Disclaimer: this story has scenes and references that some readers may find scary. reader discretion advised.

Chapter One: Bottles
“It’s a regular school day, boring classes, same old things. At last, you hear the lunch bell ring. You sit down with your friends and open your sack lunch. There is no sandwich. There are no chips, no cookies. A mystery package has replaced all of that! Slowly and incredulously, you take the package from your lunch bag. Not only did it appear in your lunch, but it has your name on it! What is inside? Who sent it, and why?” a static voice said from the computer screen. “Man this game is boring.” My little sister said to me, “you’re the one who wanted to get it!” I shot back. Hi, my name is Jackson Mariazek, yes I know the name is ludicrous, and this is my story!
It all began when my little sister went to the game store and bought a video game! It looked cool to her, in reality, it was just photo’s of different games on the game box, and she got it. When she got home, she bugged me to play it with her. Of course, I denied, since I was doing my Bi-weekly homework, but she kept bugging me, so I finally went to go play the game with her. The disk itself was blank, and it only fit a computer disk loader. When we loaded it up, big bold letters saying, “DEMON CLASH” appeared on the screen, with some cheesy RPG music. And that’s where we are now! “Choose your character.” A voice said from the screen, flashing a male character and a female character.
“I call dibs on the girl!” my sister near shouted, before I could say anything. “Fine, but if there’s a TRACE of romance in this game, I’m closing it out and throwing it out the window!” I shot back at her. “Kids! Time for bed!” mom said from the kitchen downstairs, “alright monkey, you know what that means? Out! Now!” I told my little sister, and she slowly shuffled to her room. I turned the computer off but right before it shut off, I could have sworn I saw me inside the game, staring at me, with cold, dead, beady eyes. I shook my head and walked downstairs to tell my mother goodnight. I found her in the kitchen, washing dishes.
She looked at me and smiled, “you’ve grown so much Jacky!” Jacky was a nickname that she gave me as a kid, and been calling me that since. I hugged her, and asked, “Is there anything I can do to help?” but she just shook her head and said, “No, your father should be home soon, and you know he doesn't like it when you stay up.” Then looked down at the dishes. My father was, well, let's just say he isn’t the type of person you’d want kids to hang around with. At that moment I felt really bad for her, but went the stairs, when I heard the front door open. “What are you doing up jack?” I heard a deep, slurred, gravely voice asked me. I didn’t respond, nor turn around.
“I said,” a large hand grabbed my shoulder, “WHAT are you doing UP JACK?” the large voice shouted at me. “Leave him alone! He was just trying to help me with the dish-” I heard mother try and defend me, before hearing glass break and the voice say, “SHUT it, woman!” I could hear loud steps, and when I heard the smack, I flinched. “I can teach my kids, anyway I want to.” I couldn’t bear it anymore; I turned around, and saw my mother on the floor, cradling her bruised face, and my dad standing over her, with a bottle in one hand, and a clenched fist in the other. I rushed over, grabbed him by his Tank Top, and punched him right in the face. He stumbled backwards and bumped into a table before he stopped.
He looked at me, then charged. I charged back, and we both got into a tussle. I could hear my mother yelling at him to stop, and my sister crying upstairs. Me? I was just full of rage. I grabbed the nearest item I could find, one of his bottles, and smashed it over his head, then kicked him all the way to the other wall. He was covered in bruises and cuts, but he still got up and looked like he wanted to kill me. I did the same and just stared him down. The entire house was silent, except for the silent crying of my little sister. “You got some gut, I’ll give ya that kid.” Dad said, still staring at me. I stared at him and hesitated, what have I really done?
I punched my own father in the face, tackled him, and smashed a bottle over his head? He did attack mom though, I thought. “I want you out of this house.” The words came out without me even thinking. Dad chuckled, then looked around. Then, he reached over to a desk, ‘the same desk dad keeps his pistol!’ I thought, and I rushed him and pinned him to the wall. “I said, I WANT YOU OUT OF THIS HOUSE!” I shouted in his face. Up close, I could smell the same substance that was in the bottles, then, I did something I didn’t even know I could do, I threw him the ground, picked him up by his shirt, and threw him outside the door.
Then, hesitating, watching him cough and sputter in the pouring rain outside, I slammed the door in his face and locked it. I held the door while listening to him curse and shout outside, then listened as his footsteps got weaker, and heard a car start, then drive away. I turned around and looked at the living room. My mother was in the doorway to the kitchen, and my little sister was at the top of the stairs, trying to hold back tears. On the floor, was remains of a table, broken glass, and a bit of blood. I looked at mom, and she looked at me. Then, she walked over and hugged me. I just held her, as she cried on my shoulder.
Then, my little sister rushed down the stairs and joined the hug. I could hear them both crying, but I didn’t. I didn’t know why, I mean, I just kicked my father's butt, then threw him out of the house. But inside, I knew, that I needed to be strong, strong for my sister, strong for my mother, strong, in case he ever came back. I held them both for as long as I could, slowly drifting into their comfort.
Chapter two: the package
A couple of days after, I had to go back to school. I informed my principal what happened, and they said I could have as many days off as I want, so of course, I only took a couple. I packed my backpack and got my bike ready. My mom was reluctant that I decided to go, but I knew that they would be safe, and, my neighbor next door said they would watch the house. I got on my bike and started my journey to school. My family lives in a very rural area, with a bunch of houses surrounding a huge lake. The school was just a few blocks away, that’s why my parents decided to pick this area, for its close to the school, is surrounded by loving and caring neighbors, and there’s even a shopping center near the edge of the community.
While riding on the way to school, I could see my neighbors watering the plants, mowing the lawn, or waving towards me. News spreads quick, so most of the time they would shout apologies for what happened, or offering me and my family a casserole or something. Even the neighborhood cop, who is usually strict to everyone, gave me a small nod and said, “Say hi to your mom for me.” While I was at a crosswalk. Usually people like attention, but I don’t really like it when everybody tries to comfort me, but I did appreciate it. When I got to the school parking lot, it wasn't that bad there, but there was the occasional pat on the back and the apologies. Everybody tough did treat me differently that day.
True, they all were nice to me and all, but they all treated me like I was different. I couldn’t figure out if that was a bad difference or a good difference, but everybody did. I locked my bike to the bike rack and walked to class. In the hallways, I was approached by a girl I never met before, “ hey, your Jackson right?” she asked, I nodded back, kinda in a rush to get to class. She replied by saying, “I just wanted to say, your pretty cool. You know, by taking down your dad and all.” And smiled. I stopped in my tracks when she said that.
She looked back, a little confused, and I just said, “look, what I did, was not cool, it was not great, what I did, was kick one of the most important people I ever KNEW out of my life. So I’d appreciate it if you didn’t treat me like a rockstar, because I kicked my father out of my house.” Everybody was staring at me and the girl when I said that. The girl looked like she was about to cry, but nodded and walked off. I just stood there, while everybody was watching me, then everybody went back to what they were doing, and so did I. when I got to class, everybody was talking, while my teacher, Ms. Leasure, was working on paperwork. I sat down in my normal seat and took out all my stuff.
I was about to take out a book, when I heard somebody say, “Hey jack, you ok?” and when I looked over, it was all my friends. There was James, Alex, Donny, Alice and her sister Avigale, and strobe. I nodded and said, “Oh you know, just a normal day in my house.” And did a dry laugh and everybody chuckled, trying to break the awkwardness. “Really though,” Alice said, “after what happened, I’m not sure I’d be okit takes a lot to be like you jack.” I blushed a little when Alice said that, and Avigale must have seen, because she said, “yeah, either that or you're just pretending.” Avigale really hates people who have crushes on her sister, though many people are mistaken by her for having a crush. This was one of those times.
Strobe punched Avigale on the arm and said, “What she meant to say, was that if you have something to get off your chest, we’re always here.” My friends, we really great therapists to each other whenever there was a problem. When one of us got depressed, we’d always help them up! “All right then class! Time for a pop quiz!” the teacher said. She then walked over to me and asked, “Jack, if you want, you don’t have to take the quiz, nor will it affect your grade.” My friends all looked over shocked, but I just said, “No thanks to Ms. Leasure, I’ll be fine.” And she nodded and started handing out tests.
My friends were about to ask me, “what have you done?” “Why didn’t you take it?” or other things like that, but I gave them all a look, and they didn’t ask anything. The next few classes were pretty boring, we did the math, we wrote stories, and we dissected a frog (Alice almost fainted), and finally, the lunch bell rang. We all went to the courtyard, where we eat lunch, and Donny said, “thank god! I’m starving!” and Alex replied by saying, “Don, you’re always hungry!” and we all laughed. I took out a bag that had my lunched in it, and opened it, to see nothing. There was no sandwich. There were no chips, there were no cookies. All that was inside, was a small package. Hey, didn’t I hear that from somewhere?
I looked around confused, while everybody else was eating lunch. “ All right guys, very funny, you couldn’t have done this after I ate lunch?” and everybody looked at me confused. “What do you mean?” James asked, “what do you mean, ‘what do you mean?’ somebody took my lunch and replaced it with this!” I pulled out the package. It was a box, covered in brown paper, and tied with string. Everybody looked at me like I was crazy, “yeah, I didn’t do that.” James said, “Nor me.” Avigale quickly said. Everybody denied that they switched by lunch with a box, so I looked at the box itself.
The brown paper looked like the paper you use to put lunch in on a field trip, and the string looked like something you use for arts and crafts. When I looked at the back of the box, it had in messy handwriting, “To Jackson Mariazek. From: a special friend.” To be honest, I almost threw the box away after I read it, but my overbearing courage oozed from me, so I began to slowly untie the package, when Alice grabbed my hand, “hang on there jack, we don’t know what's in there. It could be a bomb for peat sake!” I wondered about that, then realized that she was still gripping my hand. She pulled away awkwardly and shared a bit of awkward silence, (Avigale looked like she wanted to kill Me.) and I went back to pondering. What if it was a bomb? If it was, I could be responsible for killing all of my friends!
If it isn’t a bomb, then it might be a present and if I threw it away, that person might gets sad, or angry, and they might be a maniac with a knife! I pondered my options and decided to open the package. I untied it quickly and took off the brown paper. Under it, was a tiny white jewelry box. I looked at my friends, then opened the box. The only thing inside of the box was a tiny switchblade. I quickly put the lid on the box and looked around. A silence hung in the air until I broke the silence by saying, “well, at least it's not a bomb.” “Yeah, it's not a bomb, it’s a knife!” Avigale said, clearly shocked, “calm down Avie! You keep shouting like that, and jacks’ gonna be taken away for having that!” strobe scolded Avigale.
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Disclaimer: this story has scenes and references that some readers may find scary. reader discretion advised.

Chapter One: Bottles
“It’s a regular school day, boring classes, same old things. At last, you hear the lunch bell ring. You sit down with your friends and open your sack lunch. There is no sandwich. There are no chips, no cookies. A mystery package has replaced all of that! Slowly and incredulously, you take the package from your lunch bag. Not only did it appear in your lunch, but it has your name on it! What is inside? Who sent it, and why?” a static voice said from the computer screen. “Man this game is boring.” My little sister said to me, “you’re the one who wanted to get it!” I shot back. Hi, my name is Jackson Mariazek, yes I know the name is ludicrous, and this is my story!
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