Silence Falls

Offended and overpowered by Hermanni’s remark, Bam deflected his eyes to the floor and for a second contemplated to himself how the heck he knew all this information about him. His mounting outrage blended with distress at being called out boiled inside him for only a second before a warm shroud of alleviation washed over and extinguished them. All of a sudden he was strangely placid. Placid enough for him to ruminate on Hermann’s words. As much as Bam didn’t want to accept it, Hermanni was right that he wasn’t his former self. He may not remember the ‘normal’ Bam that he once was, but he could feel it in his soul that what he had become after the death of his best friend was not the actual Brandon Margera. But of course, he would never convey this to anyone much less Hermanni.

Slowly backing himself towards the black metal gate behind him he didn’t know was there, Bam lied. “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, man, and I don’t care. I’m getting the hell out of here and heading back to my own bed. Fuck this conversation.” The moment he turned around and noticed the black gate sealing the exit of the store, he realized exactly where he was. The others had locked him up much like they had with Hermanni. He was the jailbird now! With a feral growl, he grasped a hold of the bars and began to forcefully rattle the malleable but durable gate. “What the fuck is this!? HEY! HEY, SOMEBODY BETTER GET ME THE FUCK OUTTA HERE OR ELSE!”

“It is no use, Bam.” Hermanni apprised him so he wouldn’t tucker himself out. “They will not come. You have proven to be too much of a threat.”

Preferring to ignore Hermanni, Bam reluctantly sighed in defeat and surrendered to his hopeless situation with a brutal last kick to the gate. “SONOFABITCH!” Brooding, he leaned his forehead against the cool black metal, his arms slipping through the bars to dangle uselessly on the other side. “You gotta be KIDDING me here! I didn’t do anything, you fucking PRICKS!”

“Have you ever suffered a loss, Brandon? Someone you cared for deeply?” Hermanni queried, standing behind him now. “That could explain your velocity to anger whenever an circumstance does not go your way.”

Bam whipped around and snapped at Hermanni. “Oh so what, you calling me a big fucking baby now? Huh? You don’t think I can handle the everyday bullshit life lobs at us on a daily basis? Cause I CAN! I CAN fucking handle them just like everybody else CAN!”

“Why do you feel the need to injure people then? Why when we were all immersed in a little game meant to enliven the spirits that you decided to turn berserk and assail a friend with a water gun?” Hermanni interrogated timidly. He was taking the good cop approach.

“HAVE YOU NOT SEEN WHAT I’VE BEEN THROUGH? I’VE HAD GUNS SHOT AT ME ONLY A FEW WEEKS AGO! NOT VERY MANY PEOPLE CAN GET OVER SOMETHING LIKE THAT, YOU HEARTLESS ASSHOLE!” Bam bellowed defensively, his fists clenched at his side but ready to sock Hermanni in the face if he continued to provoke him like this.

“That is absolutely true, Brandon.” Hermanni concurred at first. “You have been through an exceptional extent of trauma since you entered this town...except you are NOT one of those people that are traumatized by it. You already had so much animosity produced inside of you before you ever set foot in this town.” He let up to inspect a hushed Bam who merely stood there gritting his teeth in an attempt to quell his outrage. “Please, do not be irate at the words that I say, Bam. I want to help you, in fact, I refuse to let you sleep, eat or drink from here on out until you open up to me.”

“Fuck, I’m not afraid of you! Do your fucking worse!” Bam snapped, a challenging smirk curling up the corner of his mouth due to his feeble threat. He welcomed the challenge. “That’ll just means I’ll be kicking your skinny little ass all over this goddamn store that much sooner.”

Hermanni stepped closer to him, his vivid eyes entrapping Bam’s blue orbs. “I would like to witness you completing such a hostile deed upon me successfully and remaining unscathed yourself.”

Bam’s smile slowly waned under Hermanni’s confident gaze. A chill ran down his spine as he tackled to preserve his composure and eye contact with the alluring boy. For an innocuous looking skinny white foreigner, he was eerily intimidating, almost downright terrifying really if one was already a pansy.

“W-Whatever, man!” Bam managed out, advancing past him to plunk down onto the mound of pillows in defeat. Hermanni took his time sitting cozily beside him after a minute.

“I will ask again...have you suffered from any loss of a loved one?” Hermanni rehashed, turning his body so he was facing Bam just in case he’d try to weasel his way out of this second onslaught of questioning by misleading again. Besides, he had to master learning how to fathom these kids without peeking into their minds.

Bam exhaled sharply, linking his hands together as he hunched forward in his seat to prop his arms on his knees. Considering the nervous tension stiffening up his body, he knew this wasn’t going to be an easy conversation to delve into. For the longest time his very own loved ones had tried to get him to open up to professional therapists or anyone else that would listen to what he was going through, but Bam could never do it. After Ryan’s death he was adverse to lean on people, strangers or even his own damn wife! He was never able to open up to anyone about his conflicts and over a long period of time he even forgot he even had them! So much time had passed abiding through them that he had then believed them to be character traits that made him who he was as a person. But that was far from the truth. Relenting to Hermanni’s persistence, Bam relinquished while disconnecting his hand’s link to curl them into tight fists until his knuckles turned white. “Y-Yeah, I’ve lost people.”

“Tell me their names.” Hermanni instructed him, his eyes flicking from Bam’s hands to his solemn face.

“Ryan, and Missy.” Bam mumbled to himself, but loud enough for Hermanni to hear, his hands tightening even more. He heard Hermanni let out a sigh before reaching out to unlock Bam’s fists so he wouldn’t break his own fingers. But Bam felt he needed those fists to keep him steady to go on. Before he could revolt, Hermanni bestowed him another option, holding onto his hand in support instead.

“Do not worry, my hands will not break so easily as your hand. Use it to your advantage for you might become very emotional soon, and my hand can be your way of solacing the stress. Do not hold back.” Hermanni requested him, earning a weird look from Bam then a nod. “Now, tell me who Ryan was to you.”

“Ryan was…is my best friend in the whole world. In fact, he was kinda like a brother to me. He was smart, talented, and just…” Bam faltered, not realizing tears were already flooding down his face. He had also begun to realize that to sum up words that could completely label just how awesome Ryan really was had yet to be formulated by the human race.

“He sounds like he was one of those unlikely individuals that go beyond the meaning of how riveting humans can become.” Hermanni softly hypothesized, sensing what would have been the crushing grip on his hand dissipating from Bam’s hold.

“Oh my god, if you only knew.” Bam whispered brokenly, a lump forming in his throat making it hard to swallow as he glared down at the floor beneath his shoes.

“No one else here knew, but you, Brandon. We did not get the honor to meet him.” Hermanni reminded him with a tender smile, wishing he could erase the tears as they trailed down Bam’s cheeks at an accelerated rate. But Bam wasn’t ready for that just yet. Hermanni had to rupture the barriers first and then maybe he’d win the license to console him in the ways he yearned to, not just by his powers, but also in the way humans console other humans.