Chapter Text
Will had known he wasn’t like the other kids for a while now, but he just never thought it would be a bad thing until recently.
It all started when Will was just six years old. He’d been diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia, which was just a fancy way of saying his brain didn’t work the same way as everyone else. It didn’t surprise Will that much. See, Mr. Bush, his first-grade teacher, had pointed that fact out to Will often. He was nice about it, for the most part, telling Will that while none of his other classmates functioned the same way as him, he wasn’t alone. He said there were a lot of other kids that were the same as him out there. It was a nice thought and Will always wondered if he’d meet any of them one day.
When Will was seven, he learned that it wasn’t just his ability to learn and participate in a classroom environment that made him different. As a toddler, Will loved kissing his mom’s boo-boos away, but if he’d been paying attention or at least older, maybe he would have noticed how the bleeding on her finger had always abruptly stopped, or that her bruises would instantly fade away. Instead, it took until the Beau Sawyer incident (the first one) that he came to realize what he had been doing all along.
Beau Sawyer was Will’s age. They had been in the same class at school since Kindergarten. The boy had curly brown hair and a knack for getting into trouble. The two boys used to live across the street from each other. Every summer they’d spend the whole day riding their bikes, having water gun fights, and racing each other saying the last one was a rotten egg. They were best friends until one day about a year ago when Beau’s family moved. They were still in the same school, but things just weren’t the same. Before either boy knew it, they had grown apart.
Will watched Beau sometimes on the playground with his new friends. He wanted to join their game of Cops and Robbers, but didn’t want to invite himself, and opted to watch from the side instead. One day, Beau had fallen from the playground stairs, scraping his knee badly. It was bleeding a lot, and Will dropped everything to help the boy. He didn’t know what he was doing at the time, just placed his hands over Beau’s injured knee and began humming some song that came as naturally as breathing to Will. It was entirely instinctive, and before either boy knew it, the scrape had magically healed itself leaving not even a scar. Both old friends looked at each other in complete shock before Will made ran away making himself scarce. When he was alone, he chanced a look down at his hands, studying them as if they were some kind of alien.
When his mom came to pick him up after school that day, Will told his mom all about the incident. Will had never been good at keeping secrets from her, nor did he ever really want to. It confused Will when as he explained what happened, his mom’s reaction was more worried than shocked. When they reached the next red light, she turned to face her son, smiling at him and reaching out her hand for Will to grab and hold.
“Will honey, I’m so proud of you. You’re such a good kindhearted kid and I couldn’t be luckier to have you in my life… but I’m gonna need you to not use these miraculous healing hands,” she told him wiggling their joint hands and eliciting a small laugh from the boy, “in public, ok? Next time, just help Beau to the nurse’s office, please.”
At first, Will didn’t understand why, but he knew better than to question his mom, instead choosing to follow her advice. When Harper had fallen off the swing set or Mac had been hit by kickball knocking his two front teeth out in P.E., he’d escorted both to the nurse’s office instead of drawing more attention to his “miraculous healing hands.”
It didn’t take long for Will to realize why he couldn’t heal anyone else though, because every time someone at school had been injured and Will felt the need to help, he caught Beau watching him from the corner of his eye. It had felt like the boy was always watching Will, not just whenever he tried to help people lately. In class, he could feel Beau staring at the back of his head and during lunch he caught him glaring at Will from across their class table. Beau’s eyes were constantly on him, and it had begun to unnerve Will who waited for the brown-haired boy to finally just confront him about what happened that day at recess all those months ago. It had been messing with Will so much, that eventually, he had decided he had enough. On the last day of school, Will decided it was time and approached Beau himself.
“Why are you watching me?” he asked, grabbing Beau’s arm and holding him back from the others at recess. Immediately when Beau realized who had him in their grip, he flinched away and demanded Will let go. His reaction startled Will, who quickly dropped the boy’s arm and began apologizing.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I just want to know,” he told the boy, hurt by the clear hatred in Beau’s voice. The brown-haired boy didn’t answer at first. He just looked at Will’s hands distrusting. Will didn’t know what he’d done to deserve this reaction, but he didn’t like it.
“If anyone should be asking questions, it’s me,” he’d finally answered Will. His voice was like venom and his words were like bullets. “You’re not normal, you know that? I tried to tell my family about what you did. They didn’t believe me – said I was crazy. My sister made fun of me. She thought I was making stuff up for attention, but I know what I saw. You’re not normal. Normal people don’t do what you did.”
The more Beau talked, the more unshed tears Will felt. Will tried his best to stay strong, but he hadn’t expected such a hostile reaction when he decided to face Beau.
“I’m sorry. I just wanted to help,” Will explained but Beau hardly cared.
“You’re a freak, Will. One of these days I’m gonna catch you and everyone else will know it too,” he told Will before walking away and leaving the blonde curling in on himself as he cried. Will promised he had good intentions. He really only wanted to help. He didn’t know what he was doing at the time. He didn’t know he could do that: heal somebody with his bare hands. But after today, he knew he couldn’t ever do it again. If he did, then people would hate him.
When school started back up in the fall, Beau had become far more verbal about his dislike of Will – and taller. The boy was now the tallest in their class, which only made him more intimidating. Will had never been short per se, but Beau easily had half-a-head on Will now.
The school year started with Beau handing out subtle jabs (both in the physical and verbal variety) in Will’s direction now and then. By the end of the first month, Will was beginning to sport a collection of bruises along the sides of his arms and chest. Will wondered if he should tell his mom about it, but he didn’t want her to worry, and besides, they were just a bunch of harmless bruises. By the time January had come around Beau had become more confident and daring. He was tripping Will in the halls, pushing him into other students, spilling stuff on him at lunch, and laughing at how Will had “peed himself.” Will was beginning to wish he had just told his mom about what was happening in the beginning, but now he was in too deep. By April, Will had finally caught back up with Beau in height, but even with all those growth spurts, it seemed he never grew a backbone. He still took every bit of abuse Beau forced on him without argument.
Will supposed the boy had gotten bored with Will’s lack of reaction because before Will knew it Beau had found himself a new person to torment.
“Come on Mac! Don’t you wanna bite of this?” Will heard Beau’s voice from across the table. Looking over he’d seen the mess in front of Mac; the boy’s chocolate milk and some mashed potatoes had been spilled all over his sandwich making it soggy and gross. Will curled in disgust as he watched Beau lift it off the tray, waving it in front of the other boy’s face like he was playing a game of airplane with a baby. “Open wide Mackie,” Beau told the boy.
Will didn’t understand how anyone was finding humor in this situation, but at Beau’s baby voice, it seemed everyone in the vicinity was gathering around the table, laughing like it was just some harmless joke. It clearly wasn’t a joke by the look on Mac’s teary face. Beau had him in a chokehold taunting the smaller boy as he tried to squirm away.
Will looked around him trying to find a lunch monitor. There was no way they’d ever let this slide, but as Will scanned the area, he realized there were no adults around. Will knew what he had to do. He couldn’t just let this happen, so he got out of his seat and pushed his way through the crowd of school kids grades 1-4.
“Let him go, Beau,” Will said. He must have been too quiet because nobody even acknowledged his presence. Where were the lunch monitors when you needed them?
“Let him go, Beau,” Will repeated, this time his voice carrying strength Will didn’t know he had. It was confident and stern and all things Will never was when dealing with Beau, but it got the bully’s attention.
Beau turned his head to see Will of all people and smirked to himself. It sent chills down Will’s back, but he didn’t stand down – not even when the brown-haired boy talked.
“Why would I do that? I gotta make sure baby Mackenzie eats all his food,” Beau spoke in a baby voice so loud the entire cafeteria could hear. It seemed like everyone was laughing which only added more fuel to the fire that was Beau Sawyer, who grinned to himself as if he had made a good joke switching Mac’s real name (Maverick) to Mackenzie. The smaller boy once again tried futilely to escape Beau’s hold.
Will had never been more pissed off than at this moment.
Seriously, where were the lunch monitors?
“Cut it out, Beau. You’ve had your fun. Now leave him alone.”
Beau pretended to contemplate what Will said, humming and holding a finger to his chin in thought before breaking out in a fit of laughter, the thought of listening to Whiny Will an amusing one. Beau didn’t even give the boy a real answer before turning his focus back on a distressed Mac.
How could nobody care how wrong this was?
Why did everyone think it was funny to traumatize their classmate?
Where were the adults when you need them?
All those videos they show in class, all the lectures about seeking a trusted adult instead of resorting to violence, all of it… it was completely useless.
Nobody was there for Will when the torment started – when Will was covered in bruises and went home every week with a missing shoe, or lunchbox. Nobody was there when Will needed someone, but he wouldn’t let the same happen to Mac.
The kids had all gathered around the table banging their fists and chanting “Eat it! Eat it!” while Beau basked in the power he had. With one last attempt, Will walked directly up to Beau and put his “cursed” hand on the boy’s shoulder.
“Excuse me, I wasn’t done talking yet,” Will said garnering a bunch of scandalous oohs from the crowd and a joking “looks like someone’s in trouble now.”
Beau rolled his eyes before remembering just who was touching him. Upon registering that it was Will, he had jerked away, spinning around and almost falling out of his chair. Both Mac and the mess of a sandwich were forgotten, all attention now on Will and Beau.
“You keep those hands away from me, Solace. I mean it,” Beau yelled.
“Then leave. Him. Alone.”
“Oh, look who finally grew a backbone. What? Is he your friend Solace?” Beau teased before leaning into Will’s ear and asking, “Does he know about how much of a freak you are?” Under normal circumstances, Will would have backed down at that question, but right now all he saw was red.
“What am I talking about? You don’t have any friends.”
“I mean it, Beau,” Will told the boy in a warning. Warning for what, Will hadn’t known, just that he would make the bully pay.
“I see what’s happening here. Your jealous of Mac’s lunch,” Beau joked. “Don’t worry, Solace, I’m sure he can share,” he said before turning to look at Mac who had still been cowering in his seat afraid to even think of running away. “You don’t mind if I split this, do you?” he asked grabbing the sandwich off the table and flashing a cruel grin Will’s way.
Before Will knew it, Beau had him in a chokehold much like Mac’s earlier. He made a show of smashing the soggy disgusting “sandwich” in Will’s face as he laughed in Will’s ear. The blonde hadn’t realized what he was doing. One minute his arms were down at his sides, the next, his right hand had latched onto Beau’s arm, clawing the boy with his short nails.
It wasn’t long before Beau’s grip started to slacken. The bully began shaking and coughing as he let go off will, doubling over in some kind of abdominal pain. Everyone was frozen in fear as they watched the boy they had all grown up with coughing up blackish-red blood. His fingers and nose both turned black within a minute and seconds after that, he’d collapsed on the cafeteria floor dead.
The crowd seemed to immediately disperse, children screaming and crying and desperate to go back to the comfort of their homes, but Will just stood there watching Beau’s lifeless body in horror.
Did he just do that?
Did he kill someone?
Will looked down at his hands, the ones his mom called miraculous and healing, and realized that it wasn’t true. Will was a freak just like Beau said — a monstrous, murdering freak with a pair of cursed hands.