Revenge
By: Julian Lopez - April 2002 ©

    "I hate this!" Johnny yelled, slamming his book shut. "Who needs Algebra anyway?" He walked over to his bed and laid there. As he laid there, he mumbled to himself about the preposterous amount of pointless information given to him.  
Pap pap pap!
     At first Johnny dismissed this as just a random noise outside. Then he heard it again. Pap pap! This time it commanded more attention. It had come from his baby brother's room. It sounded like a cap gun firing, but quieter and muffled. Johnny got up and walked down the hall. Then Peter, his one-year-old brother, began to cry.
    Johnny hated it when Peter cried. That steady wail could drive a person insane. He opened Peter's room door, and both sounds were immediately amplified. He walked over to the crib and saw Peter, flailing his arms and legs about helplessly.
    "I wish Mom or Dad was here, then I wouldn't have to put up with this." Johnny sighed. He then noticed something odd about Peter, his arms, legs, and face was covered with tiny red dots. It looked as if he had been repeatedly jabbed with pins. Johnny bent over to pick Peter up, but was stopped by a sudden sting on his ear. "Ow!" Johnny wheeled around and looked to see who had done that. On the shelf there was a lone toy standing there. "What the?" Johnny said quizzically. He looked closer to see it was his favorite GI Joe, "Snake Eyes," holding a toy pistol. "How did you get here?" He asked rhetorically. 
    Johnny turned back around, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw a quick movement. He quickly spun back to the action figure. Was the gun raised just a second ago, Johnny asked himself. He could have sworn it had been lowered. "Oh, well. Maybe I shouldn't have seen 'The Shining' earlier.
    He looked back at Peter. Peter seemed to have cried himself to sleep. That solved that problem, Johnny thought. Before looking away he observed another GI Joe lying in the crib. This one was "Night Crawler." This one also had a tiny toy pistol. Peter had obviously dismembered this one he thought. Only the head and one arm was left. Johnny stepped closer to get it when he stepped on something. He looked down and there were many more of his GI Joes lying on the ground, also broken apart.
    "Man, he's been at my toys again. I'm going to have to talk to Mom again. I don't know why she lets him get them." Johnny moaned. He looked back at "Snake Eyes" and sighed. "Well, at least he didn't get this one.
    Suddenly the figure moved and pointed the gun at Johnny. Pap pap pap!  More tiny stings assaulted Johnny's face. Then the GI Joe whistled. "I've got to be…" Johnny was cut off as the figure jumped onto his shirt. It was now wielding a knife, and stabbed his shirt. "Ouch!" Johnny yelled out as the toy cut his chest with that tiny knife. He tried to bat it away but it clung on tight. Without warning more GI Joes jumped on him. Johnny was now running around the room screaming in pain as hundreds of his own toys now slowly ripped away parts of his skin. Peter had, without Johnny noticing, been choked to death by more figures.
    Johnny stumbled out of the room, bleeding profusely from thousand of tiny incisions about his body.
"Help! Help me!" Johnny cried as he ran to the stairs. More figures were waiting at the edge of the stairs. As Johnny clamored toward the stairway, the figures there pulled a tiny string taut. Johnny tripped over the string and for a split second, felt he was flying. He then tumbled down the stairs, rolling head over heels. When he hit the bottom, there was a loud snap as his neck broke. 
    Johnny's last fading moments of consciousness saw the toys run and take ambush positions as Johnny's parents stepped through the door.