Turner. Jonathan De Montfort

raised his eyebrows to signal Martin’s father to proceed.

      ‘This afternoon, your son James attacked Martin and, well, you can see the results.’

      Martin was clearly sporting a broken nose. Hero grinned in the darkness.

      ‘Really? That doesn’t sound like James.’ Dad got up, went over to the door, and shouted, ‘James, can you come down here please?’

      James thumped Hero on the back of the head as he sauntered past him, down the stairs, and into the lounge. ‘Hey, Dad. Ah, Martin, isn’t it? You’ve got some balls showing up here.’

      ‘Don’t talk like that, James. Out of respect for her.’ Dad nodded apologetically. ‘Martin’s dad tells me you beat up his son earlier this evening.’

      ‘Well, Dad, before we go any further, I really think you should take a look at this.’ James pulled his phone from his pocket, pressed a button, and held it towards Dad. ‘Et voilà.’

      Hero’s stomach tightened as the sounds of the boys bullying him outside school filtered from the tinny phone speakers.

      James looked up at Martin and his dad with disgust. ‘“I could shit in your mouth right now”?’ He overenunciated each syllable as if trying to comprehend the true horror of the words.

      Dad cleared his throat. ‘Is that really the kind of thing that you teach your son? Does it make you proud that your son behaves like that? It seems to me that James did the right thing in stopping your son from, as he put it, “shitting in Hero’s mouth”.’

      Martin sniggered.

      His father elbowed him viciously. ‘Shut up. I think kids should work out their own problems, and James shouldn’t just be stepping in on behalf of—Hero, is it? What kind of name is that, anyway?’

      ‘My son’s name is not your concern.’ Dad crossed to the ornate marble fireplace and slid his finger down the side a black-and-white photo of him and Mum on their wedding day on the mantel. Hero had seen him do this before when he was angry and trying to control himself. ‘But I have three things to say about this. Firstly, I think that as parents, we have a duty to teach our children morality. We have to show them that violence is not an option and bullying is wrong. You can rest assured that I’ll be calling the school tomorrow and explaining the situation to them. They need to protect Hero from your son because, in my opinion, the strong should protect the weak. That’s how things work in our society. Otherwise, it ends up in absolute chaos—a complete breakdown of civilisation.’

      He began to pace. ‘Secondly, it wasn’t really Martin against Hero, was it? It was your much older son and his three friends against him. By your ideology, that’s unfair.’ He held out his palm as if to say ‘wait right there.’ Dad always seemed to know instinctively when someone might butt in. He was adept at controlling the conversation like this. ‘And finally, let’s just say for one second that I agree that we should let our children fight. That does beg the question: what are you doing here in my house right now?’

      He looked from Martin to his father. ‘I think you two need to leave. Immediately.’

      Martin shot up, and his father followed suit.

      Hero winced. This is not going to end well—for me.

      Martin’s father sneered as they passed in front of Dad. ‘You think you’re so clever, don’t you? One of these days, I’m gonna give you what’s coming to you.’

      Dad jerked his head towards him. ‘No, you won’t.’

      ‘Yes, I will.’

      A shadow befell the room. Even the landing grew cold, as if all the heat in the rooms had dissipated.

      ‘I promise you—you won’t.’ Dad marched ahead of them with an intense visage and yanked open the door, gesturing for the two of them to leave.

      The door closed behind them. The shadow was gone.

      Dad shook his bowed head and rubbed his fingers in the crooks of his eyes. He turned to James. ‘Training going well, is it, James?’

      James smirked.

      ‘Let’s have a chat, shall we?’

      James glanced up at Hero on the landing. Hero scooted further back into the shadows. The springs of the sofa creaked lightly as they sat.

      ‘What was that all about?’ Dad sounded pretty serious. ‘Why were they picking on Hero, anyway?’

      ‘Apparently there’s some girl at school—’

      ‘Stop—’

      There was a beat of silence.

      ‘Girls will be the end of us all,’ they chanted in unison before dissolving into laughter.

      Under cover of their released tension, Hero inched forward again until he could see their faces.

      ‘I understand why you did what you did, but it’s a bit scary,’ Dad said. ‘I mean, gathering video evidence—what made you think to do that?’

      ‘Justification, Dad. Every action in this world needs to be justified. We both know that.’

      ‘Seems I’ve taught you well.’

      ‘Modest as ever.’

      Dad’s face flickered with concern. ‘Violence is not the answer, son. I know I taught you better than that.’

      ‘These guys don’t understand any other language. I gave them a choice.’

      ‘What choice? It seemed to me like you confronted them.’

      James’s stance changed to utter disdain. ‘They’ve been beating up Hero for weeks now. You must’ve noticed the change in him.’

      Dad bowed his head as if tired of confronting pain. ‘I’m not saying that what they did was right, but violence is a last resort. Once you’ve gone there, there’s nowhere else to go, and then it just keeps escalating until one side is completely destroyed. Do you really want to be the kind of person that’s willing to do that?’

      James rolled his eyes. ‘I’m not gonna go out of my way to attack somebody, but if they come after me or Hero, then I’ll defend us. We both know the school’s not gonna do anything, and neither are the police. The only time they act is when something really serious happens, like someone’s put in a coma or dies. Do you really wanna wait till then?’

      Dad stroked the stubble on his chin. ‘And what’re you going to do if—no, when—they come back? Are you going to be looking over Hero’s shoulder twenty-four hours a day?’

      What did Dad mean, ‘when they come back’?

      ‘We’ve got it covered. The teachers will look out for him. I’ll walk him to and from school. I’ve already sorted it with my gym, no probs. If they catch Hero off guard when I’m not around, I’ve told him to run home as fast as possible. He’s quick enough to outrun these guys.’

      ‘And if he isn’t?’

      ‘Then I’ll send a message to them to explain how disappointed I am with their behaviour.’

      Dad made a disapproving noise deep in his throat.

      ‘It would be a meeting that they won’t walk away from,’ James finished.

      ‘Don’t say that. Please don’t go down that path.’

      ‘It’ll be okay, Dad.’ He patted Dad’s leg somewhat patronisingly and stood to go.

      ‘You’re better than this, James,’ Dad called as James took the stairs a cocky two steps at a time.

      But James had already passed Hero, disappeared into his bedroom, and closed the door.

      I’m causing so much trouble.

      Hero crawled back to his room, not daring to lift his head