Witness if you will, a prison, made out of endless hallways of polished linoleum, rows of metal lockers, and the fictional promise of a bright future. It is colloquially known as Shermer High, and there are many ones just like it dotting our landscape. The prison is occupied between the hours of 8:00 A.M and 5:00 P.M by its population of Shermer's progeny and their wardens known as teachers, but currently, just as those very prisoners and their wardens go home to lick their wounds from a day filled with heartbreak and woe, the prison is being haunted by a single, lonely resident, a sad disheveled little creature known as Eugene Kazinski, finishing the rounds of his toil. Eugene is a desperate man, a profoundly unhappy man, one who's soul has been burdened for too long by the unfortunate hand of poor choices and bad luck. A man who would do anything to escape this prison he has found himself trapped in. Now witness, if you will, as a man full of life dying of neglect finds his only salvation...in the Ahn'Ger Stone.
**
Eugene had discovered and pocketed the otherworldly gemstone just as school was ending for the day at 3:20 P.M. The various extracurricular activities such as the debating team, the drama club, and something called the Warhammer 40K Society, who only had a roster of three members(Headed by the equally lonely Paige Walters and occasionally attended by Bill Strasserman before he had found a girlfriend) were still in session and loudly making their presence heard, but otherwise the school and it's halls were barren of life save Eugene, and no one paid him much attention.
Eugene. The background noise of other people's hectic lives. A...what was that term he had heard on the news lately? A Non-Playable Character? Yeah. An NPC. He was an NPC. Someone with no life of their own. Someone whose entire purpose of existence was in the service of some greater hero. Someone who nobody thought much about as they went home to their cheating wives and bratty siblings. "Unimportant side character" was the leitmotif of Eugene Kazinski's entire life. When he was lucky.
When he wasn't so fortunate to be wallpaper, Eugene was known better around Shermer High by his nickname, Gene The Creeper. Rumors had been spread earlier in the year. Horrible, disgusting rumors, courtesy of one Gloria Vanapoulous that Eugene was a pedophile who spent his spare time leering at other people's children on the playground and had once tried to abduct Kimmy Strasserman on the way home from Horace Mann Middle School. These rumors had gained traction, as all of Gloria's sycophantic girlfriends on the cheerleading team couldn't take one look at the middle-aged janitor's sunken in, blue grey eyes or his stubbly salt and pepper beard without gagging on their fat free yogurt. Thus, a legendary creature was born. One that was black of heart and cruel of temperament. A boogeyman. The incestuous nature of small town gossip had not helped these accusations, and now even grown adults had begun suspecting poor Eugene of the most terrible things. According to these rumors, Eugene Kazinski, who went out of his way to avoid stepping on ants, gave a friendly hello to everyone who crossed his path, and still sent his elderly mother nearly half his paycheck every week, was secretly a cunning predator waiting to lure children to their own defilement. Residents of Shermer began avoiding the glorified transient. They gave him the cold shoulder when he politely tried to make conversation on the bus ride to work. They gave him dirty looks, and if he didn't take the hint, they would dismiss him with a tone of voice that would chill the most oblivious narcissist to their bones. Parents of Shermer High told their children to never be alone around the mean old janitor, who probably kept photos of them with the eyes cut out in his creepy sex dungeon/utility closet. The only reason the high school didn't outright fire Eugene Kazinski is because, of course, there was not a single shred of evidence that any of these claims were actually true. Gossip alone could not hang a man, and the victim, used to a lifetime of "Dumb Pollack" jokes, just let the accusations slide off his back.
At least he tried to.
What he actually wanted to do was cry his eyes out and find someone understanding to hug tightly, but he found those comforts lacking. He had no one close to him in this nightmare of a life to confide who he could feel safe around, and he couldn't cry, because a lifetime of verbal abuse had already calloused his mind against the cruelty of others.
Walking inside his dank, dark utility closet, Eugene switched the light to his personal bathroom on. The gemstone glowed green like kryptonite, except in the center where it glowed gold. He stared at himself in the mirror as he held it.
For the first time in his tenure at Shermer High, he was finally beginning to feel angry at his plight. Today, he had finally had enough. Tomorrow there would be hell to pay. He would no longer be anyone's punching bag. Not after today's humiliation from that punk Rob Bolstrum.
Earlier last month, Eugene had begun receiving text messages out of the blue from the Spanish teacher, Gabriella Vasquez. Gabriella was at least thirty years younger than Eugene, and indescribably gorgeous, but like Eugene she claimed she was being eaten away by loneliness as she too found herself a pariah in Shermer. Racism and simple culture clash was preventing her from getting a foothold in the American dream. She described, in heartfelt(And heartbreaking) eloquence, how she understood what Eugene was going through, how searingly painful it was, and that if he ever wanted to go out for coffee, Gabriella would gladly treat him to it.
This initial text had set Eugene's heart ablaze. He must have re-read it a hundred and fifty times throughout the next day, as even when he was growing up, he never had any friends, let alone someone who understood his inner turmoil, the stormy disquiet perpetual throughout his life. Eugene had been thrown out of the house by his verbally abusive drunken father in Chicago the moment he turned eighteen years old, and since the old bastard had worn down his self esteem, Eugene had never truly believed that he COULD find someone who understood his doubts, his fears, his ambitions, and the simple joys he took in life. The simple things nobody else thought of like a smile of a strangers face as they passed him by. So he shuffled from one menial job to the next, aimless in his quest to avoid being hurt.
Since Eugene hated the taste of coffee, he suggested something else. Something more intimate. Instead of coffee, Gabriella and he began a correspondence, texting penpals. Within a week, both of them became fast, close friends. Eugene never pushed anything into romantic territory, although he was desperately tempered to, for fear that Gabriella would become creeped out by him, just as everyone else had. But he enjoyed the talks, the ability to get things off of his chest, and the opportunity to laugh. He had the most charming laugh.
Gabriella had requested to keep this friendship a secret. She him to not acknowledge one other in public. Keep it between themselves. Eugene agreed. He didn't look in her direction or even smirk during school days.
Yesterday, to Eugene's delight, Gabriella had finally popped the question herself!
"Eugene, let's go out on a date tonight. Wait by my class at Noon to discuss plans."
What Eugene discovered in Room 219B was not Ms. Vasquez. It was that troublemaker with rocks for brains Rob Bolstrum, and the no good punks who followed him around. Rob held up a cell phone, with Gabriella's text superimposed on the screen, a cruel smirk plain on his face. The gang of bullies began laughing at the older man as they saw his hopes, feeble as they were, crushed into the dirt like so much rubble. They mocked him for his insecurities, and called him a pedophile. He ran away like so many bullied children, past football star Tom Ackerton, wondering with grim pessimism what those assholes were laughing about now.
Rob had been angry today that he no longer had Bill Strasserman to pick on because the geek's cunt of a girlfriend Joanna Ingerman ball busted him, so the red haired thug decided today was the day to reap the rewards of his little catfishing enterprise. It couldn't have gone better. The look on the old guy's face was priceless!
Now, as the building was totally empty, the 55 year old Eugine Kazinski, glowered in the mirror of the tiny utility bathroom. He didn't know why, but this stone felt powerful to him. When he had seen it laying there on the ground, it had almost spoken to him.
"Pick me up" he heard in a low whisper, and so he did.
He had no idea whose gemstone it was, and he certainly didn't know that it had transformed Jonathan Ingerman into a beautiful cheerleader who worshipped at the alter of Bill.
All he knew was that it was special. It might even be magical. Eugene didn't believe in magic, but it was all he had left at this point.
"I wish my life had turned out better!!!" he screamed out loud in frustration.
To his complete shock, the stones glow exploded the dark room into a blinding aurora of green-gold light, and his hand turned bitterly cold.
He disappeared.
That was the last anyone had heard of Eugene Kazinski.