The Crystal by Jones M (ready to read books .TXT) 📖

hands grasped my feet, dragging me backward. Soon, my bullies continued their beating. The second one came in a flash, possibly breaking my shoulder. I twisted and turned as the hits kept on coming. They landed on my back and the back of my legs. Due to the pain that I felt, I turned to lie on my back. I wanted to alleviate the pain I felt. 

Big mistake.

The hits came directly onto my front.

"STOP! PLEASE!" I cried out, but that intensified the whipping. In the background, I could hear the boys cheering themselves and laughing. The rods hit my arms, my stomach, my thighs, my legs, and unexpectedly, my face. I writhed on the ground in pain, surprised that I was not dead yet. I couldn't decipher how long it took, but I stopped struggling. The pain that I felt stopped, and I felt numb all over. I looked up, seeing the boys still hitting me. I was surprised that I felt nothing. It made me wonder if that was how dying felt like. 

I couldn't say anything as I slowly blinked my eyes. My bullies were standing near each other, and I could spot a frightened Ethan staring at me. Logan shared the same expression as him. That was the last thing I witnessed before my world started to darken.

 

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Beep... Beep... Beep...

My eyes fluttered open, and all I saw was white. I blinked them rapidly, and they slowly adjusted to my surroundings. The white I saw were lights on a ceiling. I looked around, noticing pale-blue walls around me. There was a white panel door a couple of feet in front of me that was closed. On its right was a large area covered with blue curtains. 

I tried to shift, feeling sheets on my fingers. I realized that I was on a bed. I turned my head to my right and saw a wooden chair next to my bed. Then I turned to face my left. The beeping sound was the heart rate monitor. 

It then dawned on me that I was in a hospital.

Chills ran up and down my spine as the memory of what had occurred came to me and brought on a slight headache. I looked at my hands, and I gasped in horror. I observed the damage and was rendered speechless. There was an IV tube stitched inside my right wrist. I had medical gauze wrapped not only from my shoulder to my hand on each arm but also around my torso and my legs. 

That explained why I found it constricting to move. 

I was curious about how awful I looked, and so I cast a mirror spell. Milliseconds later, I found myself staring at my reflection.

Medical gauze was wrapped around the top of my head and the bottom half of my face. A nasogastric tube was placed in my nose. I partially resembled a mummy. I took a moment to take a good look at myself before I broke down in tears. 

My heart was filled with anguish and hatred because of the bullies. I couldn't believe they took it that far. They had the nerve to hit me until I became unrecognizable! Knowing them, they were probably celebrating about showing me who the boss was. I was so angry that I considered becoming an evil witch.

I was a witch!

Why didn't my powers work? Why didn't they, and on a day that I needed them? My heart thudded as anger like I had never felt before filled my heart. The lights began flickering on and off, and my heart rate monitor increased the beeping rate. The wind started to blow in my room like a small tornado had started to form. 

Glad to know my powers were back. Traitors.

That attracted someone's attention. They came inside and I was shocked to see who it was. Immediately, my emotions ceased, stopping the beginning of chaos that could have occurred in the room. 

It was my mother. She approached my form and sat on the space left on my hospital bed, making sure she didn't injure me. I looked horrible, and I wanted to crawl into a hole and hide away from the world. I did not want my own mother to see me the way I currently was, but then what can one do when their body is mostly wrapped in medical gauze?

"I spoke to the doctor," she said as her eyes traveled across my form. She didn't greet me like she usually would, and I was worried. "You surprisingly have a few broken bones but a lot of bruising on your arms and legs. Your nose was broken. They had to operate on it and give you a nose job."

If my mouth wasn't closed around the gauze, I would have gasped.

"Apart from those, you had wounds over your head that gave you a concussion. If it had been worse, you could have died." A gasp had escaped her lips before she started sobbing.

I remained silent. I tried to feel nothing, but my eyes betrayed me by allowing tears to roll down my face.

"Oh, honey," she said before carefully wrapping her arms around me. "Everything is going to be alright." We stayed in that position as I sobbed on her shoulder. The sound was muffled because of the gauze wrapped around my jaw. Some moments later, when I had calmed down, she asked the dreaded question.

"What happened? Who did this to you?" I looked at her, and her eyes bore into mine. My mouth opened as a lie automatically started to form in my head, but then I remembered the gauze. 

"You will have to tell me at some point," she stated as if she was reading my mind. She muttered a spell that instantly made a mental connection between us. I stopped and thought about it. If I were to lie, wouldn't Harry and his goons do something worse that would probably end up with me killed? I felt an immediate satisfaction of that thought because it meant that they would be jailed. But then, I couldn't put my mother through all that. I had no option but to tell her.

"Harry, Ethan, Zane, Liam and Logan did this to me, mom," I confessed through the mind link. Her eyes squinted in confusion at the names I mentally spurted out. I realized she didn't know who they were. Nonetheless, I continued.

"I got to the same school with them. Mom, they have been bullying me for a long time now. It started two years ago."

I watched as her mouth flew open and her eyes widened.

"What?"

"I am sorry for not telling you anything. I just didn't want to bother you. What with the jobs you do, and dad's passing..."

"Emery—" she started, but I cut her off.

"Don't start, mother. I know you have supposedly moved on, but you don't last a day without bringing him up. Like today!"

She kept quiet. She looked away from me for a moment before staring back at me. Through the mind link, I felt her emotions. She was uneasy like she was afraid of telling me something.

"How long have I been here?" I asked. Her eyes soon brimmed with tears.

Oh no, I thought, forgetting that my mother could hear my thoughts.

"A month." I was frozen for a moment as the information sank in, threatening to rip me apart. 

What?

My mother started to rub my back soothingly.

"Everything will be alright," she said in hopes of changing the subject.

"How can it, mom? Look at me! I look like a burn victim! I have been hospitalized for a month! I missed a whole month of school!" I shouted through the mind link.

"No need to yell at me! You should have told me in the first place!" she exploded. "I understand your need to take care of me, Emery, but I am your mother. I am supposed to be taking care of you, not the other way around."

Tears started to brim in my eyes. She sighed in exhaustion.

"We could have dealt with it the moment it started! Emery, bullying is not a joke. But in this case, it is downright physical abuse! You should have at least used your powers."

"It couldn't have happened, mom! I was afraid for my school record. Also, if it were only one, then I would have cast a spell to make it stop. But they were five, and I never found a situation where I was alone with any one of them. I could not risk the exposure of our kind!"

She seemed to think about it and realized that I was telling the truth.

"Besides, I tried to use my powers on them, but it didn't work."

My mother's eyes widened in shock.

"Have you forgotten, Emery? There were rumors of an evil presence around the area on that week you were..." my mother decided to point a finger at me, and I understood her. "A spell was cast to take effect in the evenings to avoid the use of magic so that the evil presence was dealt with."

Oh. That. I mentally smacked my face. No wonder my magic didn't work!

"I'm sorry. Look, we can talk about this when we're leaving."
My eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Leaving?" she nodded her head as a small smile started to form on her face.

"I got a promotion. You know what that means. A raise in payment, and a new beginning. We'll be going to New York. The best part of this is that you won't have to go back to school. I've dealt with the necessary documents for your transfer. And because of your grades, you could start a new school and continue as if nothing happened."

I mentally smiled. My mother hugged me. 

I couldn't believe it! No more bullies. I hoped that would be the last time I ever saw them.

"Emery," she started.

"Yes?" I inquired through the mind link.

"Don't you dare hide something this serious from me ever again. You may be getting older, but I am still your mother. If someone hurts you, you tell me and I will deal with them. Okay?"

I remained silent for a moment.

"Okay."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER 02

Two years later

Emery's P.O.V

Many months had passed since I moved to New York with my mother. After being discharged from the hospital, my mom made a skin-healing potion that got rid of all the physical wounds I had obtained from the last incident with my bullies. Despite the potion having worked, I had to endure emotional trauma. 

We moved into a new apartment house in New York, and I felt like something had changed. I recalled waking up a couple of nights screaming for my bullies to stop and my mother would come and check up on me. 

I guess I was experiencing withdrawal symptoms from the bullying I had endured in my first high school. However, that was was not the only thing that happened. I had self-confidence issues ever since I was being abused. But being away from my bullies seemed to increase them up to a point where I started putting myself down in every social situation. My mind always focused on my flaws, and it didn't help when the voices that would point them out were of my bullies. The voices would sometimes come as taunts, and other times they would be shouts. The only relief I could find was cutting myself.

Yes. Cutting.

I tried cutting my wrists at first. It didn't take my mother long to find out what I was doing. She said I needed help, but I begged and promised her that I would stop by myself.