Bill watched from behind the decorative glass as Rob slammed his fists against it, the twin battering rams ending their assault on the front gate of the proverbial Castle Strasserman. Behind them Rob was hunched over, his green eyes glaring at the smaller teen as the bully was clearly struggling to prevent property damage.
There was a clattering of dishes and the sounds of his family calling out to him, but Bill only heard their voices and not what they had actually said, so focused was he on his own personal Balrog looming inches away.
"Get. Out here. Right now!" The muscled mountain hissed, and Bill swore he could see white froth forming at the corners of Rob's mouth.
Despite the little voice in his mind telling him otherwise, Bill couldn't help but smirk and tap his side of the glass. "Are we at the zoo? You look like a gorilla who got the last banana! Monkey so angry! You gonna throw your poop next? But sure, I'll come out there, after all you're just making it SO tempting, Rob!"
Bill knew that antagonizing (scientifically inaccurate as it had been) the being that was a foot and a half taller, nearly three times as wide and at least four times as strong as him was the worst thing he could have possibly done but the petty side of him couldn't help it. Rob was a bully, and bullies deserved to be taken down a peg; it was just something that was ingrained within him from all his years watching media like Back To The Future or the numerous superhero films he'd seen.
"OH, YOU WANT TEMPTING? IF YOU DON'T COME OUT HERE IN THE NEXT FIVE SECONDS, I'M GONNA DO WHAT I WAS SENT HERE TO DO BY BIG JON." Rob roared again, his nostrils flaring outward like a bull as he gave the front door a heavy pound with a closed fist.
"And what's that, paying me back the money he owes me for busting my car?" Bill said, rolling his eyes.
"NO YOU PIMPLE POPPING CUNT, I'M GOING TO BURN YOUR FUCKING HOUSE DOWN!"
That had caught Bill's attention and the hackles raised on the back of his neck, though he tried to play it cool as a hustle of footsteps came plodding towards him from the kitchen as the rest of his family approached.
"Oh, you gonna bash some rocks together? 'Ook ook! Rob make fire!'"
"SHITTERMAN, I GOT MY GAS CAN RIGHT HERE!" Rob's bulk disappeared from the door for a brief moment as the giant rushed down the stairs and retrieved something square and red from the bushes in front of the porch, returning to crowd out the door's window pane as he shook the can dramatically, producing a wet sloshing sound.
'Oh shit!' Bill thought, his eyes nearly popping out of his skull in surprise. He had known that he'd made a dangerous enemy with Rob, and even moreso Big Jon but this...This was on a whole new level of psychopathy for both of them. And given who Big Jon's dad was...
Bill gulped at the thought. Ragnar Ingerman, Big Jon's father, practically owned Shermer. That was why Big Jon was able to get away with everything that he did at school save for when Bill had tricked him into a fight. If Big Jon was confident enough to order an arson attack on Bill's home then... The geeky teenager shot a hand down into his pocket, his fingers curling around the magical gemstone that had already drastically altered his morning. He felt the sides of the artifact dig into the sides of his palm as he tried to push through the fear and become angry again, as that seemed to be the only way to make it actually work.
"Yeah, now you fucking listen! Get out here and I'll-" Rob began, but then his eyes flashed away from Bill, looking beyond the scared teenager.
"What in god's name is happening out here!?" Greg Strasserman said as he placed a hand on his son's shoulder. "Is this that trailer trash punk you've been telling me about?"
Bill looked over his shoulder at his father's scowling, bearded face and shook his head, gulping heavily. The middle-aged man narrowed his eyes and gently moved Bill out of the way, taking his son's space in front of the door. Bill stumbled to the side, joining his mother who looked white as a sheet and the confused form or his little sister Kimberley.
"Who's that?" She whispered to Bill, and Bill just stared at his smaller sibling.
"Oh look, daddy's here to save you!" Rob mocked as he backed away from the glass, "Hey it's old man Shitterman! You raised a fucking faggot for a son! Probably says loads about you, Limpdick!"
"Now listen here you little shithead!" Greg cursed and reach over to grab the baseball bat that was propped up next to the front door, his free hand reaching for the door knob. "Now I'm gonna give you five seconds to get off my property or I'm going to call the cops!" Greg said, his voice booming with the learned managerial authority he'd picked up from all his years of dealing with unruly employees.
"Fuckin' A,, bring it ON old man!" Rob howled with manic glee as his eyes locked on the baseball bat. The gas can went flying down the steps behind him as Rob curled his hands into fists.
"DAD DON'T-" Was all Bill had time to say as his father swung open the front door...
...And immediately took a fist to the face as the giant, now unrestrained, wasted no time in getting the first blow. Greg grunted in pain and staggered backwards, his glasses flying off his face in a shower of blood as his nose crumpled from the impact. Stars filled his vision as he crashed into the staircase banister behind him and he limply, blindly swung the bat out in front of him as he struggled to recover.
"DAD!" Bill cried out as his mother and sister screamed in terror. Bill released his hold on the Stone and rushed forward towards Rob, adrenaline, fear, anger and the urge to protect his father overriding his urge of self-preservation. "I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU ROB!" Bill roared, leaping at the grinning monster that lurked in the doorway. But then the monster moved and Bill found himself flying backwards, crashing into his mother and sister and the three of them collapsing in a heap.
"For the record, Billy-boy" Rob growled ass he crossed the threshold into the house, green eyes glittering with sadistic glee, "I only wanted to talk. But now you started something dear old dad is gonna have to fuckin' finish!" '
'GET. THE. FUCK. OUT. OF. HERE' Part of Rob's mind screamed, but a much louder part laughed back 'This is so fucking insane, this is awesome!' Rob thought to himself as his blood thundered in his veins. There was no getting out of jail for this but, not even Big Jon could prevent it...Though that had been the point anyway, so fuck it. Big Jon had sent Rob over to burn the Strasserman house down after the family had left for the day and get some measure of revenge on Bill but the larger plan, the one Rob had figured out, was to get Rob arrested. The one threat Big Jon had to his leadership over his private army of thugs permanently removed.
All Rob had wanted to do was just TALK to Bill, use the little faggot to help him plan a way to get back at Big Jon. But things had gone wrong and something had finally just snapped within Rob. He was tired of being shit on by rich assholes, he was tired of being ordered around. He was just...tired, and suddenly a large part of him just stopped giving a shit. He was going to end up in jail eventually, why not just get it over with?
"Get...Get out of my house!" Greg yelled, and despite the painful stars still blinding his vision and the river of blood pouring from his shattered nose, the patriarch of the Strasserman family righted himself and staggered forward, the bat swinging out at the looming shadow...Which ducked under it with a cruel laugh that sounded more like the bark of a rabid dog. Then a hand grabbed his out-stretched arm in a vice-like grip, twisting it until the metal back tumbled out of Greg's hand and to the floor with a loud CLANG.
"You know, I always wanted to do this to MY old man the next time I saw him! But guess you'll have to do!" Rob sneered with glee, pulling the much older man towards him and then painfully body-checked him, sending Greg Strasserman flying backwards into the stairs once more.
"GREG!" Bill mother screamed as she pulled herself out of the pile and rushed over, only to have Rob backhand her to the ground, her head colliding violently with a nearby end-table as she fell limply to the floor, her body still and motionless.
"MOM!" "MOMMY!" Bill and Kimberly screamed in unison, and Bill scrambled to his feet, pulling his little sister up and shoving her towards the backdoor that led out of the kitchen and into the backyard.
"KIMMY RUN! GO TO TOM'S AND CALL THE POLICE!" Bill said as he practically tossed the twelve year old out of the house.
"WHO!?" Kimberley screamed, but Bill was already headed back inside. The twelve year old looked at her brother's retreating form and, on the verge of tears, took off running for the only place she could think of: The Ackertons.
Bill dashed out of the kitchen and back into the foyer to see Rob deliver a crushing kick to his father's chest that was followed immediately by a sick, wet crunch as something, or multiple somethings, broke from the impact. Rob bent down and picked up the gasping, groaning, bleeding form of Greg Strasserman and effortlessly threw him back towards the front door, reaching down to grab the baseball bat as he stomped along the trail of blood left by his victim, who was weakly crawling out the aperture while coughing up streamers of blood and bile.
"ROB STOP!" Bill yelled as loud as he could, but the towering colossus ignored him as he closed the gap between himself and Greg,straddling the defeated man.
"Don't fuckin' care anymore" Rob said with a grim finality as he raised the bat high over his head.
Bill looked at the groaning, bloody mess that was his father, terrified, ashamed and angry about how easily his dad had been defeated.
Wait.
As the bat swung down like the Sword of Damocles itself, Bill pulled the Stone out of his pocket and screamed...