1 The Descent

Henry slowly got into the car as his big brother yelled at him to hurry up," Sorry." Henry whispered. "Don't fucking apologize just hurry the hell up next time, I wake up early to take your ass to school, and you're like a fucking turtle." Said his brother with an annoyed expression on his face.

The drive proceeded quietly as Henry stared out the window, looking at the blanket of snow and ice covering the ground. Before long, they had arrived outside his school. Henry slightly shivered when he thought about going in. As he was hesitating, his brother once again snapped at him, yelling, "Get the fuck out!" before reaching across and opening the door.

Henry slowly undid his seatbelt before getting out of the car. His brother didn't even wait to close the door before speeding off. He hung his head down as he entered the school, feeling like everyone was staring at him. He walked through the school and sat down in the commons area as he waited for classes to officially start.

He sat alone looking down at his phone, acting like he was doing something as he tried to fit in with everyone else. After waiting for twenty minutes, school finally started, and he stood up and headed to class along with everyone else. A path seemed to open up wherever he walked as any student that noticed him tried to avoid him.

Henry could hear people whispering "weirdo" and "nasty" he didn't know for sure that these people were talking about him but being as self-conscious as he was he assumed they were. His first class was Literature, as he entered the class, he greeted the teacher only getting an annoyed look in response while the teacher smiled and greeted everyone else.

As class started, Henry sat alone at a table meant for four people as he pulled out uncompleted work from last week. The teacher had begun walking around, collecting each person's work before finally reaching Henry. He glanced at and grabbed the uncompleted work with an annoyed look on his face again.

Henry opened his mouth to give an excuse as to why it wasn't completed before his teacher interrupted him, "Don't bother" was all he said before he walked away. Henry heard people giggling and whispering after the teacher walked away. The teacher came back to Henry and gave him the new work without bothering to explain anything.

Henry looked down at the sheets of paper, which consisted of a new set of vocabulary words along with instructions to write a 500-word essay using each of the words accurately. Besides the new terms, there were instructions to create a portfolio using the assignments they were given over the past school year.

Henry sighed as he saw this as he had almost no completed work turned in for the year except for assignments completed in the classroom, which did not account for much. The teacher gave a short overview of what this week's assignment was before allowing the students to work on their own.

Some students got up and grabbed school laptops while others pulled out their laptops or phones to do "research" on the vocabulary words. Henry pulled out his phone and completed compiling the definitions of each term and using them in sentences before turning in one of the papers and continuing to the essay portion.

Henry was the first one to complete his assignment due to the fact that he had no friends to talk to or message during class. He was half finished with his essay when he was pulled out of class and scolded as usual for missing the last week of school.

By the time he got back, the class was ending. He packed the papers away, and as he was going to close the document on his computer that contained the essay, he realized that the entire document had changed. Now his half-finished essay turned into "Kill yourself" repeated over and over again on each line.

A group of guys that were known for being loud and obnoxious stared and laughed at him, noticing he had seen the document. Henry sighed as he closed and deleted the paper, another assignment that won't be completed. Henry left the room before proceeding to his next class.

The day passed by slowly as he always looked at the clock waiting for the day to end. Eventually, lunchtime arrived as he proceeded to once again sit alone on his phone. After a few moments, someone sat next to him. Upon looking up, he realized it was his only "friend" he had in school.

Her name was Caitlyn, and a lot of the guys referred to her as the "hottest" girl in school. She was also generally a loner as well, though not for the same reasons. A lot of girls tended to be cold to her as they were jealous of the attention she got from the guys.

As a result, although she did have friends, there wasn't a lot of them. She wasn't "friends" with any of the guys, as many of them always tried making moves on her, but she enjoyed Henry's company because he did not seem to see her the same way other guys did.

Of course, in reality though, Henry was indeed attracted to her, but he did not have the confidence to make any moves or say anything that might indicate his feelings. Even if he did, though, he still likely wouldn't as he would not want to ruin the only friendship he had at school.

They ended up talking for a few minutes before one of Caitlyn's friends came and dragged her off to do something else. Henry did not bring any lunch and didn't have money, so he just went back to his phone, trying to make the time go by faster.

Lunch finally ended, and Henry heaved a heavy sigh before looking at the clock. He was now two hours away from school ending. He proceeded to his next class, which was science; this was the only class he was truly ever happy to be at.

Not because there were any friends there but because he was always fascinated by the world around him and how it worked. When it came to science, this was the only class where he completed almost every assignment, and the lowest grades he got were B's.

The hour he had in science passed by quickly as he was focused on completing a project about magnetism trying to use batteries to generate a magnetic field as well as write a five thousand word essay on the effects and how it's incorporated into the modern-day world.

Henry was upset when the class came to an end as he had been extremely immersed in his project and research. He begrudgingly packed his books away before leaving the classroom and heading to his math class. Although science and math were generally interwoven together, he absolutely hated math.

The final hour of school he spent in math felt closer to three or four hours as he continuously stared at the clock, barely doing any work. Class finally ended, and Henry was the first one to stand up and pack before trying to leave the classroom.

The teacher held him back just as he was about to leave, though, making him wait till the other students had gone before scolding him for ten minutes about his lack of work completion. Along with telling him, he would not have a good future if things continue like this, something other adults had already told him many times.

Henry sighed as he finally was able to leave the classroom; he anticipated the yelling he would face from his brother for making him wait so long. Just as he exited the class, though, he felt an arm wrap over his shoulders as he was pulled away by a male student who said he wanted to talk.

Henry tried to get the student off of him, but the only result was him being held onto tighter and being pulled away more aggressively. The student brought him to the back of the school where the basketball courts were before throwing Henry onto the ground.

Before Henry could even react, he was kicked in the stomach so hard that he slid across the concrete ground. Henry struggled to breathe as he held onto his stomach, his mouth open gasping for breath as saliva flowed out of it onto the ground. All he heard was "disgusting" before he was kicked again this time in his open mouth.

He tasted blood in his mouth and could also see many of his teeth strewn across the ground. He had no time to worry about this, though, as he was still gasping for air. One of his lungs had likely collapsed along with several of his ribs definitely being broken.

He could hear the student talking to himself as he once again approached Henry, likely getting ready to kick him again. "That bitch Caitlyn turn me down saying she was not interested in dating anyone right now, but today I fucking see her with this creep? It looks like I'll have to teach that whore a lesson after this.".

Henry's eyes went wide as he heard this he managed to speak a few coherent words, "S'ere is nohing going on beween ush! Peashe I beg you peashe top!". Upon hearing this, the other student just got more enraged as he did a running kick at Henry's head as though it was a soccer ball.

"SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH FUCKING LIAR!" The student yelled as he ran towards Henry. Just before the kick arrived, he managed to let out a scream for help when the kick came though he felt severe pain in his neck and lost all feeling in his limbs as he laid motionless on the ground.

The student kept on kicking him as hard as he could, but Henry did not move or make a sound as he could no longer feel anything. After a while, the student stopped and left him on the ground as blood spilled from the wounds in his mouth. After a while, he began getting faint; that was when he heard his brother's voice.

"What the fuck?!" Alex yelled and then grabbed his phone to call an ambulance. Originally Alex was prepared to leave Henry behind and make him walk home for taking so long just as he was going to leave though he felt an inexplicable feeling in his chest that made him slightly worried.

He decided, 'Screw it if everything is fine, then I'll still make him walk home.' Upon entering the building, though, he was told he would have to wait and couldn't go searching around in the school. He argued for thirty minutes before a student came walking out with blood on his shoes.

It was apparent he had tried to wash it off, but he had left some in a prominent spot on the tip of his shoes. Upon noticing this, the feeling in his chest got worse as he asked the student if he had seen his brother. The student laughed before walking away without answering.

Alex argued for ten more minutes before forcing his way through. After searching the building, all that was left was the basketball court outback, which is the place he was now. Upon seeing his little brother in such a state, Alex was enraged as he called the police and an ambulance.

Henry passed out when his brother began shaking his body, trying to get a response. Alex told the operator that he could feel breathing, but no matter what, he could not get him to respond. He also told him the area around his neck looked red and swollen.

Upon hearing this, the operator went silent and told him not to touch his little brother, saying not to mess with the body. Alex felt his heart drop as he heard the operator refer to his little brother as if he was a corpse. He suddenly felt like breaking down as he regretted all the moments he was mean to him.

"I'm sorry," he said in his head as tears began streaming from his eyes.