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-It was another typical day at Jackson high. The red bricked building was alive with noisy students all chatting during lunch time but there was one student who sat quietly alone in a corner.

-Jeffrey was a small, frail boy and he had paid for his misfortune all his life. Everyday he came to school just trying to survive but no matter how small he made himself the assholes always found him. Jason and Brent were two such assholes. They came up and sat on either side of him. Every single year since his first day of kindergarten Jeffrey had had designated and dedicated bullies whose only goal was to make his life miserable and this year these two had the honor.

-Jason was taller and skinnier than Brent and was the leader of the two. Brent was the dumb one, which wasn't a small feat considering Jason's intelligence, he was short and chunky but not really fat. They both wore black leather jackets and metal chains hanging from their torn up pants. Brent always had on a black leather hat with no visor on it that somehow made his skull look even thicker.

-"So what do you have for us today little buddy?" Jason asked with a cocky smile. Brent chuckled with the same laugh as the kids in special Ed. He probably belonged in those classes but Jeffrey guessed that the teachers were afraid of him hurting the other students, not that anyone cared if he hurt the brighter kids such as himself.

-Jeffrey pushed his lunch over to Jason without saying a word. He knew there was no point, if he had refused they would have taken it from him, if he had eaten it before they got there they would have gone into his book bag and ripped up his homework to teach him a lesson. The teachers couldn't help him and no one else was going to, there was nothing else he could do.

-Jason spilled Jeffrey's lunch onto the table and tossed Brent the things he didn't want and they ate the smaller boy's food right in front of him with smiles on their faces. Jeffrey felt the anger building up inside him but he knew he couldn't do anything about it. He wanted more than anything to see his tormentors pay for what they did to him. He wanted so badly to watch them all die.

-The bell rang and Brent and Jason stood up to leave, but not before Jason gave Jeffrey a goodbye noogie. Jeffrey waited until most of the kids were gone; if he clambered to the door like the others he would get pushed around and hit. Once the room was empty he hurried to his next class. Even though he was always the last to leave a room he was always the first one in the next one. The longer he was in the hallways the more chances there were for him to be attacked.

-He sat down in his seat, after making sure there wasn't anything on it for him to sit in, and crossed his arms on his desk and laid his head down. The school counselor said this was the ostrich defense mechanism, he also told Jeffery he was socially unacceptable. Jeffrey simply didn't want to see all the mean stares from everyone coming in the room, he felt unwanted enough as it was.

-Everyone else came in the room, a few people kicked at his feet as they passed. Mrs. France came in and looked at everyone over her glasses with the strict expression she always had. She held up the tests from the day before and started passing them out. One by one the students whined as they received their grades.

-"Class," Mrs. France said sternly, "I am very disappointed in you. You had a whole week to study and yet all but one of you failed the test miserably. Jeffery, congratulations. At least you were paying attention. As for the rest of you, you will all take the test over again."

-The moment she said his name Jeffrey shook his head in despair and put it back down. Why had she mentioned his name? How could a teacher be so stupid, didn't she know what was going to happen to him now? In many ways he hated her as much as the students that would be making his life hell. If she had only kept her mouth shut, but maybe it was his fault too. If he hadn't passed the test, if he had only gotten a few more answers wrong then he could have failed like the rest. But he couldn't have known everyone would fail the test.

-Jeffrey knew there was nothing he could do except keep looking over his shoulder for the rest of the week and fail the next test. That was school for you, get good grades and you doom yourself. He could already hear the others whispering insults and conspiring with each other.

-The bell rang after the longest hour he had felt in a long time and school was out. Jeffery's seat was next to the door and he quickly walked out. If he let everyone else go out before him this time they would be waiting for him. His only priority now was to get on the bus as fast as he could and hope that everyone would be in a more forgiving mood the next day.

-As he hurried down the hall Jeffrey could hear several people chasing after him. He moved at a brisk walk but knew better than to run. He couldn't outrun them and trying would only make it worse when they caught him. His best option was to try and lose himself in the crowd, probably the only time he was ever happy to be around a lot of people.

-He made it down the stairs and out the door leading to the buses. He was almost safe as he waited for a bus to pass in front of him but just before it did something hit Jeffery in the back. He felt himself falling forward and he couldn't stop. The last thing he heard before the bus hit him was someone yelling, "So you think you're smart huh?"

-Jeffery floated along in the blackness of oblivion. Everything was spinning and he had no sense of up or down, he didn't know where he was and he didn't care. It was nice there, he felt free. He floated in that beautiful blackness for what seemed like an eternity. Then he heard something, it was just a whisper at first but the sound grew louder and he recognized it as voices, a lot of voices talking everywhere. He wanted the noise to go away, wanted to go back to that wonderful blackness but the voices continued to get louder.

-Jeffery left the blackness and returned to the world and the moment he did he felt pain. He opened his eyes and light greeted him harshly. His hand came up to shield his eyes and he was wracked with pain. His eyes adjusted to the light and he saw several people standing over him.

-Jeffery closed his eyes again, he didn't want to see all the others laughing and teasing him. He just wanted the pain to go away. He kept thinking to himself telling the pain to stop, for it to go away and never come back. He tried to focus on the thought, if he could escape into the thought maybe it wouldn't hurt as much. And it worked.

-The pain was gone, just like that. Jeffery opened his eyes again and the pain did not come back. After getting hit by a bus Jeffery simply sat up as if nothing had happened. Everyone around him gasped and stepped back as he looked himself over. His clothes were dirty and torn but he didn't have a scratch on him.

-Jeffery slowly stood up expecting to feel a jolt of pain any second but none came. Everyone around him looked with the unhappy discomfort of being in the presence of something they didn't understand. Jeffery may have survived the bus, but now he would have to survive the crowd.

-He looked around at all of the upset faces, he saw them judging him and shunning him in their minds and he knew he needed to leave before they chose to act on their discomfort. As soon as he stepped forward he heard Jason yell out at him. "What kinda freak are you?"

-Jeffery tried to push his way past the crowd but the boys in front of him wouldn't let him leave. "Where you going?" Jason asked accusingly. Jeffery slowly turned to face the boy who now stood in judgment over him. And all around him the jury looked on with unsympathetic eyes.

-Jason stared at Jeffery with a mixture of fear and anger in his eyes. Like everyone else he was afraid of what he didn't understand, and that fear made him hate what he didn't understand. Jason took one reassuring glance at those around him to make sure everyone was on his side before he walked up to Jeffery.

-"How the hell do you not have a scratch on you, huh freak?" Jeffery could see the people around him nodding in agreement with the question out the corner of his eye. He lowered his head and tried to make himself small. He wanted to shrink away, he wanted to be safe.

-"Just what the fuck are you anyway?" Jason asked getting angrier. "Hey, I asked you a question!" He yelled. Still Jeffery did not answer, what did they expect him to say? He didn't understand what had happened any better than they did.

-"Answer me!" Jason screamed as he shoved Jeffery to the ground. Jeffery just sat there, his eyes filling with tears of fear and anger. Why couldn't they just leave him alone? Why did everyone hate him?

-Jason spat out curses and names at Jeffery as he sat on the ground. Soon the words were no longer enough and Jason began to kick and hit him, Jeffery tried to shield himself but he was no match for the larger boy. No one around lifted a finger to help him and he hated them for it. He hated Jason so much it made him sick to his stomach. He wanted him to go away, he wanted him to die. Jeffery clenched his eyes closed and wished so hard for Jason to just die and leave him alone forever.

-Suddenly the hitting stopped and it was quiet. Jeffery looked up and saw Jason standing over him with a terrified look on his face. He looked like he was trying to breathe with his mouth moved as if trying to gulp down air. Everyone around them looked at Jason with concerned faces. When he dropped to his knees several people rushed over to him to see what was wrong but before they could do anything Jason let out one last breath and went still.

-One boy who had come to help him put two fingers on his neck and after a few seconds looked at Jeffery with a horrified expression on his face. "He's dead," the boy whispered. Everyone in the crowed gasped and a few girls screamed. Some of them ran off to get help while the boy who had declared Jason's death continued to stare at Jeffery.

-Jeffery looked into the boy's eyes and saw that same judgment he had felt when he had been hit by the bus, as if he were being accused of something. Did the boy think it was Jeffery's fault? Had it been his fault, had he killed Jason? Of course not, it had to be a coincidence, there was no way he could kill someone just by thinking abut it. The more he thought about it the angrier Jeffery got. Who were they to judge him? They hadn't helped him when Jason had been beating him, not a single person had been knelt down beside him when the bus had hit him. They had only gathered around him out of curiosity, not concern for his well-being.

-Yet they were so concerned about Jason, the asshole who had been beating him a second ago, but they hadn't given a damn about him. He hated all of them, they couldn't have cared less whether he lived or died. Jeffery felt so angry, he wanted to lash out and hurt them all. He wanted them to suffer for what they had done to him.

-Jeffery's whole body was shaking as he clenched his teeth and balled his hands into fists. His mind was overflowing with the memories of every single rotten thing these people had ever done to him. All those years of being shoved, spit on, teased, insulted, beaten. The memories filled him with so much hatred that he couldn't stand it. He tried to push the pain to the back of his mind, back where it belonged but this time it wouldn't be suppressed. And the more it fought against him the less Jeffery wanted to suppress it. The rage inside his heart welled up until he could no longer contain it.

-Jeffery let out an inhuman scream from a lifetime of anguish. As he did so his body seemed to explode and everyone was knocked back as a tidal wave of swirling black darkness erupted from him. The mass of hate flooded out in all directions like a liquid shadow. It swallowed everything and everyone one in its path as it quickly spread outward with unstoppable determination.

-The people who had not been immediately consumed by the coming darkness tried to run from it but were quickly over taken. The people in inside the buses screamed and ran for the doors and scrambled out the windows but it was no use. The black Smokey liquid surrounded the buses, cutting off all hope of escape. In desperation the ones trapped inside put up the windows but the dark tar moved up the sides of the cage as though it had a mind of its own and engulfed the vehicles completely.

-Though the expanding mass was only about three feet high when the outer edge got close enough to its fleeing victims it would rise up to engulf them or lash out with tendrils to ensnare the stragglers and drag them inside itself to be consumed. It shot out thin black spears that pierced people to trees and cars where they screamed in pain and terror until they too were consumed.

-The mass rose up over the walls of the school and the surrounding houses and from inside came the horrified screams of the buildings occupants only to be abruptly silenced. Most of the school's students had been consumed with the exception of those who had managed to drive away or run fast enough.

-The darkness left a black and desolate landscape in its wake and at the epicenter stood Jeffery. He breathed heavily, exhausted by the outburst, but was unharmed. As he came back to his sense he looked around in awe. As far as his eyes could see the landscape was covered in the black tar that had erupted from his soul. The black liquid quickly hardened into a volcanic rock like substance and jagged spikes began to grow on the mounds that used to be cars, trees and buildings.

-The ground was covered with lumps that had once been Jeffery's schoolmates. Jeffery looked back at the former school building and watched with wonder as it grew and changed onto a dark castle.

-Jeffery heard a noise and turned his attention back to the small mounds on the ground all around him. They began to bulge and move just below the surface. Jeffery watched with fascination as the swellings on the ground tore open and unspeakable monstrosities crawled out of their dark wombs.

-The people that Jeffery had once known had been reborn out of the very ground as horribly deformed creatures, twisted by his rage and pain into the very embodiment of his own personal demons. They emerged covered in slime and dripping with blood. Some of the beasts still resembled humans. One such creature stood tall with enormous bat like wings extending from his back. He had a long thick tail covered with small spikes that curved back towards the tip and spines protruding from his elbows and knees. His head sported two narrow horns that curved back over his balled skull.

-Another beast born from the darkness was a massive white wolf, most likely once a dog. It was the size of a van with huge white teeth and sharp claws. It walked up to Jeffery and sniffed him curiously. It looked up at him as if recognizing its master and walked off to lie in the doorway of the former school.

-Jeffery was also different. His mind felt so free now, uninhibited and unburdened. He felt no remorse or pity for those killed or reborn from his darkness, he was pleased. They had all gotten what they deserved, and soon the rest of the world would share in his pain as well. He understood that these were his creatures, his subjects to do with as he wished.

-He walked towards the doorway to his new castle and the white wolf submissively moved aside to let him pass. He walked through the dark hallways and up the warped stairs and as he walked he passed the mutated forms of the former teachers and staff. Once they had mocked and looked down upon him, now they were his slaves.

-He stepped out onto the terrace of the black castle and looked down on his new subjects. Many of them were still being born from the black cracked rock and in the sky soared the winged gargoyles much like the one he had seen moments earlier. One large mound burst open and over a dozen mutated monsters spilled out of its sides, no doubt the remnants of a bus and its passengers.

-In the distance Jeffery could see that his new empire was still expanding. The preceding edge had slowed considerably and now moved along at a snails pace. Jeffery didn't know just how much it would consume but it had already engulfed several square miles. In time perhaps it would envelop the entire world.