The strange boy
By: Immy Crofty
Tags: Supernatural, Fun, Change, Mystery

The strange boy

Alex Taylor was an average girl living in the town of Xerox, a town where everyone lived life in sync, day after day doing the same daily activities. As she awoke from her slumber and stood in the mirror, not a hair out of place, no colour in her face, she saw the girl that she is surrounded by everyday. In this town everyone looked the same. In fact, everyone’s name was the same, everyone’s voice was the same and so were. their personalities. Some may say the town was bleak, however to the folks of Xerox this town was as easy to live in as it is easy to walk or talk.However, this town was not filled with friendly chatter, no parties, no neighbourhood gossip, no nothing because in this town everyone worried about themselves and let the world around them be just that, a world around them. To many this town was like a well oiled machine where everyone played a part like a gear or screw.

As Alex made her way to school on that familiar morning, with the familiar scent of the sweet dahlias and the cool familiar wind that brushed against her creamy skin, something was not so familiar. Well, this something came in the form of a vibrant life. Billy Weaver. As he strolled down the street, with a scruffy haircut and a soft tinge of red in his cheeks, he walked past little Alex Taylor and did a rather peculiar thing. He smiled and waved at her. Did he know the unspoken rules in this town? Something as simple as this small gesture left Alex on edge, causing her to halt in her tracks. Nobody in this town talked to one another, let alone smile or wave, unless they were family or peers. This simple action was an offering of friendship in Xerox, and nobody liked friendship. It created too many issues. Too many fights. This was a town of simple living and nothing was simple about complicated relationships. Alex brought herself back to reality and now shut her mouth that was hanging open like a trap door. She turned her puzzled gaze to Billy who stood smirking at her confusion.

“Are you alright?” He questioned as he stared at her astonished face. She thought to herself how dumb she must look. However his presence took her by surprise. Everything about him was… different. From his dark brown, almost black eyes, which seemed sweet at first but were hiding a world of trauma, trauma no one in Xerox experienced, all the way to his perfect skin and perfect teeth. Be that as it may, little Alex Taylor got a bad feeling about him.

“Uh…uh… uh yeah,” she began to stutter trying desperately to compose herself, “I… I’m sorry for being impolite.”

“Oh it’s…” but before he could accept her apology little Alex Taylor was running away.

Alex Taylor ran all the way to school. She ran from the strange boy. He derailed her whole morning with a simple smile and wave. But it was more than that. It was the way she felt drawn to him, no matter how quickly she wanted to move her legs away from him, Alex actually stood there having a conversation with him! In her heart she knew she didn’t want to speak a word to Billy but she couldn’t run until he, for the slightest second, turned his head the other way. The thought of this effect had made Alex so mad that the slightest bit of emotion spread across her face. She took a deep breath and let go of the resentment and the thought of that strange boy. She would not let him cloud her empty brain no longer.

He would leave.

However, little Alex Taylor’s wish of him leaving was not granted. The strange boy was still hanging around town. Although, it was more unbelievable than that, as the town was different, people were talking to one another, more than that though, they were spending time together on weekends that they didn’t have to. Alex didn’t like change. The once outlandish smile and wave became normalised. All of these differences were to be blamed on Billy Weaver, somehow he had weaved his way into everyone’s hearts and had even inspired them. Inspired them to be themselves. It was preposterous. Even as hard as Alex tried to avoid these changes, even smaller changes happened in her little life. She found herself feeling. Feeling large amounts of animosity to Billy, as he had changed her hometown, people stopped being there feeling less, peaceful selves and became just as bright as the strange boy. Alex believed that some were perkier than the strange boy which was curious within itself, how is it possible that some can be more bright eyed and bushy tailed than the strange boy? Something was off about Billy.

Alex continued to act unbothered,however she couldn’t stop thinking about it. She had become so wrapped up in thoughts that she had not noticed that the town was slowly overflowing with hatred. Less than a week ago this town was completely different, it was filled with love and life and now… and now it was just filled with hatred and angst. Alex’s morning had undergone some renovations. Now when she awakes from her slumber she sees the same insipid girl and she makes her way to school, a place full of life now, and on the way she walks past the local grocer, Alex well now “Sam” but she refuses to acknowledge the difference, and he smiles and waves at her. Little Alex always ignores Sam, but on one idiosyncratic day Sam stopped Alex in her tracks.

“Well aren’t you going to buy some tomatoes!” He yelled at the now more pale than ever Alex holding a firm grip on her arm.

“Wha-,” she began to respond, becoming more aware of the purple and blue mark that was starting to form on her arm, giving her some colour.

“BUY SOME TOMATOES!” Sam hollered at Alex, leaving droplets of spit on her blanch skin. Alex ripped her arm from his firm grasp and ran until she reached school.

Alex couldn’t stop thinking about that interaction, she finally started noticing a pattern with everyone in Xerox. Everyone was filled with hate for one another. It was very strange but Alex only had one finger to point, Billy Weaver. He just had to be at the bottom of it all, so Alex went on her way to find him.

Alex found the strange boy, under a tree smiling at the chaos.

“What did you?” Alex questioned him with such vigor.

Although he didn’t respond, he just turned around and stared at her, his eyes full of darkness and just black all over. Alex felt a wave of emotion and knowledge drown her all at once. It was a flashback from Billy’s life, a flashback so dark, so sinister, so… so devastating. Somehow, through Alex’s eyes, almost like telepathy, she watched as Billy innocently felt compelled to go into a bed and breakfast from a black eye, similar to his now, so he did so very briskly when suddenly this sweet old landlady changed her tune and harmed Billy. Or at least she tried to before he fought back and did the most traumatic thing he would ever have to do. He killed the landlady. It wasn’t easy as she had tried to poison him, and once he realised his fate he did the unthinkable thing.

As Alex Taylor stood there staring at Billy Weaver astonished, she felt nothing but sorrow for him. It all pieced together in her head, as she realised he had wrapped himself up in a loop of self torment as he made unsuspecting people feel unbelievably happy before sapping it back out of them, using his black eye. Hurting him more than the people as he felt such remorse for his actions but believed he deserved to live with such heavy guilt.

Just as Alex finished processing the information she received, Billy creeped up slowly beside looking deeply into her eyes, compulsing her, and she knew she might be facing the same foreordination.