Sho Ma

Sho Ma novel pt 5

to listen to what he is about to say next.

“Hey get those little punks! Don’t let them get away!”

As I look back at the gangsters, all I see is the leader taking his g*n out of his pants and lifting it in an arch-like motion. He swings the g*n around up to the height of his chest and our heads. He is followed by two other men. The other two gangsters grab their guns out of their pants and all of them aim them at me and my two friends. I turn my head again facing forward and start running at top speed praying for my life. I see my friends running ahead of me and all I hear is the loud exploding sound of hot lead being let loose. All I could think about was hoping that none of us get shot. I could hear bullets race past me and my friends. I hear the air zip as bullets blaze through air. After all I have been through just the other night, I could not believe that these gangsters that have seen us and spoken to us so many times before was shooting at us trying to kill us. My mind blanks out as I run behind my friends hoping that they would run in a way that would take us out of the path of the oncoming bullets. My friends, yell and scream words I can’t make out. But I see them make left turn on the first small street we come upon. Normally we don’t make turns down small streets because the small streets are the streets that have the most gangsters on them. So normally me and my friends usually stay walking on the main streets when we walk to school. But as you know, today we had to take a chance down the small streets because we were getting shot at.

Just as I turned the corner, I could see that the three old gangsters was chasing us and still shooting at us. So we run at full speed panicking maneuvering in awkward motions. The old gangsters chase us about four blocks shooting at us until they get tired and stops abruptly. My two friends and I run nonstop until we get a few blocks away from school. After our life, air gasping halt, we all bend over holding our knees trying to regain our composer as we take huge gasp for air. After panting for about five minutes or so, I finally regain myself enough to speak.

            “Man what was that all about?! I can’t believe those guys that we see every morning decided to shoot at us! There are hardly ever this angry.”

            The friend of mine that didn’t steal but is normally the worse of the two friends reply back to me.

            “Man I don’t know, but if I ever see them again, I’m going to kill them! No questions asked!” He says in a voice so unnerving that it sounded similar to Sho Ma’s voice.

            “I can’t take this anymore! I don’t know what has gotten into everyone! First my mom, now you guys are talking killing, the store clerk, and then the old gangsters that we see every day tries to kill us! The things I have been going through lately has been unreal!”

            “What do you expect!? This is Los Angeles! Lots of bad things happen here all of the time. This shouldn’t be nothing new. Imma tell my daddy when we get home after school.” He says.

            “Well forget it… I will get it together…”

            I really didn’t know what else to say. But I knew that Sho Ma had to be the cause of this even if he was at fault just a little bit. I felt in my heart and my gut that Sho Ma was the cause of all this mischief going on. Sho Ma was after me and my loved ones, so I had knew that I would be facing him soon, so I had to devise a way to defeat him once and for all. But I also knew, that this was only the beginning.

            My friends and I walk a few more blocks and enter the school. 1st Period had begun already so I knew that when we entered the school, that we were headed straight to the tardy room. As soon as we stepped foot on school ground, the dean runs up to us and yells at us to go to the tardy room. I get ready to speak to the dean trying to plead with him, but then his shadow catches my attention out of my peripheral vision. So I turn and put my full attention on it and see some huge red eyes similar to Sho Ma’s eyes. After I see that, I shiver a bit, nod my head, and get away from the dean as fast as I can and head towards the tardy room. Me and my two friend’s kind of loved going to the tardy room to flirt with girls and play around the entire period making jokes. But there was a catch to going to the tardy room at my school… In fact I was starting to learn in life, that every time something good happen, there was always a catch. Well the catch to going to the tardy room at my school was that, if you were tardy twice in one week, you would get suspended for two days! Every time you were tardy, the tardy teacher would put your name on a list, so the second time your name appears on the list, the teacher would walk all students that were tardy twice to the dean for suspension. Luckily, this was our first time this week because it was the beginning of the week.

            We walk in the tardy room relieved, knowing that we were in the safe zone. The tardy room was full of talking, laughter, and loud noise as usual. All three of us look around the room and find the cutest girl with the most open seats around her to sit in, and walk towards her. We did this every time we ended up in the tardy room. We sit all around her and flirt and play with her the entire tardy period. There was nothing better to do. We told jokes and made the class laugh as much as we could before it was time to go second period.

            The bells rings to go to second period not a moment too soon. My two friends and I exit the tardy room and go our separate ways to our next class bidding each other farewell. I walk to my class by myself feeling alone and weak, knowing that I have this demon on my back, constantly stressing and wondering in my mind, when will this demon attack next?

             Reader, if you have ever knowingly had a demon on your tail, then you understand what it feels like to be weighed down by an unseen force that you can feel. A force that comes at you mysteriously and so randomly that you can’t anticipate when you are going to be attacked. Making you feel on edge all of the time. Then you start to feel lost and hopeless, like a targeted wild animal ready to feast upon. You feel like you have loss all hope. And just know, that demons are always watching the living, watching you… I am sure that a demon is watching you now, could be Sho Ma himself… But don’t fret, and don’t be scared, just have courage to face your demons, although it may cost you your strength, your sanity, or even your life…

Man I’m sick of this day already. It was only last night my mother said those words and now I am going through all of this. Well it really was more like two days, but I was sleep those days so to me it seems as though it was last night. This is all I could think about second period and homeroom. They were both over so fast that I barely recollect what happenedin both. For the entirety of both classes, all I could think about was my mother. Think about if she was alright. Think about what she had done. Think about if me and my family was going to be okay. Think about if I was strong enough to save and protect my family. Think about how my life turned into a demon’s playground. Through all of this, I was seeing and experiencing the true face of evil. But at least I knew one thing, if evil existed, then so did righteousness. If demons, the Devil, and evil existed in the world, the so did Angels, God, and righteousness. One could not exist without the other I told myself over and over… But at this moment, evil was lurking and the righteous was not… Or rather I could not see anything righteous at the moment. My mind was running amidst and it was not on school. The bell rings to go to nutrition and wakes me up from my deranged, tormented, stupor. I could not put my heart in school because of all the bad things that was happening around me. So I exited my homeroom class having being silent the entire time in my last two classes.

After I exit the class, I merge with crowds of kids and start heading outside to begin my Nutrition period. Every day I would meet up with the same group of friends in the Cafeteria. My best friend was not included in this group because he would stay in class playing some card game. I think it is called Astral Bangers or something like that… I am not sure what it is called but I don’t play it too much. I am still learning the rules on it from him. I wish he didn’t stay in but I let him do his thing. I do understand why he stays in though, he stays inside because it is too dangerous out here at Nutrition and lunch time. This school was so bad that you could get jumped, shot, stabbed, and beat up at the drop of a dime, just by attending Nutrition or lunch. Although this was the fact, I wasn’t bothered by it too much because I am ready to go whenever my times comes. Scary thought to be this young and feel like this but this in fact, was reality, my reality. Can you imagine if this was your reality…?

I arrive inside the Cafeteria,I look around and meet up with my group. We start joking around about five minutes into Nutrition. My stomach suddenly rumbles, then I head over to grab me a bag of chips and a slice of pizza. While I am waiting in line to buy myself some food I turn and look in the corner and see a huge shadow. Then I hear a whisper that says,

“Your time is coming Novell…”

Before I could respond, a fight breaks out on the other side of the Cafeteria. Two gangster dudes are jumping another guy. Even though it was two against one, the other guy getting jumped was such a great fighter that he is pummeling both guys at the same time! The fight is so interesting that all the kids start running over to watch. I get ready to run over and watch myself but then I stop mid-stride because I am stopped by the evil sounding voice again.

“Not so fast Novell…huuuuuuuhahahahahaha…”

            I take my attention away from the dynamic fighter and put it back on the whispering shadow, then suddenly Sho Ma slips from the Shadow and emerge into full being. My eyes widen with disbelief, and my face turns into one of horror. I get ready and alert, striking my fighting pose. Sho Ma looks at me and smile at me with piercing red eyes and starts walking in my direction. I quickly survey theentire Cafeteria to see if any of my peers sees Sho Ma physically like I can see him. All of the kids are so focused on the fight that is going on that none of them are paying attention to me. After I look around the cafeteria, I hurriedly turn back to see Sho Ma, having just enough time to dodge his oncoming shovel attack. He barely misses me with his square ended shovel. I panic, but counter with a flying jump kick to Sho Ma’s torso. My kick bounces off of him with no damage done to him. I jump back then charge at Sho Ma, but I fall through him. Or rather I tackle air. I fall to the ground and jump back up quickly trying to realize what really happened. Before I can gather my thoughts, Sho Ma is standing behind me, so I turn and face him. Sho Ma is steps away from me. So he trotd slowly to me taking huge steps towards me. Every step he takes make a huge eerie, scary, booming sound as if someone was banging on a drum each time he took a step. Sho Ma then leaps in my direction trying to jump and land on me. I tuck and roll under him, and then take off in a dash running out of the Cafeteria. I run into the open field just barely in front of the Quad area.

As soon as I get in the center of the open field, Sho Ma comes up from the ground with an uppercut to my face! Blood squirts everywhere as I am hit so hard that I am uplifted and fly a few feet away, landing hard on my back. I lay there, shocked from Sho Ma’s blow that I don’t make a move. I just look up at Sho Ma as he slowly stomps his way towards me. How could this be? Who or what was this evil entity befalling me? Why was it so bent on my destruction? There were thousands of kids at my school he could have messed with but instead he chose to torment me! Why, I kept asking myself. Why, why, why…? I start to feel sorrow and hopeless for myself. Then I shake off my doubt and get angry at the thought of my mother saying the f*******n Words. As I hear my mother mouth those words in my head over and over, something inside me erupts like fire, then I stand to full height. Tears start to come from eyes, then I ball my fist up and get in my fighting pose. Sho Ma stops in his tracks and starts talking to me.

“Novell, you are in my domain now. I can hear your thoughts… Things are not always what they seem. Especially in a place like this. You see this as just a school, but I see this as my castle, my world…!”

Although I was really hurt from Sho Ma’s hit, I had to fight on to get him away from me. If only I had some real power… I tell myself this all of the time. But I just need it! I feel a flame of fire inside my chest so I run at Sho Ma blindly feeling invincible like I have all the power in the world in my fist. Sho Ma swings his shovel and bashes me in shoulder with it. When the shovel comes in contact with me, I feel a force grab on to my soul and tries to pull my soul out of my body. The feeling of possession creeps over me again. Tears are still sprinkling from my eyes. The hit from the shovel knocks me down to the ground. I start rolling around on the ground holding my shoulder screaming and whimpering. My entire body start to feel like I was having a fever. Sho Ma lifts his shovel back to come forward with a final devastating blow as he says his last words.

“This time I have you finish off for good to take you back to Hell with me Novell. It feels good to see you fighting for your soul at my feet. Now…”

Suddenly Sho Ma vanishes like sand being blown away as the bell rings to go third period. Nutrition was only twenty minutes. Sometimes Nutrition would feel like it was long, and at other times it felt short. Well this Nutrition was so action packed that it felt like it was over fast.

After the bell finished sounding, my cafeteria friends run over to me along with some nearby gangsters that went to the school.

“Why were you running?!” One of the gangsters say.

I don’t respond to the gangster kid. So one of my cafeteria friends run over and grabs me, lifting me up off of the ground.

“You alright man? We all saw you trip and fall to the ground! Man you are pretty beat up! Are you okay?”

Before I could mouth a word, the gangster spoke again.

“Hey stupid punk! I said, why were you running? Watcha scared of? You weren’t even fighting! That other guy was taking on two guys and he wasn’t scared! You stupid scary punk kid!”

“Leave him alone!” My Cafeteria friend that is holding me up says.

The gangsters see all my Cafeteria friends around me so they turn around and walk away laughing at me. I grab my shoulder because it was in pain, and as soon as I touch it I yell in agony. Then my Cafeteria friends all walk in the building to start heading to our next period. They walk me all the way to my class and stop in front of it.

“Are you good from here?”

“Yes, thanks…” I tell them.

After I confirmed to them that I was okay, they all walk away leaving me in front of my class. They knew my classes because I saw them every day. For some reason, the kids that you liked at school, you knew where all of their classes were. After my friends were out of sight, I lean on a nearby locker taking deep breaths. Then I walk into class.

I sit class this period and the next doing the same thing I did in the last two, except this time I was spaced out thinking about when Sho Ma was going to attack me next! I kept expecting him to attack me in one of my classes but no matter what I thought, he would not show his ugly demented steel head face. So I started to feel a sense of relief and safety in my classes, but even though I did, I knew that classes didn’t last forever. I had only faced Sho Ma twice so far, and I felt like my whole world was at an end! The first time I felt that my world was coming to an end. This time I felt like I was dead, but I knew I was still alive, so I just felt dead inside. Sho ma was stupid! In fact, everything I was going through was stupid! You ever feel like this sometimes reader!? Feel like life is taking you on a never ending Marry-Go-Round? Well at this moment in life I feel like it is not worth living if I have to deal with Sho Ma and his crap.

I space out for two more periods and find myself sitting in fourth period with two minutes before the lunch bell is about to ring. I snap out of my thoughts of Sho Ma to see everyone looking at me including my fourth period teacher. I wonder what everyone is looking at, so just when I get ready to speak, the entire class including the teacher starts laughing at me. I look at everyone in the entire class as they laugh until the lunch bell rings.

I get up slowly out of my seat and gradually walk towards the door to exit class. I manage to walk all the way out of class before the class stopped laughing and one student exits the class. When I came to and saw everyone staring at me, I wanted to run out of class at top speed. But I didn’t want anyone to think I was crazy so I crept out the room as best as I could in confusion. I head outside towards the Cafeteria like I normally do and await the table for my friends as usually. My friends meet me at our table, and we sit and chill. We talk about all kinds of things teenagers talk about. Most of the Lunch was like a normal day of Lunch. I felt relieved that nothing out of the ordinary was happening, until about halfway through lunch.

Then all of a sudden, some random gangster kid yells out.

“Man, it is Monday and I don’t want to come to school the rest of the week! Hey where is that kid that I hate at?!”

One of his gangster friends point and tell him where the kid is at in the Cafeteria. So the gangster kid that yells out and a few of his follower friends walk over to the kid he hated and they start punching him. The other kid friends jump in and start helping him fight the gangster kids, then all of a sudden random kids started joining the fight frenzy, until an all riot starts! Some kids started throwing food, other kids start punching random kids and scuffles just break out every in the Cafeteria, which start a chain outside the Cafeteria as well. I just put my head down and take a deep breath knowing that this can’t, and won’t end well.

So I politely slip out of the Cafeteria unscathed not taking my sight from peering inside it. But as I am walking backwards out of the Cafeteria, I bump into someone. I halt for a min not wanting to turn around to see who or what I bumped into. Whatever it was, it felt cold like that of a dead carcass. This alerted me that it could only be one person… I spin around to see Sho Ma looking down at me with murderous intent. My body begins to feel cold and the shivers of fear consume it. My body wanted to run away but I was stuck in place frozen with life threatening fear. So I try to run the opposite way of Sho Ma but he grabs the collar of my shirt. I run in place, pulling and tugging from Sho Ma. I do this for a few moments and rip my shirt to escape Sho Ma’s life taking grasp. He begins laughing a deep booming laugh without making a move after I break away from him. I stand there holding my neck where my shirt ripped peering at Sho Ma wishing I had to strength to kill him where he stood. Looking at him with the eyes of desperation and mercy. Wishing he would just leave me alone and let me be. But I knew that real life demons never slept through experience in my earlier years…

I get angry but begin taking steps away from Sho Ma. Sho ma flashes once suddenly, teleporting right in my face. I shake my head quickly wondering what to do. Then Sho Ma swings his shovel horizontally swiftly without notice. I barely manage to duck under it. But just when I bend down evading his attack and starts standing back, Sho Ma spins his shovel and jabs me three times in the stomach with the end of his shovel! Each devastating blow felt like it ripped my stomach open as I folded holding my stomach. But once I shook off the pain, I touched my stomach and realized my stomach was still in one piece. As soon as I folded up, Sho Ma runs up to knee and knees me with his dead carcass body.

On impact, I fly through the air like a football being throw fiercely for a long catching touchdown pass. My body smacks the ground back first and I just lay here motionless. Sho Ma surveys me wondering if I am dead. He stands a few feet away from me, Peering, watching, waiting... I think to myself that I should just pretend to be dead to see if he leaves me alone. But then my courage slaps me in the face and drives me to get up. I struggle to get up, by sitting up first. When I look up at Sho Ma, he laughs but says nothing. So I push myself off of the ground with my hands and stand holding my gut. Everywhere Sho Ma hit me on my body was tingling with a burning sensation. Sho Ma starts walking towards me sinisterly, then turn and look to his right for some reason. As soon as he diverts his attention from me, I run at him and do a 360 degree angled spin kick under his steel plated head where I thought his chin should be. Right before I came in contact with Sho Ma, I mouthed the words “God help me,” under my breath. After my attack slammed into Sho Ma’s head, he stumbled backwards.

I don’t know if I hurt him or not, but I know I did make him quite angry because he roars loud in the air making a loud sound similar to an airplane flying in the air. Sho Ma shakes violently as he stands there yelling for a few  moments. Then he puts all attention back on me and comes at me full force. I see Sho Ma coming at me so I turn and start running away from him. Normally in a fight I don’t hit and run. I will hit and evade, but I stay in the fight and my hits in, but this was far from a normal fight. This was a fight to the death against something that was beyond human.

I started sprinting so I get a huge head start ahead of Sho Ma. While I am running away from him, I turn back to look at him to see where he was, and sure enough he was still standing in the same place. So I turn back to look forward and see huge crowds of kids fighting in different areas all around me. The chaos was maddening. So I run in a zig-zag motion towards a library we had behind the Quad area. I always thought that was a weird place to put a library, but at this moment I just had to get away from Sho Ma. The library was the only part of the building I could get in during Nutrition or lunch because the teachers and adults had all of the doors locked. I thought to myself to get inside the building because I noticed that Sho Ma didn’t attack nor approach me when I was indoors at school. So I felt the need to enter the school building. I continue my efforts to run into the library. The trot there seemed unbearable from the pain inflicted on me by Sho Ma. But I kept running there making note of Sho Ma’s position. He never moved an in inch from where I initially ran from him. Which was great for me but seemed very weird.

I run through crowds of kids pushing past them and dodging their blows so I won’t get more damage inflicted on me. I was already almost maxed out from the damage I sustained. After a couple of minutes, I finally approach library door. The door is wide open awaiting my presence to indulge its entering.  I stop right in front of the door breathing heavily. I survey the entire area before I walk in checking to see if Sho Ma was on my tail. But he was not anywhere in sight. I felt relieved that he was not present, and also because maybe my plan to get inside the building was the perfect way to evade him. I felt like a genius getting away from Sho Ma so suddenly. I was always told that a person is quite clever to outsmart a demon.

After I scan the area seeing kids fight in the distance, I run into the library almost falling over the school Librarian.

“Hey what is this?! What is going on here?!”

“Nothing, I apologize for almost bumping into you.”

“No problem, but what is going on outside? It appears as though a riot is going on outside with a bunch of hoodlum kids!” He says sounding very angry and unnerved.

“Yes there is! A huge riot broke out and now the all the kids are fighting each other!” I told the Librarian.

“Well at first I was just going to close and lock the door from all of the loud ruckus, but now I will