Evil Between Friends
By Chris Hubbard
Jimmy’s friends call him Steve, which is why I call him Jimmy. One day Jimmy will be walking down the street and I will trip him. Then I will stand over him, with a foot on his chest. At that moment, as Jimmy lies on his back, possibly, hopefully, bloodied and ruined, Jimmy will know that I know, and we will become enemies from that moment on.
There was a time when I called Jimmy, Steve. Steve and I would play Tennis together in the afternoons after school let out, and there was nothing better to do but to hit a small neon ball as hard as we could between each other. “You’ve gotten better,” he would say, driving a back hand over the net, over my head, over the fence… “but I win again.” He was so god-damn-smug I hate him. Then he would smile that victorious smile of his. But this was all in a time when I didn’t mind being beaten. Life was a game, and each game was simply a test between us that helped to train us, make us better as a unit. It helped us depend on each other, and use that as a strength. I didn’t mind Steve’s victories because I shared in them as well. I was his General and he my fearless leader.
We were like brothers, we shared everything: food, money, ties, we even shared the same prom date. After we graduated that summer Steve and I did some of our greatest work. We foiled the evil Thurman twins and their plan to poison the town’s water supply by pooping in the rivers upstream. We fought side by side to solve the case of Water Buffalo Crescent, where what appeared to be an evil scientist attempting to create a master race of Buffalo-Human hybrids, turned out to be some hobo with a Buffalo Fetish who just happened to be evil.
But then College came. I wanted us to go together, but he had to strike out on his own. We separated for the time being, and we swore that nothing between us would ever change. And that’s when everything changed.
I continued to fight monsters and Ninja assassins disguised as Girl Scouts. Foiling the dark agencies at work in the greater Delaware Valley area. We kept in contact at first. He was on a trail. Some sort of conspiracy. It was big. He was going to blow the lid off the whole thing just as soon as he got enough evidence. That’s when I lost contact with him. At first I was jealous. Here I was thinking I was doing good, and he one ups me once again by fighting evil on a grander scale than I would dare to fight alone. After a while though I became worried. He couldn’t have failed, I knew that for sure, but I still couldn’t help but worry.
Come winter break I saw him once. He’d changed. He was wearing a tie-dye shirt and baggy jeans, he had long hair and what was a poor attempt at a beard. Where was the suit and tie we’d always worn? Our nicknames in high school were the Blues Brothers. Now what would they call us? Those two guys, one with a beard and… ah, I can’t even think of one.
We talked. I asked him about the conspiracy.
“Oh that? That was nothing dude, turned out to be some school fraternity… ha, can you imagine?” No I couldn’t. It was too convenient. Steve had always been too careful to make that kind of mistake. “So anyway, as I was saying, I’ve been pretty good. I went through a pretty big snickerdoodle phase a while back, but now I’m back on chocolate chip and I haven’t regretted it. What about you man?” He waited for my response, his once raptor-like eyes now soft and unfocused.
“What have I been doing?” I said, adjusting my tie. “I’ve been fighting the forces of evil, that’s what. I’ve been carrying on the work, our work, that’s what I’ve been doing.” He looked uneasy.
“Ed, you ever think that maybe we weren’t fighting evil… u ever think that all the things we fought against were just normal things that we called evil?”
“No.”
“Oh… Well, I gotta run, I promised my moms I’d be back for dinner. Take ‘er easy bro.” Something was wrong. Steve had never said the words, “moms,” or “bro,” before, and the phrase ”Take ‘er easy,” had always been strictly taboo. He’d changed, possibly brainwashed, and I was going to get to the bottom of it.
In the spring I took a train up to his school, located in the heart of the most evil city known to man, New York. While there it took every ounce of strength I had not to punch out each and every Incubus-disguised-as-a-mailman I saw. I had to stay silent and hidden… no matter what had changed, Steve would sense I was close if I wasn’t careful.
I found him under a short tree in the quad of his campus. He was wearing the same thing I’d last seen him in, like a bad cartoon character, writing in a book with a plain red cover. I followed him all day. He went to class and I was the foreign exchange student with the mustache and sombrero behind him. He went to the bathroom and I was the one in the ceiling tiles sneezing from the dust. He didn’t suspect a thing. Or at least I thought he didn’t.
Later that night however, my worst fears were realized. Steve donned a black hoodie and went off campus. I followed him down the dark streets that seemed to get darker as we went. He was up to something, I was sure of it. He disappeared around a corner. I hurried after, but as I turned the corner I was confronted by two large men.
“Where are you going punk!?” One of the brute’s pushed me. From the strength I could tell he was either hoped up on Venom, or a mole person in disguise. They were trying to slow me down.
“Who are you working for!” I shouted at them, frustrated beyond being reasonable.
“What is this ass hole talking about?” They looked between each other for a moment confused, and that’s when I sprung at them. I delivered an elbow to the sternum of the bigger one, dropping him to his knees. Then I punched him in the face, which sent him the rest of the way down. However, the other one, having the drop on me, his muscles bulging with what was probably eighty percent Venom, picked me up by the jacket and threw me across the street, into the wall of the first national bank, sending bricks and various other debris flying. Then he cut his losses, picked up his friend and fled the scene.
As I lie there, recovering from the scuff, I cursed that Steve had gotten away. That’s when I noticed something lying on the ground. It was the Red book from earlier that day. He must have dropped it in his hurry. I opened it and began to read. It appeared to be a journal of Steve’s time at school. I flipped through various beard growing tables and illustrations of boobs to the most recent entry, which read:
Tonight is the night. After several long months of paying my dues I will be inducted into my university’s chapter of the Alpha Zeta Omega fraternity. Everything I’ve been working for is coming to fruition. Soon I will have 24 new brothers. I’m so excited I can’t even focus on my homework.
-Jimmy
He’d become an entirely different person. Since when did he go by Jimmy? Since when did he care about focusing on anything other than fighting evil. This “fraternity” had brainwashed him… No, it’s time to see the truth. After a long time of deluding myself I realized what was really going on. Steve hasn’t been brainwashed. He’s simply given into the temptations of evil. I wonder what it took to break him. Whether it was a promise of money, or power… I guess it doesn’t matter. Steve is no more. He’s Jimmy now. I took the journal with me back to the campus. After breaking into his room, I placed the book on his desk opened to the last page, and under his entry I wrote one of my own.
You’ve changed. You’ve gone somewhere I can’t follow for the first time in our lives. Don’t bother looking for me anymore. I used to play the game to have fun, to grow, but know that now I play to beat you, and to the exclusion of everything else. I promise you Jimmy, one day you will look up at me from your back, and know you are defeated.
-Ed
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