They laughed at me. They all laughed at me.

They called me names and mocked my stutter.

“What’s his issue?” Guys would ask.

“He’s so pathetic, it’s sad.” Girls would murmur.

There wasn’t a day of rest. I tried skipping school, but after a week my parents found out and forced me to go back. My parents didn’t understand the cruelty I endured and teachers seemed to always turn a blind eye.

However, it was April 8th 2014 that changed my life forever.

It was the day of the big speech assignment and I had rehearsed my paper over and over and over again, trying to recite it without a single stammer.

Words would flow a little longer each time but I could never make it through a full paragraph without a letter getting caught on my tongue.

“Hey Ma-ma-ma-ma-Matty! Why don’t you go first so we can all get an extra day to finish up?” Brandon Lewton whispered over to me, but not quietly enough so that the kids around us could hear. Soon they all began to chime in.

“I hope you kept it short and sweet”

“I’d rather stick pencils in my ears…”

“If I paid you $20, could you spare us?”

Then came time for my speech. Suddenly all the time I had spent rehearsing vanished, and every word in front of me was a stranger.

After all the booing, the teacher thanked me. (Yeah, right.) Getting to my seat, I noticed a cleanly folded piece of paper.

“Don’t listen to all the a-holes. You’re speech was good” it read. Signed by Victoria Delmont. I looked to the right just in time for her passing glance in which she offered a subtle and comforting smile.

At lunch she sat down next to me.

She put her hand on my lap and asked me how I was holding up. To which I responded, “okay.”

She smiled at me again before she got up and walked back over to her friends. I noticed them giggling, and before they even looked back at me, I knew they were talking about me. I didn’t make anything of it though, after all, this happened all the time.

5th hour was approaching and Victoria stopped me in passing. Her friends stood together, leaning into one another, whispering to each other.

“I just wanted to tell you thank you. You are an inspiration to retards everywhere and I really think you’ll find someone just as special as you some day” she said, laughter waiting to burst from the pit of her stomach - yet her friends weren’t able to hold back any longer.

That was it, I decided. Every moment was hell and I needed to escape. If you saw the lengths these kids go through just to keep me down - keep me down, ha! As if the quiet boy who kept to himself ever needed to be kept down.

That night I laid in my room. I stared at the ceiling for what felt like hours. It was peaceful though and in that peace I thought about how I would get each and every one of the kids, kids who felt like they couldn’t be happy without taking away my happiness, back. In those quiet moments, I heard the rain pour down.

Something compelled me to the window that night that I couldn’t quite explain, but what I saw when I looked out my window I could explain even less.

I saw a man with an umbrella. His face was round and pale, his eyes were stone, and there was just a gaping hole where his nose would be. He stood across the street, still, staring at me, smiling. The rain didn’t seem to have any affect on him whatsoever and I just stared. Blinking, hoping that when I would open my eyes he would be gone, but he remained still and smiling. He picked up his hand and slowly gestured for me to come outside.

I felt hypnotized, for my mind had gone blank and I made my way to the door, never mind a coat or even shoes.

When I opened the door, there he was, standing underneath the street light, still waving for me to come closer. The closer I got to him the bigger his smile seemed to get.

He towered at least a foot over me, yet I didn’t feel any fear. He leaned in close to talk to me, his voice being deep and rich.

“I can help you” he said.

“How?” I asked.

“I can make them pay”

“How?” I asked again, even more dumbfounded.

“Do you think you’re life would be better if those kids weren’t around?”

“I know it would be.”

“Then I will help you, and you will help me,” his smile grew from ear to ear.

“How would I be able to help you?”

“You mustn’t worry for your life is about to start anew.”

Just as I was ready to ask another question, he disappeared. A wave of relief came over me, and suddenly I didn’t care what other questions I had or even doubled back on the thought of what just happened. I felt my anger dissipate.

The next morning, we got a call from the school saying a few of the students had gone missing and when they said the names of those students, I knew.

I knew who to thank for giving me my life back.