STOIC

FIVE

EMMERSON

Emmerson 8

Stoic 14

Two months had passed since the birthday debacle, and Stoic was barely speaking to me. I must have pissed him off. It looked like he was super busy, but he still came over at night for dinner, combed my hair, and put me to sleep. Luckily, that was pretty much the only time I saw him during the day.

He even stopped fishing. He said he didn’t have time to fish with silly and immature little girls like me. It was not like I cared. I liked it better like that, anyway. With Stoic out of the picture, I was free to do whatever the hell I wanted without having The Dokken’s shadow behind me.

I finally found a friend! A girl that was not girly, just like me. Amelia and I hated other girls, so we became friends fast. Amelia’s skin was darker than mine, and her hair was afro like Mom’s. Her mom always made pigtails for her. I thought she looked cute with them, so I asked my mom to make them for me, so I could look like Amelia too.

She was fun, but weird, the good kind of weird. She had a thing for leaves, so she collected them. Since Amelia had a collection, I also wanted one. Not having much to choose from, I settled for collecting beetles. As you might imagine, my collection was a bit problematic for Amelia, but she didn’t mind too much. So far, I had twenty-four beetles, but six died. I kept them anyway.

Since we spent so much time together, people started calling us twins. Some kids would call us names and try to bully us, but Amelia and I would throw rocks at them with our slingshots and make them sorry for even thinking about messing with us.

Amelia had an older brother, Landon. He was two years older than us and played with us sometimes. He was tall and athletic but not as tall as Stoic. No one was as tall as Stoic—he was a giant. Landon was a hugger. I was not very cuddly, so Landon did make me uncomfortable at first, but I thought I was getting used to it. Landon usually hugged me hello, goodbye, and pretty much anytime he felt like it without a reason.

It was fall, and that meant time to celebrate the harvest. I’d gone with Amelia’s family to the fall festival. I had plans to meet my family later on for the concert. So far, we’d done the hayride, the corn maze, the rolling pumpkins, and we were on our way to the petting zoo. I was determined to hug every animal there. I guessed Landon’s hugs were becoming contagious.

I had locked arms with Amelia and was skipping when I saw Stoic. He was a bit far, but I could tell he was holding something wrapped in a piece of fabric. I knew I was going to get my wood gift, so I pulled Amelia by the arm and ran toward Stoic.

Stoic saw me and just stood there waiting for me to reach him with his serious face on. Some things never changed. He looked at Amelia and raised an eyebrow.

“She’s my best friend, Amelia.” I knew what he was thinking. He didn’t need to talk.

Stoic smiled at Amelia. Wow, that never happened. Maybe he was okay with her.

“Is that my gift?” I said, pointing to the fabric. I was excited. Don’t blame me, I loved gifts.

Stoic nodded and gave it to me.

I eagerly unwrapped it, and what I found inside was something I wasn’t expecting at all.

“A boomerang?” I asked. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it, but it was just that it was not very Stoic-ish to give me something like this.

“It will always come back to you.” He pointed at the boomerang.

Duh! Thank you, Captain Obvious.

I knew that—that was the whole idea of a boomerang, right? I turned it in my hands and noticed Stoic had put his name on it.

Narcissist.

“Thanks, I love it!” I really did. I smiled at him, and he smiled back. He must have been having a good day because he looked like he was in a really good mood.

“Emmy!” I heard Landon call me from not too far away.

Oh no! This was not good.

“Emmy, Amelia, I thought you guys were gonna be at the petting zoo,” Landon said, putting his arm over my shoulder and pulling me close.

Oh crap!

I turned my face to see Stoic, and he had his eyes locked on Landon’s arm, jaw clenched, and a big frown on his face. He looked pissed. Scratch that—he was pissed. He was about to breathe fire out of his nose and ears. I tried to laugh out loud to de-escalate the situation, but it sounded super fake. By then, I was really worried about Landon’s life.

“We were on our way there when Emmy saw her friend. Look, a boomerang,” Amelia said, completely unaware that her brother was about to die.

“Cool!” Landon took the boomerang from my hands, and I heard Stoic take a step forward. Yep, Landon was going to die.

“Who’s Stoic?” Landon asked.

I forgot Amelia’s family was new to our village. There was no way on earth he knew about The Dokken, but he was about to find out the wrong way.

“Me,” Stoic said with a deep, loud, monster voice. If looks could kill, Landon would be a goner.

Landon looked up and flinched when he saw Stoic’s face. Stoic already had his hands forming fists and was stepping closer and closer.

I had to do something. I couldn’t let Landon die in front of his family in the middle of the festival with all the children watching.

I pushed Landon’s arm away from me and quickly stepped in between him and Stoic. Putting my small hand on Stoic’s belly, I said, “Stop. Don’t do it. They are my only friends, please!”

Stoic stopped and looked at me. By the way his eyes were moving, I could tell he was thinking about it. Good, there was hope.

He took a deep breath, stretched his arm over me, and harshly grabbed the boomerang from Landon’s hands. He gave it back to me.

“It’s for you and you only.” His eyes locked on Landon as he spoke. I didn’t know if he was talking to Landon or me.

Who was he talking to?

Stoic then leaned down and kissed the top of my head, still looking at Landon. Well, there was no blood. I counted that a victory.

I walked to Amelia and locked arms with her again. “Let’s go! To the petting zoo!” I tried to sound cheerful.

We took a few steps, and Landon started following us. Before he could put his arm around me once again, Stoic grabbed his arm. By the look on Landon’s face, Stoic was squeezing the life out of it.

“Don’t touch her.” That sounded more like a murderous promise than a command.

Landon tried to shake his arm off, but Stoic just held it tighter.

“Stoic! Let him go this instant!” I felt like I was talking to a dog. Bad Stoic!

He looked from Landon to me. “He touches you one more time, and I will f*****g break his arm.” He was not joking. He said that to me, but the message was for Landon. With that, Stoic dropped Landon’s arm and stepped back.

“Hey, what the f**k is wrong with you?”

No, Landon, no.

That was definitely not the moment to get cocky. I barely saved your ass.

Stoic raised an eyebrow at Landon as if to say, “you f*****g dare, you little shit.” Stoic gave him the scariest, creepiest smile I had ever seen and stepped closer once again, making me fear the worst.

“Who the f**k do you think you are, huh? Acting like Emmerson is yours or something. You creep!”

Well… it was nice to meet you, Landon.

Stoic nodded, “Yes, Emmerson is mine, and I f*****g hate it when a piece of s**t like you touches her.”

Landon opened his mouth to reply, but before he could say anything, Stoic’s body shifted, and he gave Landon one solid punch right on his mouth, knocking the hell out of him. It was so fast that I didn’t even see his fist moving forward.

After a loud cracking sound, Landon fell to the ground out cold and lay there, unconscious, with his mouth bloody. I thought Stoic broke one or two of his teeth. Definitely busted his jaw. Ew!

I got angry. Furious, to say the least. All of a sudden, I remembered—Amelia! She was in shock with her hands covering her mouth, frozen in place. Oh no! I was about to lose my best friend ever because Stoic got all weird and violent again.

Fuck him!

“f**k you, Stoic! You ruin everything! I hate your ass!” I screamed at him at the top of my lungs and kicked his legs as hard as I could. My attack did zero damage, which enraged me even further.

Stoic said nothing. He just took the boomerang, grabbed me by my hips, threw me over his shoulders, and walked away.

“Let me go, you huge asshole!” I kicked and screamed, but there was nothing I could do. He was calm, serious, like nothing had happened.

When Stoic got a few feet away from the scene, Kenzo tried to stop him by pulling his arm. “What the f**k, Stoic? What happened?” Kenzo asked, looking back at Landon on the ground and the people gathering around him.

“Motherfucker had a death wish.”

“f**k, Stoic, I understand, but you can’t keep doing this. We talked about it, dude.” Kenzo started walking beside us.

“Had to.” Stoic just kept walking.

“You’re gonna get in trouble for this, man!” Kenzo was nervous.

“Don’t give a fuck.” He really looked like he didn’t. Damn Stoic, he didn’t care about anybody but himself.

“I hate you! I hate you, I hate you, I hate you.” By then, I was crying, snot running down my face. I could wave my friends goodbye. They were never going to want to talk to me ever again. All because of Stoic.

I kept kicking and hitting his back with my fists. I’d make him pay for this. I bit his back as hard as I could, and he spanked my butt hard.

“Stop that, Emmerson!”

I only stopped because I didn’t want another spanking.

A few more minutes went by, and then we were home. He took me to my room, dropped me on my bed, and pointed to the floor. “Stay!”

I was not his pet! Like hell, I would!

I stood up and tried to walk to the door.

He pulled me up by the armpits and sat me on my bed again. “Stay, Emmerson, or you’ll regret it.”

I was angry, but I knew he wasn’t lying. He had that scary “I’ll destroy you” face on. I was too scared to fight him any further.

Stoic left, slamming the door behind him. I could hear Kenzo talking to him, and then Dad’s voice joined in too. Soon there were a lot of people all talking at once, and I couldn’t tell whose voice was whose.

I threw all the ugly dolls on the floor and stomped on their heads, pretending they were Stoic.

Evil jerk!

His only joy was to make my life miserable.