I Don't Want To Be Alone

Chapter 1

It had started out as any other day for Norman, he was woken up by his zombie alarm clock, he groggily slipped his feet into his zombie slippers, and he walked over to the bathroom where he brushed his teeth with his zombie toothbrush.

It had been months since he had broken the Witches Curse, and everything was going back to normal. People began treating him as the freak who could see the dead again, acting like he hadn't done anything. The kids at school started calling him names again, and made fun of him.

Alvin pretended to make fun of him and hate him in front of people just to keep up some reputation he thought he had, which really hurt Norman. He had thought that Alvin was beginning to change, and he had… kind of. Alvin would come over some times after school and hang out with Norman and Neil at Neil's house. Though, he really did think that Norman and Neil were his friends, because he told them a secret neither of the boys had expected Alvin to say.

"Norman, I need to tell you two losers something. If I find out either of you told anyone at the school, I will punch your faces in!" Alvin feigned a threat, trying to scare the boys. It didn't work, but they played along. Neil seemed pretty convinced that Alvin was being truthful, but Norman wasn't convinced. He had been through way too much with Alvin to believe the lies he told everyone about his 'fights'.

And that's when Alvin said the most outrageous thing Norman had heard since his Crazy Uncle told him he was chosen to read to the Witch. "Norman, Neil… I saw the Tooth Fairy. I actually saw her! She was whining about how the teeth under my pillow were some other kids! Of course, she was right, but still! Everyone said they didn't exist, but they do! I have seen it with my own eyes!"

Norman was baffled. Here he had been all of his life being made fun of for things that people said were only figments of his imagination, and suddenly Alvin sees the Tooth Fairy and he thinks he is gifted? He knew he shouldn't be this upset, but Alvin had picked on Norman his entire school career, and now he was all excited about seeing something that other people don't see. He didn't understand that Norman went through so much more than that daily, and he had to live with the torments of his peers for seeing the Dead. He had to put up with the fact that he could see and hear people who wanted to be heard! They asked him for favors, and he would stop whatever he was doing to help them! He was burdened with that, and he had grown accustomed to being the only one.

"Oh, so now you see something that other people don't see? How does it feel to know you have a gift that if other people knew about you would never be looked at the same? You would be made fun of, bullied, and humiliated your whole life, with your family thinking you were crazy! Alvin, the Tooth Fairy doesn't exist. It was probably just a dream. I would know. I stayed awake multiple times to try to see her. I always stayed up waiting for her, but I never saw her. Now you are for some reason special and can see her?"

Judging by the look on Neil and Alvin's faces, Norman had burst. He didn't normally get so… so angry at things like this, but he couldn't help it. He let a little anger slip, and the rest followed. He was angry because he hated to admit that his family had been successful at one thing. His family had succeeded in making Norman believe that the Guardians didn't exist.

He would get up on Christmas morning and find presents addressed to him from his sister and Courtney. He wouldn't have any little cards saying they were from Santa. During Easter, his Father would strategically place Norman where he could see his Mother hiding the eggs. The Tooth Fairy had been the cruelest one his parents had played. They made him place his tooth under the pillow, and when he woke up the next morning, the tooth was still there.

Apparently the same thing had happened with Neil, which he thought was odd. Neil's parents wanted him to believe in the things he wanted too, so why would they pretend that the Tooth Fairy forgot to pick up their teeth? Norman hated to see the sad look on Neil's face when he had come over to Norman's house with his tooth in hand. He had cried for hours to Norman, only stopping when Norman offered to watch a horror movie and eat some junk food with him.

He didn't want to believe in some made up creature that forgot to pick up their teeth, thoroughly crushing the spirits of people who wanted to believe so badly in the thought of there being a Tooth Fairy, an Easter Bunny, and even a Santa Clause. The night after their teeth had been left, Neil was determined to think that the Tooth Fairy had been to busy to pick up their teeth, so he made Norman put his tooth under the pillow again. Neil's tooth had been gone the next morning, while Norman's was still there under his pillow.

"Yeah, Dude, I have the gift to see her. Don't be mad just because for once someone can see something you can't. You need to understand that you aren't the only one who can see these things anymore. Maybe she only lets people who don't see the dead see her, I mean who would want a freak like you seeing them?" Alvin sounded offended, and Norman didn't fully blame him, but the name-calling was uncalled for.

"Uh—guys…" Neil tried to interject, but Norman cut him off.

"Oh, so I'm a freak again? Maybe you're right, maybe that's why. Maybe she doesn't even remember the freaks of the world, that explains why she forgot to get my tooth last time I lost it, and she got everyone else's! So yeah, congrats Alvin, you can see her. You're a freak now, just like me."

Without even saying goodbye, Norman jumped up and ran out of Neil's house. He kicked the break up from his bike and speedily got on the bike, pedaling as quickly as his legs could. He wanted to get away from the others; he just wanted to be alone. While he was riding home, snow began to fall. Some landed on Norman's hair and hands, but he didn't feel the cold. He only could concentrate on the road, trying to see through the tears that freely streamed from his eyes.

Snow began to cloud his vision as his tears flowed more quickly. He moved one of his hands from one of the handles, rubbing his eyes with the sleeve of his jacket. He had only had his eyes covered for a couple of seconds; he didn't think anything would cause a danger to him. He heard a loud horn and he screamed as he moved his arm from his eyes.

"Look out!" A stranger yelled at him before his bike was reered away from the vehicle that was about to run into him. He looked down, seeing a thing of ice under him. How had that suddenly gotten there? He felt something hit the back of his head; he ignored it. He wasn't in the mood to play snowball fight. Plus, he would only be ganged up on and attacked with continuous snowballs until the bullies were bored of hitting the freak. He wanted them to suffer, but he wouldn't act on his feelings, he wouldn't become one of them.

He had promised Aggie he wouldn't. He had shown her that what she was doing was wrong, and he had promised he wouldn't do anything like that to anyone, because he was the one who had brought her out of it. She didn't want him to become just like she had. God, he missed Aggie. He had known her for such a short time, but he had felt a connection between them. She was just like him; they both knew how it felt to be ostracized and to be thought of as a freak because they could do something extraordinary that others couldn't. He thought of her as a sister, and he didn't want to let her down.

But those damn bullies knew where to hit him so it hurt. They would taunt him, they would make fun of him—of Aggie! They didn't even know her, but they said things that weren't true just to make him angry. They wanted him to fight back so they could say they were protecting themselves from the kid who could see the Dead. The Spirits he passed could tell his mood, so they stood clear of him. At least, he thought that at first, but after even the annoying ones who didn't care if Norman was pissed beyond belief avoided him he knew something was up. Then another snowball hit him. He was at his house so he made a quick turn into the driveway, and kicked his brake down. He swung his leg over the bike just as another snowball hit him.

He grabbed a thing of snow, balling it into his hands. He turned around and saw a boy with snow-white hair and pale skin. He wore a hoodie with what looked like frost on the collar. He was barefoot, which threw Norman off. He wasn't a spirit, so why was he following Norman? Did he want to bully the outcast too? Well, Norman wasn't in the mood to listen to anything, especially from a stranger. He threw the snowball at the boy, seeing the shocked expression that resulted from the impact. "Leave me alone! I don't want to hear another joke about the kid who can see ghosts! Why don't you stop? You make fun of people who don't deserve it, just because I'm different doesn't mean I'm a freak! I am just like you, so why should I be treated different? I want to be treated like everyone else, but it's hard to be normal when even your family thinks you are crazy! Did Alvin send you to hurt me because I got mad because he saw the Tooth Fairy, and I didn't even get a visit from her last time I lost a tooth? Well, you can tell him you beat me up. You can make up a story. He'll believe it. Just, leave me alone. Please."

With that, Norman turned and ran into the house, leaving the shocked Winter Spirit speechless.