“The best thing about DnD is its malleability! Isn’t that why we play this game? So that we don’t need to be squeezed into a regular PC game’s hard-coded box! Without freedom of expression, what is DnD anymore? Garbage! Hot garbage!”

  Flynn nodded agreeably as he munched on a crisp. Opinions were usually divided but, personally, he found it incredibly amusing whenever Adrian worked himself up into one of his trade-mark self-righteous rants. The paladin enthusiast could blather away for hours if people let him, and hell, he did it even when they didn’t.

  Fortunately for everyone else it didn’t happen often – they would’ve probably kicked him if it did – but it was always entertaining whenever it did. Flynn especially loved the way he could wear away at any argument until the other side buckled if anyone dared to step up to the plate. More often, their DM just muted Adrian until he shut up.

  Today felt to Flynn like a mute kind of day, and lo-and-behold, Adrian’s increasingly frenzied voice died away in an instant. Flynn snorted.

  The quiet was almost deafening in the loud man’s absence.

  “Well, that turned out well.” said Sophie, her tone as dry as the Sahara. He snickered. They were audio-only because Sophie’s family was around. It was a long-held unspoken rule that if one player had their camera off, all the players had their camera off. Still, he could easily picture her impish smile at the thought of Adrian raging impotently behind his monitor.

  “Adrian being muted? Who could’ve seen this coming?” he remarked.

  There was a giggle from Yue, their rogue, and a sigh from their DM. Tim was the only one with his camera on – which had become his custom after a former player had accused him of tweaking his results after several unfortunate rolls – and the look of exasperation on his face was as amusing as it was piteous.

  The man swept a hand over his brown locks and reclined into his seat. “Wanna call it here? I don’t think he’ll be calming down anytime soon. Yep, there it is. He’s messaging me. Adrian, I’m not gonna read ten fucking paragraphs of why you think you were justified. For fuck’s sake. Don’t make me block you.”

  Flynn choked on a crisp and slapped his knee. “Give the man a chance to explain.” he said after he’d recovered. “He might have an interesting reason.”

  “Interesting? He wanted to kill all the villagers! And then he threatened his own God! He’s a lawful-good paladin!”

  “And that’s the plot-twist! Who could’ve seen it coming? A real Shyamalan moment. I say it was inspired.”

  Tim made a gesture at the camera like he wished Flynn’s throat was in reach. The teen flashed the man a cheeky grin and sank back into his chair. Playing the game properly was fun, sure, and that’s how they usually went about a session, but the real meat of the game’s memorability came from these moments of anything-goes madness that made everything so much more difficult. So much more challenging. At least, that was the way he saw it.

  Tim porbably didn’t agree. The man was still trying to strangle Flynn through the screen.

  “Call i- game.” came a crackly voice.

  Flynn eyed the green-rimmed icon of his most distant friend. She’d moved from the States to Seoul a year ago, and despite living in the country with possibly the best internet availability in the world, she’d somehow managed to find possibly the worst connection of them all.

  “What’d you say, Yue? You’re all staticky again.”

  “I s-d, call it. Call the ga-”

  “Call the gay? Who? Adrian? Jeez Ari, it’s a modern era. You can’t just label someone like that anymore.”

  Silence reigned broken only by Sophie’s amused snicker, and then there was a ding. Flynn glanced at his phone. Many more dings followed, each more demanding than the last. His smirk only grew.

  He didn’t even need to check the growing number of notifications to know where the messages came from, and what’d been written inside. Yue had a very poignant brand of profanity, and he knew that he’d really enjoy reading whatever it was that she’d spelled up for him.

  Once the messages stopped. It’d probably be a while. Yue was a very descriptive writer.

  “Well, this is probably a good place to call it quits. I’m beat.” declared Sophie as she fought a yawn. Flynn glanced at the time at the corner of his screen. It was nearly one, and she had classes in the morning.

  So did he, though he wasn't as bothered by his academic demands as she was. A solidly average performance had been his guiding light for a long time.

  A swell of agreement followed and eventually the group started to say their goodbyes. Sophie left first, Yue went next, and Tim afterwards. Even Adrian’s unhinged rant lost steam as their friends dipped one by one, until Flynn finally left for the comfort of his bed.

  ◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆

  Flynn sighed as he eyed Eustace’s figure disappear behind the corner of the school, two others pushing him along. This again. He gnashed his teeth.

  Maybe he was biased, but he blamed the guy’s parents.

  They’d been the ones that had named him Eustace in the first place. Had they assumed that they were giving birth to an eighty-year-old?

  Of course he’d be bullied!

  Bullies always went for the easy targets, and there was no easier target than a Eustace.

  And now Flynn was forced to intervene. He didn’t want to. He wanted to slink off to class and sleep away the early minutes of the day. But the boy was a friend, and he supposed that he had an obligation to rush to his defence. Like always.

  The youth sighed again. He’d thought having just one friend would be fine. Manageable. Life continued to prove him wrong time and again. Maybe he should’ve just gone for the loner life and lied to his aunt and uncle. That would’ve been nice and quiet, he figured.

  Straightening his back, he chased after the unfortunate boy into the shadowed corner.

  He found Eustace pressed against the wall, Gunner and Corey stood by his either side like wolves around a rabbit. Maybe that comparison was doing the two too many favours. Wolves were intelligent animals. They knew how to work like a team and how to hunt larger, stronger prey.

  Gunner and Corey only picked on those too weak and spineless to fight back, and they had all the coordination of an arthritic geriatric.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  The closest they came to wolves was the stench of dog that Gunner wore like cologne, and Corey’s unfortunate overgrowth of hair.

  “... a little cash. What’s a little spending money between friends?” whispered Gunner.

  Flynn couldn't help but smile at the two cliches. Another cash-grab? He'd thought that the two would’ve learned their lesson after the last time. One of their former victims had finally spoken out and told his parents who’d both swiftly descended on the school with apocalyptic intentions. Flynn had heard them screaming at the principal from three rooms away, as had most of the school.

  The two had been suspended for a while afterwards, and peace had reigned in his little slice of the world. But now they’d returned, and old dogs certainly never failed to return to their old tricks.

  At least, Flynn supposed that they’d learned to be more selective with their prey since. They’d chosen well. Eustace wouldn’t tattle if his life depended on it. The boy was ruled by fear and fear alone.

  His pace was casual as he strode towards them with a smile on his lips. Corey was the first to see him approach. The man-child immediately glowered, and with all his hair in abundance, he looked even more like an angry, mangy dog.

  Frankly, he was surprised that the moron hadn’t started pissing everywhere to mark his territory.

  “Fuck off, Flynn.” snarled the bully, crooked teeth bared like the animal he was.

  Flynn waved his palms placatingly. “Woah, chill. No need to be all hostile. I’m just here to escort my buddy here to class. With his wallet. Unless you wanna talk to the principal instead? Principal Coulson is a pretty forgiving guy, but I don’t think he’d go easy on you two after last time.”

  And Gunner knew it. The boy’s face betrayed the slightest hint of worry. Bully or not, he probably didn’t want to be thrown out of school. The stupid sap might’ve still held out some hope that he had a future worth worrying about.

  Flynn wasn’t holding his breath.

  Corey, however, was all gruff and too stupid to understand the threat. He marched towards Flynn with his chest puffed up and fists tight in a ball, his face all twisted up in a snarl.

  Of the two, Corey had always been the one with the biggest thorn in his boot. It took very little to set the idiot off, and he was very quick to answer any challenge with screams and yells. Not fists though. The two had enough self-restraint to never go that far, though that wasn’t much comfort for their victims.

  “Better learn to mind your own fuckin’ business, bitch.” threatened the boy with a shove.

  Flynn suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. “Listen man, I’m not here to pick a fight. Just let Eustace go.”

  “Or what?”

  “What? I literally just told you. I’ll go to Principal Coulson and show him the video I took of you two bullying Eustace. I'm pretty sure that would guarantee your expulsion.”

  “A video?” asked Gunner, eyes wide.

  Corey glowered. “You’d fucking snitch on us?”

  Snitch? Flynn balked as he tried and failed to wrap his brain around the bully’s logic. It was snitching to reveal their boorish behaviour, apparently? Were house owners snitches for calling the cops on a robber then? Did they expect everyone to just go ‘aw shucks, you got me’ whenever they harassed and stole from others, and then continue on with their lives?

  Was this some kind of melo-drama?

  The thought-process to even get to that point escaped him, though that was probably a good thing. It would be a sad day when he could understand why a bully did what they did. Or an idiot.

  “Yup. If I have to. Don’t make me have to.” he said, his smile even.

  The two shared a look. Corey looked like he was ready to stand his ground. More interestingly, with his fists clenched and breath heavy, he looked ready to finally throw a punch. Flynn almost dared him to.

  Unsurprisingly, it never happened.

  Cooler heads eventually prevailed and Dumb was led away by Dumber. Gunner flashed him a seething look that promised violence at some future point before he disappeared around the corner, Corey in tow like a dog on a leash. Flynn almost frowned with disappointment. Discount Voldemort had been beaten again, but the war for the light wasn’t yet over. He turned to where Eustace stood. The sheepish boy slunk slowly towards him.

  “T-Thanks for the save, Flynn.”

  Flynn wove a small smile over his lips.

  He assuringly patted his friend on the back, like he would a panicked pet, and comforted him as they walked.

  “Might be time to take up some martial arts classes, bro. I won’t always be around to save the day, ya know. You’ll need to figure out how to kick ass on your own, eventually.”

  And he certainly didn’t plan to babysit him into college. There, he could live a proper loner lifestyle. Or maybe he’d find friends he could connect with, like his DnD group. The future was full of possibility.

  “I-I know. It’s just... hard. My body locks up when I’m afraid and my mind goes all fuzzy. It’s... I’m working on it. Are you going to show Principal Coulson the video?”

  “Nope.”

  “What? Why not?”

  “’cuz there is no video.”

  “What?”

  “I lied to get them off your back.”

  He should’ve taken a video, though. Maybe next time, and there would definitely be a next time. The sun rose every day, time ticked by, and Corey and Gunner would bully. These were the constants of life.

  Though maybe he shouldn’t. Maybe his coddling of his friend was the real problem here. Annoying as they were, the bullies were small fries. Overgrown fish in a small pond. Eustace would eventually face much larger problems into the future. Life wasn’t all roses and puppies, and he’d need to figure out how to deal with his own problems.

  Flynn knew he could. He’d seen the boy show some mettle. Rarely, but it was there, buried beneath years of self-doubt and apprehension.

  It was weird. He’d met Eustace’s parents once and they’d seemed like fine enough people. Not the type who’d have raised a kid that seemed like a chihuahua one bark away from a nervous breakdown. Then again, normalcy could be so easily faked. His own parents did it with expert ease, and he knew fully the truth of what they were once the spotlight passed.

  Whatever the cause, Eustace had to figure out how to tease out that inner strength for himself and when it mattered, and Flynn’s intervention wouldn’t help him along that road any.

  Flynn sighed.

  The rest of the day, he hoped, would be more uneventful than the morning.

  And it was.

  Classes came and went until the bell finally rang and the blessed relief of lunch break descended like a spring rain. Flynn slipped away from Eustace with an ease that came from long days of practice. Slinking through halls and stairwells, he found his way to his safe space and quietly shut the door behind him.

  The room was small. Cramped. And dark. The light flickered sporadically, and a musty smell had thoroughly worked its way into the walls over the years. It’d been a utility closet, once. Now, it went mostly unused and largely unknown, positioned far away from the bustle of the rest of the school. And that made it the perfect place for him to catch his breath.

  Flynn allowed his genial expression to settle into an even, expressionless mien and slid down to a seated position. Cloaked in the quiet of the room, he enjoyed his lunch in peace. Every second was savoured as much as a bite from his sandwich, because soon enough the bell would ring, and he’d be forced to pretend like he cared about his school-life again.

  ◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆

  The days passed quietly, and the bullies eventually focused their attention onto some other poor soul. Eustace was relieved, and it showed in the way he tried to smile and laugh every now and then.

  The bell rang and Flynn speedily made his way to his closet as was the usual. And as usual, he climbed the stairs and made it there undetected. But unlike usual, his precious safe space was full that day. A janitor stood in violation of his peace, shoving an assortment of equipment and tools into the closet. Flynn scrunched his nose, his irritation palpable.

  It’d been months since the last time the closet had been used, but it happened sometimes. Whatever. He had other hideaways. Lesser places. Closer to noise or otherwise occupied at times, but they’d do until the closet was free again. The second-best choice was another utility closet in another wing of the school.

  It was near his class but usually occupied by a girl. He didn’t know her name – the few times they’d shared the room they’d not spoken to each other even once – but he knew that she was the same as he was. Just a kindred spirit that wanted a moment’s peace from the pointless bustle of school life.

  He also recognized her mop of bushy black hair within a shuffle of girls talking to each other quietly. Flynn eyed the small crowd. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but their expressions made it obvious that it was getting heated. The girl had seemed like a loner, but she'd somehow gotten caught up in some teen drama by the looks, and judging by her own expression, she probably wanted to be anywhere else right then.

  Was she being bullied? Another Eustace but with boobs?

  A good guy like the Flynn that the sheepish boy knew would have jumped to her rescue and eased the girl out of her situation. Unfortunately, that Flynn was on break until the bell rang.

  ‘Sorry girl, you’re on your own. I’ll take good care of your spot for you though.’

  Flynn slipped up the stairs without another thought and into the unoccupied closet to enjoy his meal in peace. And he did.

  Until a dizzying feeling flooded his body half-way through a bite, and then the world bloomed in white.