Neil's head was hurting.
His vision was blurring from a possible concussion.
His nose hurt from the thick, metallic smell of the blood of his friend's that had practically split all over the inside of the Mess Hall.
He was laying on his back on the cold, dirty floor where he had been knocked onto by Harrison.
All of what just happened had happened so, so fast.
Neil always had to be right about everything, especially when it came to Harrison's ridiculous logic with hisridiculous "magic". It didn't make sense to Neil, and his ego always got the best of him, resulting in nonstop bickering and arguing with him.
Neil was smart. Neil knew everything... Or so he thought.
Harrison always seemed to step around Neil's logic when it came to some of his tricks and magical talents. They weren't a big deal at first, small things such as pulling rabbits out of hats and stupid card tricks, but when Harrison began to play with fire from thin air, it finally caught Neil's attention. There had to be an explanation for all of it, but the fact Neil couldn't figure it out had drove him fucking crazy. He refused to drop it, refused to let it be, and decided to get to the bottom of Harrison's unexplained actions. Harrison never really seemed to care at first... But that didn't last very long.
Harrison almost began avoiding Neil and would prevent himself from talking about or doing any magic tricks in front of him. Neil came to the conclusion that Harrison was only doing this so he could remain in the right and Neil couldn't figure him out, and to torture him by remaining clueless and unable to get to the bottom of his antics. He would bring it up himself, mocking Harrison and talking about how stupid "magic" was in front of him, which would set Harrison off. This only went on for so long... Up until today.
Today, things ended. Not just for Harrison and Neil,
but for everyone.
It was the typical routine, Neil pestering, basically bullying Harrison about his magic and getting a rise out of him. His motive changed over time from wanting to debunk Harrison's magic to just wanting Harrison to break and admit Neil was right. But it began to get more personal, and much more deeper than just the topic his magic skills once the other campers decided to get involved.
Max brought up Harrison's parents, how they disowned him and wouldn't go near him because of his abilities, how they abandoned him at this camp so they'd find out what's wrong with him. Max insisted he understood because of his own parents doing the same thing with him, but at least it wasn't because he was a freak.
The chuckle that arose from the other campers who overheard Max and Neil's taunts made Harrison's face flush with rising anger.
He yelled something in defense at them, to get them to shut up and stop, but it failed miserably. The taunts kept coming until Nerris finally pulled the last straw.
"If you're so good at this magic stuff, why don't you make me disappear along with your kid brother?" Nerris said, a malicious smirk on her face. She too had been waiting for this moment, for Harrison to break in front of her after every bickering argument they've had as well. She could feel herself begin to feel prideful with victory seeing Harrison's fists shake in anger and, what she thought was, defeat.
All it took was a quick raise of of one of his said shaking fists, and a quick, sharp swing of his arm towards her for a cloud of smoke to explode in Nerris' place. The Campers gasped in confusion once the smoke cleared after a few moments... Nerris was nowhere to be seen.
She was gone.
She disappeared.
This wasn't what anyone expected out of Harrison.
His mental breakdown all the campers had pictured in their heads was far different than expected from him.
Before anybody could question what he had just done, Harrison whipped his hand in Max's direction just as sharply as he had done towards Nerris, and had casted a much more gruesome punishment on him than he had for her.
Max's face twisted from confusion to horror as he suddenly felt intense pain in his abdomen, his breathing suddenly becoming a struggle, his face turning pale. Almost instantly, before he had time to grab himself, his stomach busted open through his now blood stained hoodie, his insides spilling out in front of him along with what looked like a long rope of a bunch of multi colored handkerchiefs.
Everyone's stomach seemed to have dropped in unison as everyone screamed at the bloody horror in front of them.
Everyone couldn't believe their eyes.
The last thing Neil saw was Max's eyes nearly rolling back in the back of his head as he choked on the blood that had shot up his into his throat and was now running down his chin as he fell to his knees on the floor, finally dropping and hitting it lifelessly before he was knocked hard in the head, seeing stars... And then nothing.
He opened his eyes finally, staring at the ceiling of the Mess Hall above him. The atmosphere was red from the magical flames that had been maliciously casted in the room, he could faintly see the shadows of them dancing on the wood. White doves were flying feverishly from corner to corner. He looked over painfully, meeting face to face with a white rabbit with bloody paws, staring at him with dark, empty eyes. He turned away from it... And gasped in horror as he realized the massacre that had happened around him while he was on the floor.
Preston was just across from him, his eyes lifeless and glassy. He had wounds from head to toe, deep cuts from a sharp deck of cards that had tore him apart, ripping up his flesh and clothes in the process. The cards were sprawled out around his body, their edges thick with Preston's blood. He was too scared to look at the others around the room. He clenched his eyes shut.
Neil began to choke on tears as he began to fill with regret of his actions towards Harrison.
He had no idea. He shouldn't have ever tried to figure him out.
He would have much rather have stayed clueless and wrong if he had known this was going to be the outcome.
His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a foot slamming down onto his chest, knocking the air out of his lungs roughly.
He looked up in horror as he saw Harrison standing above him. Somebody else's blood was splattered across his face. His eyes no longer looked wide with optimism and happiness like they had before, but instead, they looked absolutely livid.
A familiar flame that had stumped Neil long ago was hovering above Harrison's raised hand, coming from what Neil used to think was nothing.
He took a shaky breath to speak.
"H-how.. How are you-"
"I kept telling you Neil," Harrison said, cutting him off.
"It's magic, silly."
Harrison's tone of voice sent cold shivers down Neil's body. He didn't have the courage to say anything as his throat now became dry. He couldn't tell if it was from the flames or from the intense fear he now had for Harrison, knowing his fate was very near. There was a long moment before Harrison bent forward, keeping his foot on Neil's chest, bringing his bloody face to his.
"What's the matter, Neil?" Harrison asked, raising his flaming fist just like he had done before killing his friends.
"Did I freak your mind?"