The flash of the barrel, that’s the last thing I remember. I woke up after my death in a room with a random kid. He wasn’t special, and he didn’t seem particularly vested in anything. He just went to school, studied, and did his homework. I never understood why I was tied to this kid. He held no importance to me, but here I was, connected to this boy. I don’t remember my name, but he was Ken. He was what kept me grounded to this earth. No matter how hard I tried I was always stuck with him. He would just sit and be boring. It was the worst way to spend one’s afterlife.

One day after a particularly uneventful afternoon, Ken was walking home from school. I had nothing better to do in my eternal damnation, so I just followed along silently. He began to cross the street, and I had noticed that there was an out-of-control car coming straight for the intersection. In my attempt to keep him from being hit by a negligent driver, I grabbed for his arm. I was unsuccessful in my attempt, sort of. Instead of pulling him out of the way, I ended up inside him. Somehow I had possessed this boy. I quickly learned that I could take over his body for short periods of time, and after I would leave him he would go on about his day. He didn’t notice these exchanges because the things that I would do were stored as his own memories.

He got bullied often, but he was too nice and passive to stand up for himself. He would usually come home from school depressed and out of spirit. Therefore, I stepped in and dealt with these bullies. Many of them got the idea and backed off, but there was one who never left Ken alone. He was violent and made a slave of Ken. He was taller and he had strong features. He had a couple of tattoos, so he was obviously a bad boy. Afraid he would maybe become more violent, we went out and bought a gun, for protection.

I took over Ken’s body for a school day to try to find out if there was any way out from his grasp.

“Hey foreigner!” The bully said. He approached casually, but as he neared, his gait became more purposeful and his face more cruel.

“What do you want Wonsik?” I said. My heartbeat sped up and sweat started to sprout from my pores.

He sidled up next to me and put me into a headlock, a gentle one, but a headlock none the less. “You want to aggravate me, nerd?” he began rubbing my head with his knuckles.

“N-n-no, Wonsik. I didn’t mean anything by it.” I softly pried his arm off of my neck and stood up straight.

He took my bag and rifled through it as though he were looking for something, “Do you have my essay written, yet?”

I rubbed the back of my neck nervously, “Uh...no. Not yet. I still have some editing to do.”

He nodded skeptically, “You better have my paper done soon. I have to read it and have it turned in by friday. If it doesn’t get me an ‘A’ I will give you the biggest beating of your life.”

“Ha-ha okay, Wonsik.” I hurried to my study hall and began typing up Wonsik’s paper. It wasn’t my best work, but it was definitely worthy of the ‘A’ that he wanted. I gave it to him later in the afternoon and told him that it was perfect.

He quickly read over the paper and gave a nod of tolerance. “It’s alright.” He turned to leave, but gave a quick look over his shoulder. “Remember what I said about the grade, Foreigner.”

~

A couple of days later, I returned to the school as Ken. I intended to have a word with Wonsik and make sure that he knows that I will no longer be under his thumb, but plans changed as he ran into me in the hall.

“Hey Foreigner. I just got my paper back from the teacher, and guess what grade I got?” His face was twisted in anger and I knew right away that the grade that he got was not an ‘A’

“Ummm” I stalled, “An A-.”

“No. Loser. I got a 0!” You wrote me a paper and got me a 0.

“What?! How?!” I was genuinely surprised. There was no way that that paper could have gotten such a low grade.

“It seems that the teacher figured out that it was you who wrote it. How do you explain that?” He handed me the paper, which I read over.

I spotted a part in the paper that would have given me away easily. “I may have put some terminology in here that would have pointed to my direction.” I sat to think for a second, “I can rewrite it for you. I can make it ‘A’ plus worthy.”

He laughed maniacally, “It’s too late for that, nerd. You’ve gotten me an ‘F’ and you’re going to pay for it.

He grabbed my collar and began to raise his fist. Because we were alone in the library, there was no one that I could call for help. I struggled to break his grasp, but he was stronger than me. I kicked out and made contact with his shin. He released me in favor of massaging his now sore leg. I stumbled away and rifled through my bag, trying to find the one thing that could save me.

There!

The cold metal!

I found it. I wasn’t sure what the repercussions of this action would be, but there was no way that I could let this bully keep making my life-- no Ken’s life-- miserable. I grabbed the gun and cocked it. Before I knew what was happening, I pulled the trigger.

~

The flash of the barrel, that’s the last thing I remember.

A/N

Hey guys! Hope you like my knew one-shot. It was fun to write. I'm sorry that it isn't very long. I have wanted to write this for about a year now, but I didn't know how. Please enjoy.