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Edward didn’t mean to hurt anyone.
He was understandably angry - he had been lying on his front in the dirt, peacefully watching the ants crawling over their anthills, when Jamie Fletcher from the year above came along and trampled all over the mounds with a spiteful cackle.
“Hey!” Edward stood up, wiping dust from his eyes. “That’s their home. Why would you do that?”
Jamie just cackled at Edward’s fury.
“What are you gonna do about it, freak?”
Anger rose up inside of Edward - it started off small, a faint fizzle of rage valiantly trying to be noticed beyond the initial shock and upset of Jamie’s actions. It grew and grew; hot and stifling inside his lungs. It wasn’t an emotion he was all that familiar with. He was a naturally happy young boy, with an optimistic disposition that didn’t suit fits of rage or sorrow. Now that this emotion was overtaking him, he didn’t like it. He didn’t know what to do with it.
And then:
Spit at him.
Dozens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of voices, all repeating the same three words.
Spit at him.
Spit at him.
Spit at him.
Edward was not a boy that was particularly inclined to spit at people. He thought it was gross, and his nan had told him that it was awfully rude. However, when you have every ant in the dirt, every spider in the trees, every woodlouse, every wasp, every cricket, and every beetle all desperately crying out the same thing at you, pressuring you to obey, to use your power to defend those smaller than you…….
The buzzing in Edward’s ears got louder and louder. Insects bit the flesh on his arms as if he didn’t already have their attention, wasps stung at the curves of ears, the clenched skin of his knuckles.
Spit at him.
Spit at him
Spit. At. Him.
A beat, and then:
Edward spat at him.
But it wasn’t like any spit Edward had ever seen before. It wasn’t like when he spat out toothpaste. It was green and viscous and powerful, and when it landed directly on Jamie’s sneering face, it sizzled.
It hurt him.
The effect was instantaneous: one moment, Jamie was cruelly laughing at Edward’s plight, the next, he was screaming in pain, his tears bleeding into the burning, blistering flesh of his face. Edward didn’t even have time to feel bad about it - with this vengeance, every insect started screaming in celebration, screaming Edward’s name at a frequency only he could hear.
Insects screaming. Jamie crying. Flesh burning. Edward squeezed his eyes shut, slammed his hands over his ears.
It was unbearable. He curled up on the ground like a woodlouse - yesbrotheroneofusyesyes - and dug his forehead into the grass, keeping his arms clamped around his head. They just wouldn’t stop screaming.
It was agony. It was endless.
And then it was over.
Silence. The emptiness was almost worse - to go from hundreds, thousands of screaming voices to nothing, just like that. Edward didn’t move for a long while, burying his face in the dirt as his body heaved with sobs. When he eventually rose, slow and heavy, Jamie had left.
He was alone.