Teenage Ghost

  As soon as the sun had left the sky, Josh decided to leave his house. He walked to the local drug store and bought all the items he would need for his transformation.
  He no longer felt the need to fit in, the way the other boys did. He wasn’t like those other boys. He was smarter, faster, stronger. He had evolved.
  Josh picked up a box of “Midnight Black” hair dye. It was perfect.
  He strolled down the make up isle and picked up black eyeliner, black lipstick, and black fingernail polish.
  He returned home and locked himself in the bathroom for several hours. When he came out it was just past eleven at night.
  He went to his room and closed the door so he could look at himself in the full length mirror that hung behind it.
  Josh looked in the mirror. His black hair fell damp against his healthy skin. His eyes looked sunken in from the eyeliner. His nails reminded him of an old monster movie he had seen as a child. His black lips snarled upward in a twisted smile.
  He liked it.
  He walked out into his backyard and glanced up at the moonless sky. There were scarcely any stars to be seen this close to town but he could still make out the major constellations. He drew in a deep breath of the warm summer air. It felt good to be young, wild, and free.
  He narrowed his eyes as he thought of the coming school year. The end of his new found freedom. He had only two months left until school began again.
  Once school started he would be expected to reform. To conform, to the norm. He glared over his shoulder at the house. Not this year, parental overlords. This year was going to be all about what he wanted to do. His freedoms, his priorities, his clubs and sports. It was about time he started living his life, not the one they wanted.
  He opened the shed and retrieved his old black fingerless bmx gloves. They were a tight fit, but they would stretch out with wear.
  ‘After all’ Josh thought. ‘They had their shot, it’s not my fault if they blew it. It’s not my fault that they played it safe. I’m not them. I never was, and I never will be.’
  Josh climbed the fence and began walking down the deserted suburban street.
  He thought for a moment about Vi. He could go pick her up and walk the streets, see what trouble they could get into together. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and thought about texting.
  Instead, he decided to turn it off. He didn’t need any distractions. He didn’t anyone trying to stop him from what he was trying to do.
  He felt a slow fire burn deep inside his core. A thought, that was not yet a thought, not yet an idea. It was just an energy forming in the center of his brain. Deep inside at a place where thoughts are formed before they reach the senses to understand them. He did not know what for it would take but he knew it would be trouble. Trouble for someone else. A smile crept over his face, a devious smile that made him feel warm inside.
  He had no idea what he was planning, deep inside his mind.
  All he knew was, whatever it was. He was ALL in.