Things didn’t get much better with Joon.

While I was still shocked and appalled by what he did in his tree house, I told no one. I mean, I promised him I wouldn’t tell, and I didn’t want to go back on that promise. I knew lots of people did that kind of stuff as their work, and Joon doing it wasn’t hurting anyone. In fact, maybe he was helping people. After all, there were no more pesky animals running around people’s yards. Yeah, I’m sure there was a positive to some of this.

He came to school every day with a new “toy”. It was strange to me how much he seemed to love those things, and sometimes I felt like he paid more attention to them than me. But I told myself it was stupid to get jealous over a dead animal.

I was almost done with my first year of school by now. I also found out that Joon was going to be moving onto the next grade, and it was probably thanks to me that he was motivated to try harder in school. I must admit, I did feel pretty awesome.

But that didn’t mean the bullying stopped. It happened more frequently than before, actually. The small group of boys would come over to him, and each time Joon would repeat the question, “Do you want to be my friends now?” The answer was always something along the lines of, “Of course not, you freak”, and they would proceed with their verbal and slight physical abuse. I was never too close when it all went down, but I remember vaguely hearing a conversation between them.

“What’s with the stuffed animals every day? They’re stupid, just like you.”
“They’re my friends. Do you want to be my friends too?”
“Stop asking us that. We’re not gonna be your friends. You’re too dumb, my mom even says you’re retarded.”
“But I’m not dumb. .”
“Then why are you just now moving up a grade? D-U-M-B. That spells dumb~.”
“Fine. . You don’t have to be my friends right now. I have a whole lot of friends at home.”
“Whatever, weirdo.”

I went over and talked to him after that, being sure to tell him how much I appreciated having him as a friend. Sometimes at home, my parents would be listening to the news and I’d hear a story about a kid committing suicide from bullying. I knew the string had to be thin with Joon, and I wanted to make sure he knew he had someone who cared about him, other than his family. I think he appreciated it.

But one day he came to school more secluded than usual, and he wasn’t even carrying one of his animals. This might have seemed normal to anyone else, but I knew him differently. Something had to be wrong, but I didn’t know how to approach him.

The bullying was particularly bad that day, too. It started with Joon asking them to be his friends naturally, and ended with him lying face-first on the ground. I rushed to him to see if he was okay, and he was except for a bloody nose. I petted his hair and smiled at him sympathetically, telling him that making friends with them was probably not going to happen, but there were a lot of other nice people at school. He didn’t reply, nor did he talk to me for the rest of the day.

Joon wasn’t at school the next day, which got me worried. I couldn’t even bear to think about what he might have done to himself, but I tried to tell myself I was jumping to conclusions. Joon wouldn’t do something like that.

It was a strange day without him there. Any day when he wasn’t at school was strange, actually. I suppose I just hung out with him that much. But at the end of the day, my teacher came to me, saying that my parents weren’t home and they were concerned with having me there alone. She asked me if I had a friend whose house I could go to. I thought of Joon and nodded, although I was still iffy about going back to his house.

I got on the bus and thought about what I’d say to Joon once I got there. I was sure he wouldn’t mind me staying there for a couple of hours until my parents got home from work, unless he was sick. I also wondered about how he was feeling, since he seemed down the day before.

Before I knew it, the bus reached his house. I grabbed my bag and climbed off, and walked to their door. I knocked shyly, but got no response after a minute of waiting. Confused, I knocked again louder this time, hoping that they just didn’t hear me. Still, no response.

I sighed. Had they gone out of town? Where would I go if they weren’t home? My eyes wandered over to Joon’s tree house. I noticed the light was on. This piqued my interest; surely the light wouldn’t be on if no one was home. But I didn’t want to go back up there, not after what I saw the last time. But. . Did I have a choice?

I decided I had to at least see if he was up there. I just had to peek my head in and look around, and that would answer my question. I walked towards the ladder and climbed up slowly, bracing myself for the dead animals.

But I didn’t brace myself for what I saw.

Instead of the animals I thought I’d see, I saw something bigger. Joon’s mom and dad were lying on the floor. I widened my eyes and pulled myself up quickly. “O-oh my gosh! Are you guys oka—“ I cut myself off with a gasp and covered my mouth. They were stiff, and their eyes were missing. I knew what had happened immediately, and if it wasn’t for me eating a couple hours ago, I would have lost my lunch this time. My expression was pure horror as I stumbled back from the bodies, and I knew I had to run. There was no waiting for Joon to explain himself this time; I had to escape.

Except I must have waited too long to do so. I heard a voice behind me.

“Aren’t they cool? It took all day. .” I gasped again at the voice and turned around, only to fall on my bottom from surprise. I stared up at the older boy in terror, but I didn’t reply. Not like I could, anyway. He giggled and smugly grinned down at me. “What? You look like you just saw a ghost”. I didn’t know what to do, part of me wanted to break down sobbing right there. I was confused; this wasn’t Joon. This was a monster now, a dangerous monster that made me fear for my life. My eyes started to fill with tears and I began to get choked up.

He frowned at me. “Aw, what is it? Did you get hurt when you fell back?” A smirk played across his face. “I was just playing a game. Oh! That reminds me!” My eyes followed him as he walked towards a black tarp near his parent’s corpses. He removed it, and my eyes widened once more. “N-no. . .” I breathed, letting out a quiet sob. His smirk grew, and he let out another giggle. “I finally made him my friend”.

I shook my head. “Y. . You’re a monster Joon! You’re sick! I. . I. .” I was breathing incredibly hard. The smirk on Joon’s face started to melt. “I thought you were my friend”, he said to me, his eyes seeming to pierce my skin. I simply shook my head again. “You. . How. .” I sobbed once; I couldn’t think how to form any sentences. I felt like I was the main character in one of the horror movies my dad let me watch, and no matter what I did I was trapped. “J-Joon. . You’re. . You’re messed up!”  I cried, somehow willing my numb legs to stand up. He scowled at me, but it quickly formed into a smirk. “I thought I could rely on you Mir, trust you. . I guess we’ll just have to play our own game together now, huh?” My pulse suddenly rose, and I let the fear take control of my body.

I was surprised how fast I moved. How fast I climbed down that ladder, and how fast I ran away from that house. I glanced back a couple of times and never saw him chasing me, but I didn’t stop running. Not until I reached my house, where it was my lucky day. My mom was home from work. It felt like a huge burden was lifted off my shoulders; my mom could hold me and protect me and tell me everything would be all right, what moms are best at.

I ran inside sobbing. My mom was obviously worried. She told me to tell her what had happened.

So I did.