Chapter 1 – Chap 1

“You’re a special boy,Peter. You’re my sweet dear angel and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

That’s what my mother always used to say to me. I’m aware it’s nothing new, tons of mothers have said that (or some variation of that) to their children for countless generations and will continue to do so for many more to come, it’s parenting 101. However, in my case, the word “special” was much more than just a way to say I was her only kid, it also had to do with something much more… physical, superficial, it had to do with my appearance. You see, I was born with deformities, I had a pair of horns on my head, like those you’d find on a bull or a cow, except I was a human kid, without any bovine ancestry I was aware of. Despite having visited dozens of doctors, non of them managed to figure out the reason of my peculiar deformities. Aside from the horns, I was a perfectly normal, healthy boy, but of course, the human race has always had the urge to classify, discriminate, to stay away from anyone or anything that doesn’t follow their strict standards of “normality” to a tea. Thus, while it’s true I had a lovely family and a bunch of friends that liked me just the way I was, I also had a fair ammount of bullies and people that awkardly stared at me whenever they’d cross me on the street. It wasn’t uncommon for me to come home in tears, especially when I was a preschooler.

“Those bullies are lucky your dad’s no longer with us, he hated people that messed with his loved ones with a passion, I have no doubt he would’ve kicked their butts!”

My mother said on those ocasions, then we’d both laugh, curl up on the couch and watch a movie on TV. My father died on a car accident when I was a baby, of course,I’m sad he died, but I can’t really say I loved him, I have no memories of him ,afer all. I do have a picture on him on my bed table,though, he had no horns, so I knew I didn’t inherit mine from him, I couldn’t find any evidence of any other distant relative with horns either, so they were still a mystery.

Then,one day, everything changed. It started like any other day, I had breakfast, I went to school, all that stuff kids usually do. While I was roaming the school’s hallways, on my way to my English class, an older kid approached me, it was bully time.

“Oh, hey! If isn’t the son of Satan! Aside from the horns, did he lend you his trident as well? I think you won’t need it, with those sharp horns you have!”

“Leave me alone.”

“Have you ever considered moving to Spain? Bullfights are pretty popular there, you’d fit right in with the…”

“You’ve heard him, asshole, leave him alone!”

A kid I had never seen before stood between me and the bully. He had short, blond hair and looked arround the same age as me. The bully started laughing.

“Oh,no! Another midget, beware! You must be one of Satan’s minions! What are YOU gonna do about it,punk?” He said in a sarcastic tone.

The kid then punched him in the face, knocking him to the floor.

“Did that answer your question?”

“You’ve…you’ve just declared war, both of you, little shits!”

“What did you say? I think I’ve heard you want more!”

The bully got up and left in silence.

“Are you okay?” The kid said to me.

“Yes,thank you! I’m sorry, have we met before?”

“No, I’m new, I’ve literally just arrived here.The name’s James.”

“Peter, it’s been a pleasure to meet you! Just so you know, from here on out, I consider you my friend!”

“Thanks, you’re my friend too!”

“So, what brings you to this humble little town? The school year’s about to end, I’m suprised you decided to switch schools now!”

“My family works at a summer camp not far from here, it’s for kids with deformities or something like that, I don’t know that much.”

“Deformed children,like…like me?”

“What? Oh…oh I’ve just noiced the horns, wow! Yeah, I’ve been to the camp a couple of times and I think I remember seeing kids with horns.”

“Really? I’ve always wanted to meet children that were like me, I’d love to go there!”

“Of course! You have to ask your parents first,though.”

“No problem, I’ll go ask my mother today!”

“Great, I’ll go tell my parents a new kid is interested and we should get in contact with you in a few weeks!”

“Got it, thanks James!”

My mother loved the idea, and just like James had said, two weeks later my mother received an email saying I’d been accepted and that a bus would arrive in a few days to pick me up.

There was one problem, two,actually: The bus would arrive at the other side of town and my mother had to go to work that day.

“Are you sure you’re ready to go there alone,honey?”

“Mom,I’m twelve!”

“Exactly!”

“I’ll just take a bus to the other side of town and then I’ll take the bus to the summer camp. I can do that,I’m not a baby!”

“Alright,fine! But please be careful,sweetheart!”

“Always!”

I sat alone on a seat inside the bus that would take to the place where the other bus was, minding my buisness playing on my handheld videogames console.

“Look,Jessica! Doesn’t that kid look kinda wierd?” said a girl that was a couple of seats away from me, she looked a few years younger than me.

“Cloe! Don’t say that out loud, you may hurt his feelings!” replied the older girl that was sitting next to her, she looked like she was in her late teens. The older girl turned to look at me.

“Please excuse her,kid. She really didn’t mean to, say you’re sorry,sis!”

“I’m sorry…”

I wanted to answer with “It’s okay” or something similar,but before I knew it, the bus had arrived at my stop, I had no time to lose, so I waved them goodbye and went on my way. That interaction pleasantly suprised me, it was the first time starngers actually apologized and took my feelings into consideration! Usually, they’d awkwardly walk away without saying a word once they’d find out I knew they were watching.

Anyway, so I had finally arrived at the other side of the city, and after a few minutes walking, I made it to another bus stop, where a red bus with a man next to the door was waiting for me. I expected James to be there, but nope, just a random man, I assumed he was part of Jame’s family, maybe his father or uncle or whatever. I knew for sure this was the right bus, it had a symbol that looked like a head with a pair of horns, and most importantly, I looked at the windows and saw the bus was filled with kids, all of them had horns…just like me.

“Hi, you must be the kid we’re expecting, uh…”

“Peter.”

“Yeah, that. Come on,hop in, it’s getting late and we don’t have all day!”

Once I was face to face with the man I noticed the symbol of the bus was also featured on his shirt.

I hoped into the bus and was mesmerized by the ammount of horned children that were in there, I didn’t count them all, but there were at least a dozen or more boys and girls. And I thought my deformity was rare, I mean…yeah, that was nothing compared to the number of people on Earth, but still, for years I thought I was the only one.

The trip was long and boring, so long they gave us a pillow and a blanket so we could sleep. It was pretty uncomfortable, but I was tired, so I fell asleep quickly.

The first thing I noticed when I woke up is that I wasn’t in a seat anymore, I was …laying on a bed?

I took a look at the small room I found myself in, it was clear this wasn’t the bus. I tried to get out of bed, but my feet weren’t touching the ground, that’s because I was actually on a bunk bed!

“Have you already woken up?”

Said a kid with short brown hair that was on the bed under mine.

“Who are you? Where are we?”

“Suprised,eh? Yeah,same here. I just woke up a few minutes ago, my guess is that we’re in some kind of hotel, this first day’s been pretty lame, but I’m sure we’ll start filming soon!”

“Filming? What are you talking about?”

“I’ve come here to appear on a tv documentary about kids with horns! Isn’t this why you’re here?”

“No, I’ve been told I was going to a summer camp!”

“Really? That’s wierd! You wanna go outside and investigate? The name’s Jack, by the way!”

“I’m Peter! And I don’t think we should…”

“Oh, come on! Don’t you wanna know where you are? “

“Good point, let’s go.”

We opened our room’s door and went outside to a wide open area. It looked like a playground filled with swings and a slide and whatnots, there were also some picnic tables and it was all surrounded by bungalows like the one we woke up in.

“What is this place?”´

“No idea, maybe I was right and it’s the summer camp?”

“Hey!”

We both jumped a little when we heard that voice, and instinctively turned back to see who it was.

In front of us was a girl with red curly hair, about our age, and with horns…of course.

“Looks like I’m not the only one awake! I come from the bungalow near the bathrooms, I’ve checked the other ones and they’re filled with children.”

“Were you on the bus too?”

“Yep, I’m Christine, but everyone calls me Chris. Please tell me I’m not the only one who thinks this looks nothing like a hospital!”

“What hospital?”

“The one we were suposed to go to? A kid I met a few weeks ago told me they could remove my horns here!”

“What?”