Tristan ended up moving into his uncle’s house across town just outside the military base. The days passed by quickly and he walked through them in a daze. After a week His parent’s funerals were held at a local church with all of his parents friends visiting. The only family that was left though was his Uncle Connall and himself. The rest of their family had been gone for a long time.

He only heard bits and pieces of the service and through his daze found himself at the cemetery watching as his parents bodies were lowered down and the graves filled. The pain grew with each spec of dirt that was shoveled into the grave. His tears had already dried up and all he felt was pain and the numbness of his loss. As he sat watching the dirt cover the coffins in front of him, his pain started to transform.

It started as being angry at the beautiful day. How could a day so sad be enjoyed by so many. As they moved and played he sat at his parents funeral. It was so unfair why didn’t the sky cry out in pain like in the movies. Releasing torrential rain to help hide his tears. Why did other people get to be with their loved ones. Why did other kids get to play with their parents when he no longer had any. Everything was so unfair and he was just so very angry. Angry at everything. Angry at the world.

He hadn’t noticed as everyone around him had already left for the reception. It was just him and his uncle. Connall drew him out of his angry musings with a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Hey little buddy I know it’s tough but it’s time we headed out We need to head over to the reception.” Shrugging the hand of his shoulder Tristan walked away in a huff heading for his uncle’s car.

Watching him walk away Connall could only sigh as he saw the anger and hatred that had started to bud in his nephew’s heart. He was concerned that one as young as him would start to be so angry. The boy was only 9 he shouldn’t of had that kind of anger in his heart already. He only hoped it would fade and that Tristan would go back to his old self. Even if he knew it to be a pipe dream he still hoped. Hoped for the sake of his nephew.

The drive back to Connall’s house for the wake went in silence as Tristan stared at the passing buildings and houses around them. The anger in his heart festering and growing. He still didn’t understand how people could be so happy around him. He watched the smiles of the people outside the car and hated them for it. He hated the noises and hated the people. He banged his head against the window and drew the attention of Connall. Connall frowned as he looked at his nephew the bright blue eyes he remembered and the smile that was previously omnipresent was gone. Replaced by red rimmed eyes filled with anger and hatred and a deep frown of sadness. He was concerned that the boy wouldn’t be able to get over this. He had seen that look before and it never boded well.

When they arrived back at Connall’s there was already a large group there eating and drinking. This upset Tristan even more. How could people be eating drinking and being merry when his parents had just died. All this only reinforcing the anger in his heart.

The people at the reception, seeing him and his uncle walked, up to them and gave their condolences. To Tristan though it seemed like they were full of it. The words didn’t matter. They only pitied him they didn’t understand. They all gave him the same look as the policemen and the principal did that day at the school. They didn’t care that he was alone now. They didn’t care that his parents were gone. Their only thoughts were to pity him. He went and hid in his room and his anger exploded.

He started off by screaming into his pillows he didn’t need anyone coming and checking on him. Screaming into his pillows wasn’t enough though so he moved on to punching his bed. Which degenerated into tearing his room apart screaming out his rage to anyone that could hear.He no longer cared if anyone noticed. His world was now only the rage in his heart. He started smashing everything in his new room. He hated this room, it wasn’t his room. He wanted his home back he wanted his life back and most of all he wanted his parents back.

Connall could hear the ruckus coming from upstairs and was looked at by the guests around him. One of his brothers friends came up to him and with concern asked “are you gonna let him keep doing that it sounds like he’s causing a lot of damage up there” Connall just narrowed his eyes at him and walked away. He grabbed another beer opened it and walked upstairs. Walking to Tristan’s room he lifted his hand to knock on the door but decided against it and leaned against the wall next the door and stood there waiting for Tristan to tire himself out.

The noise coming from the room continued for an hour then slowly moved from wild screams and loud crashes to soft sobs and moans. This was when Connall decided to walk inside.

The door slowly creaked open and Tristan lost in his pain didn’t notice. He just kept repeating to himself “why, why, why, why why why” this continued over and over. Connall stepped all the way into the room and walked up to Tristan knelt down and wrapped his arms around him. “I’m here buddy. I know it’s hard kiddo. The pain will leave it takes time little man. It takes Time” With anger and sadness in his eyes Tristan looked up at his uncle “but it hurts so much uncle it hurts so much.” Burying his head into his uncle’s chest “It’s not fair! It’s just not fair how could they leave me like this! It’s not fair” Tears broke from Connall’s eyes as he held him. They remained like that for the rest of the night just taking comfort in each other’s embrace.

Days passed by and Tristan had to return to school. Everyone had heard about what happened and he was given cards that really didn’t mean much to him. He felt everyone was just being nice because that’s what you did when someone had a tragedy. There was no sincerity behind the gestures. They were as empty as his heart felt.

As the days continued to flow past his attitude grew darker and darker. His replies to people grew sharper and sharper attacking anyone who tried saying a kind word. He stopped caring about showering or even changing his clothes most days. The only times he did shower and change was when Connall forced him to. Those days didn’t happen often though since Connal was busy with his work. The other children in his school started noticing this and at first they just pitied him but then as it went from days to weeks of this attitude the children started picking on him. It was small things at first. Snide comments behind his back or sitting down at lunch where he was about to sit claiming that seats were taken when they clearly just did it to hurt him. Direct insults became more commonplace. Less and less of the students would talk to him without it being something cruel.

Like most things it escalated. It moved to shoulder checks in the hallway. Then to being shoved and direct threats to him. The people not participating stopped trying to stop it and started ignoring it. It kept escalating until one day a group of boys surrounded him at lunch and started pushing him. He started yelling at them to leave him alone but the boys had managed to corner him in a disused portion of the school hallways.

The boys were pushing him and calling him names. The leader of the boys a tall white kid with short blonde hair named Donny sneered and said. “Look at the little freak. He doesn't even know how to shower. What mommy and daddy go and get themselves killed and you forget how to shower. Stinky little fuck.” another one of the boys. A mousy looking kid with long dark hair buck teeth and a hooked nose bared his teeth and said “Maybe we should help him take a shower since he can’t seem to do it himself.” looking at one of the other boys and held out his hand “Hey Billy give me your water bottle. Lets clean this nasty little fuck up he’s starting to stink up the whole damn school” With a cruel smile billy handed over his water bottle “here you go Kieran he really does stink. Little bitch doesn’t know what’s good for him” The rest of the boys kept laughing as they were pushing Tristan ignoring his pleas as he fell to the ground and cowered from them.

The leader of the boys smiled and said “look he’s starting to cry. Little cry baby misses his mommy. Throw the water on the ungrateful dickwad.” Kieran walked up to the cowering Tristan and started pouring water atop his head. “There we go now he’s not such a stinky little bitch is he. Fucking crybaby” Tristan started muttering “mom ….. Mom ….” over and over again. With a laugh Kieran points at him and stopped pouring the water on his head. “look at the little bitch he’s crying for his mommy. Well you stinky little bitch she ain’t coming. She went and got her slutty little ass killed didn’t she.” Laughing and looking for the reassurance of the group he continued “The way I hear it his daddy caught her fucking the neighbor so he grabbed her and went and drove himself wild.Swerving all over the place trying to hit people with his car. Lucky for us though a good samaritan stopped them and got rid of the sick fucks before they could hurt anyone else”

The other boys laughed at his antics. Billy joining in “No no no. You got it all wrong. The way i heard it was that his mommy was fucking the other driver and his daddy found them and ran into em to kill em all together. Lucky for the other guy though he knew better than to let the little slut stick around for too long so he wasn’t hurt none” The rest of the boys kept and laughing Tristan lashed out screaming “Shut up you fucking assholes that’s not what happened don’t ever say anything mean about them again!” Laughing at getting a reaction. Donny tsked and said “See now we gotta wash your mouth out. Momma always told me that you can’t be saying nasty words like that.” looking to Kieran who was laughing along and nodding his head he told him to “Hold his head back and get his mouth open for me i got something special. Even better than that water for him”

Kieran smiled his cruel smile and grabbed hold of his head. But Tristan kept trying to pull away from him so two other boys held his arms down. Donny Pulled a container of hand sanitizer out of his pocket and opened it pouring it onto Tristan’s Face and into his mouth. Spitting Tristan shook his head trying to free himself from the grip of the other boy and managed to smack Donny’s hand holding the hand sanitizer. Angrily Donny grit his teeth and growled “Look now this little piece of shit went and hit me we gotta teach him a lesson right boys.” Kieran smiled and agreed “yeah let’s teach this stinky little crybaby bitch a lesson that you shouldn’t hit others when they're just trying to help you be a better person.” Looking at the boys surrounding Tristan he said “Let’s fuck him up already.” At this the other boys started punching and kicking him as viciously as they could. He tried fighting back, but everytime he tried to lash out and hit them they just hit him harder. Eventually all he could do was curl into a ball crying and taking a beating.

The boys hit him until they were breathing heavily. Laughing the entire time and continuing with their taunts throughout. Once the boys were finally tired and started to walk away as tristan sobbed in pain and fear. Donny took one last look at him sneered and spit on him “little bitch can’t even defend yourself. Fucking pussy, your parents are lucky they’re dead now they don’t have to have such a worthless fucking son.”

Tristan stayed curled in a ball crying and crying. Eventually a teacher happened to walk past and found him bloody from the beaten and sobbing inconsolably. Shock and concern crossed the teacher's face as he rushed to Tristan’s side. “Are you okay son. What happened. How did you end up here like this” Through sobs Tristan told the teacher a group of boys beat him up and left him there but he was to disoriented to give any names or even many details. Placing a gentle hand on him the Teacher said “it’s okay now son no one's gonna hurt you anymore. You’re safe now.” At this Tristan finally passed out from the pain and exhaustion.

Picking him up the Teacher carried him away. Taking him to the principal’s office they called Connall and explained how they found him and what what they were told. Connall was livid screaming across the phone “How could you let this fucking happen. He just lost his parents and now you let those little fucking monsters do that to him. What the fuck is wrong with you people do your fucking jobs and protect him! If he’s seriously fucken hurt I’ll have all your fucking heads you worthless fucks!”