The idea that kindness was a weakness stuck in Kaelen's mind. He believed that being kind was just an invitation for mean people to hurt you. He had to protect Elara, the only person he cared about, and he wouldn't let her be weak.
So, he started to study the bullies. He watched them all the time, learning their habits and what they were afraid of. The leader, Mark, acted tough but was really a coward. His two friends, Peter and Liam, just followed him because they thought he was strong. Kaelen learned that Mark was terrified of the dark cellar under the kitchen. He learned that Peter hated spiders. And he learned that Liam was secretly ashamed because he still wet the bed. Kaelen remembered all these things, like packing away secret weapons he hoped he'd never need.
His friendship with Elara was the only good thing in his life. For her tenth birthday, he made her a bracelet from a piece of string and a smooth, grey stone he had polished until it shined. When he gave it to her, her face lit up with a smile so happy it almost hurt to look at her. She never took it off.
"It's my treasure," she told him, holding her wrist. "It keeps the monsters away."
"I'll keep the monsters away," Kaelen promised her quietly.
A month later, his promise was put to the test.
On a cold, grey afternoon, Kaelen heard Mark's ugly laugh coming from a stairwell. He felt a flash of anger, but then he felt cold fear when he heard Elara's voice, small and shaky, telling them to stop.
He moved silently, like a shadow, and peeked around the corner. Mark, Peter, and Liam had trapped Elara at the top of a steep flight of stone stairs.
"What a pretty little bracelet," Mark sneered, looking at her wrist. "You shouldn't have things you can't protect."
"Leave it alone," Elara said, her voice shaking but trying to be brave. "Kaelen made it for me."
Hearing his name made Mark grin. "Oh, did he? What's that quiet little freak going to do?"
As the other boys laughed, Kaelen's mind became very calm and clear. Everything seemed to slow down. His anger was still there, but it was cold, like ice. He had planned for this. He knew their fears.
But as he watched Mark grab Elara's arm, a new, darker thought came to him. Just scaring them away wouldn't be enough. They would only come back later. To really protect Elara, they had to be broken.
"Give it to me!" Mark yelled, yanking on her arm.
"No!" Elara cried, pulling back hard.
It all happened in one terrible, quick second. As they struggled, they both lost their balance. Mark stumbled back against the wall, and Elara fell forward. She fell down the long flight of stairs.
There was a horrible crack as her head hit the hard stone floor. She tumbled once and then lay perfectly still at the bottom. The broken bracelet, just a string and a stone, lay on the top step.
For a moment, everything was silent. The world went blurry for Kaelen.
He walked calmly past the three bullies, who were frozen in shock.
"She… she just fell," Peter stuttered, his face white.
Kaelen ignored him. He knelt beside Elara. Her cheek was already getting cold. Her eyes were open, but the light in them was gone. The only color in Kaelen's world had just disappeared.
The anger inside him finally broke free. But it wasn't a hot explosion. It was like ice water flooding his body, turning all his sadness into a sharp, hard point.
He slowly stood up and turned to the three boys. His quiet grey eyes now looked like they were burning with a cold, black fire.
Then, he smiled. It was a scary, empty smile that didn't reach his eyes.
"You took my treasure," he whispered, his voice calm but icy. "So I'm going to take everything from you."
He didn't move. He just focused all his pain and all his anger right at them. He thought about the cellar, the spiders, and the secret shame. All his magic, raw and powerful, exploded out of him.
Mark started screaming, a high, terrified sound. In his mind, the walls of the stairwell were gone. He was in the orphanage cellar, and the walls were closing in, burying him alive in the dark.
Peter clawed at his own skin, crying and gagging. In his mind, thousands and thousands of spiders were crawling all over him, in his hair, in his mouth.
Liam just fell to the floor, sobbing as his worst nightmare, his deepest secret, felt like it was happening for everyone to see, the shame burning him from the inside out.
Kaelen watched them suffer, his empty smile never changing. He felt no sadness for them. He felt nothing at all, except a cold, clear feeling that this was right. This was justice. They broke his world, so he was breaking them.
Suddenly, footsteps echoed down the hall. "What is all that screaming?" It was Mrs. Gable.
She turned the corner and stopped, her hand flying to her mouth. Her face went pale. She saw the three boys screaming and crying on the floor. She saw Elara's small, still body at the bottom of the stairs.
And she saw Kaelen, standing in the middle of it all, looking up at her with a calm, terrifying smile and eyes like shiny black stones.
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