in no condition to do so. His belly is boiling at every corner of his gut, scratching the meat and nerves; shaking his whole body and his legs want to collapse.


As for the stickman, it finally gets hit by those shadowy tentacles. And it falls back into the ground, and yet it still punches and kicks, trading blows with those shadows, battling against the deep dark monsters from the boys' Areas that are threatening towards Alexander and looms over his head as he's dealing with his burning body pain. But then suddenly, Sang - the hero from his mind chamber, merges from Alexander's Avatar with his sword. He appears spreading out his cape with brightening light, and with his sword he strikes at the shadows tentacles whipping on the stickman. Those shadow strands produce smaller dark goblins which are later dispensed by a swipe of Sang's blade, more tentacles are made yet they are held down by the stickman's diehard hug, tying them into a bunch and giving Sang the chance to cut them all at once.


The boys see what's happening, and furrow their eyebrows. Connor steps up, and takes out a black card packet with gold linings drawn on its surface. He busts open the packet and with only his two fingers, he takes out a card and holds it whilst the packet is still in his palm.


"Beat him up!" - Connor grits his teeth and says to the boys commandingly.


Kuga stays behind as the boys walk past him towards Alexander. They all surround in front of Alexander and all turn their eyes up to his faces, as he is strapped on the cold pillar. His spine hurts but now it becomes worse as his face is suddenly struck by the blowing fist from Connor. Pound! - Alexander's face turns red, his nose starts to rash up like a tomato and his face, it doesn't bother to even cry anymore for Alexander bites his own teeth in vain and only wheezes silently in pain, as his nose is clashed and cracked by Connor's lumpy knuckles. After that, all of them flood Alexander with their punches and kicks. A combined barrage of both punches and kicks are all thrown focusing only onto his body and are spreaded across his entire body. Some land on his torso and gut which deeply clenches his body in such bruising pain, leaving Alexander in loud but low howls. Connor then swipes the edge of his black poker card right at Alexander's knees which then makes his heavy ever-trembling legs, that shakes his whole body and psyche, to finally force them to extend their muscles to be dragged down.


"ARRRGGHHHH!! STOP IT! STOP IT! PLEASEE!" - Alexander screams in tears, in deep pain as he has been standing facing their presence for long enough, for being positioned like a straight ruler as his body shakes like an earthquake, twitches and bends the joints to juggle the pain. Tears fall down on the biting earth lumps. His being has been completely drained away from the frame, leaving him with more screams: "STOP THIS! PLEASE! STOP THIS!" - He screams with heartbeats pushed up to his throat, and with a rushing boiling heat of panic.


"Beat him up!" - One boy shouts, in deep bitterness slipping through his teeth.


In a period of time, which lasts for tens of seconds, in which Alexander gets beaten by the boys, Sang and the stickman still trade blows with the quick whippings of the tentacles. As they keep fighting and push through the constant spawn of the shadow tentacles, Alexander is still getting beaten and slowly their figures start to become mushier and slimier as Alexander's framed image is shattered and drained completely far away from him leaving nothing but beating pain on his body and legs that have to collapse for standing up and get bitten for too long. Sang still swings his sword ferociously at the shadow tentacles even when his figure is melting slowly. Suddenly, Sang and the stickman are strangled by the excessive tentacles, and their limbs are held down as Sang is finally disarmed. As Sang is melting, the tentacles tighten and ultimately squeeze and twist Sang to puff into white smoke and vanish.


"Arrrgg- AAAAAAAARRG!" - Alexander screams as they keep pounding into him, slowly in order rather in barrages.


From above the house ceiling, in their Areas, an arm plunges out and squeezes the stickman, then throws it far back into the house's darkness.


"Nooo.. Uh.. Please forgive me, stop beating me." - Alexander begs in tears.


"Too late, Alexander." - Kuga says. He swipes his forehead, sliding on a thin surface of sweat. Then he sighs out.


Finally, the pillar crumbles. Kuga turns his back away from the lying and squirming Alexander. With his friends, he leaves the abandoned house with his friends.


Alexander shakes tremendously, his body pats at him intensely, shaking him to feel gentle after a long period of pain. His legs are sobbing, his belly is boiling, pushing Alexander to vomit out of clenching pain. He wipes the saliva at his mouth and the tears from his eyes. He caresses the swollen red nose. Alexander does push up with two hands, he tries to move his legs yet they are too cold and numbed. So, he falls flatly back to the ground, laying his eyes at the abyssal darkness of the house at one side.


'You're always a fool, aren't you?' - The puppet emerges out of the darkness. 'Kuga gave you a chance to network with him. You're about to network with a son of a Royal Lieutenant of the Superhero Department in the city!'


Alexander's eyes are motionless, staring at the puppet walking standing still in the dark.


'Useless, stupid bitch!'


Alexander breathes raggedly, his motionless eyes are staring deeply into nothingness. He stands inside of the mind chamber looking at the messed up place. He sees nothing, thinks nothing, only his body is torn apart.


Vomit mixes with ragged breath
Smelly sweat beads damp in cement's dust.
Burning pain in legs as they have been torn over.
He can't stand anymore, but he must crawl.


Neon lights brightening the whole city
Flush everywhere but predominantly buildings
Colourful light cover the cold buildings
Holograms are staged above the sky
Replace the night stars, being closer to the Earth.


Room 22.8 is where he lives, inside of the school's dorm. He gets inside his room and goes straight to the toilet to take a shower. He scratches his arms, grits his teeth and closes his eyes as tears roll down from his cheeks... He falls back on his bed, turns off all of the lights and lets his body rest. His legs are still wheezing, his belly is still sobbing and his backhead still aches with his back. His body turns cold, and numb.


An idea pops into his mind, he turns on the portable projector sitting on the nightstand next to his small bed. He connects it with his laptop and turns on a video to play in the background, projected onto his wall as he lays his back on the bed and listens to ambient music...