The boy who made them disappear

There was once a boy named Lucas who lived in a small, dilapidated town by the edge of a vast, fog-cloaked forest. The town, with its weathered houses and cobblestone streets, was barely a speck on the map. But for Lucas, it was home, and he didn't mind its quiet, eerie atmosphere. He had always been different, though he didn't know it at first.

Lucas had pale skin, striking blue eyes, and a mop of brown hair that hung over his forehead in messy strands. He was small for his age, and though he was only ten, his demeanor often seemed older, almost wise. But that wasn’t what made him stand out in the small town. It was something far darker.

He never talked much to the other children. Most of them avoided him, not out of fear, but because they sensed something off about him, something they couldn’t quite place. And the adults? They were even more wary. They'd smile at him, their eyes lingering too long, like they were trying to figure him out—but not in the way a friend would. It was as if they were afraid to really look at him, afraid of what they might see.

One afternoon, Lucas was sitting on the edge of the forest, watching the trees sway as a thick fog rolled in. The air smelled of decay, like the earth itself had forgotten how to breathe. He was alone, of course, because that was how it always was. He liked the solitude. It gave him space to think, to experiment.

It was then that Mrs. Cragg, the town's librarian, appeared. She was an older woman, bent with age, her back hunched as though the weight of the world had settled on her shoulders. She was one of the few adults who had never been outright unkind to Lucas, but that didn’t mean she understood him. She had always been curious about him, and that curiosity would soon lead her down a path she could never return from.

"Lucas," she called softly, her voice crackling like dry leaves. "What are you doing out here all alone?"

Lucas didn’t look up immediately. He could feel her presence, though. Her heavy shoes scraping against the ground. He let her approach, just long enough to stand next to him.

"I’m thinking," he said, his voice barely more than a whisper. "About things."

Mrs. Cragg gave a soft laugh, though it was laced with uncertainty. "About what things, dear?"
He turned his head slowly, his striking eyes locking with hers. The way he looked at people, the way his gaze seemed to pierce through them, was always unsettling. It wasn’t just that his eyes were piercing—there was something in them that made people feel exposed, as though he could see their very souls.

“I think I can make people disappear,” Lucas said simply, his voice as calm and unbothered as if he were speaking about the weather.

Mrs. Cragg blinked, taken aback. "What do you mean? Disappear how?"

Lucas didn’t answer right away. He simply stared at her, watching the confusion spread across her face. He could hear her heart race. He knew she didn’t believe him. But that was fine. He wasn’t expecting her to.

"I don’t like people sometimes," he continued, his voice low, "and when I don't like them, they disappear."

Mrs. Cragg stepped back, her eyes widening in disbelief. "That’s... that’s not possible, Lucas. People don’t just disappear."

The boy didn’t smile. He never smiled. But his eyes softened in a way that was even more unnerving than if he had grinned.

“I’m telling you, Mrs. Cragg,” he said, his voice gaining a strange edge, “when I don’t like someone, I can make them vanish. Like they were never here at all.”

Before she could respond, a shadow moved in the distance. A figure emerged from the fog—a man, tall and broad-shouldered, wearing a black coat. It was Mr. Hawthorne, the town's mayor, a man Lucas had never liked. Mr. Hawthorne was a cruel man, and he enjoyed making life difficult for everyone in the town. He’d made sure that many of the children in the town, including Lucas, had no access to the things they needed.

Lucas felt a ripple of something in the pit of his stomach. It was a surge of anger, a tightening of his chest. He didn’t like Mr. Hawthorne at all.

"Hello, Mrs. Cragg," the mayor said, his voice booming across the fog-filled field. His eyes, narrow and calculating, turned to Lucas. "And how is our young... genius today?"

Lucas felt the words pierce him like a knife. He hated the way Mr. Hawthorne always looked down on him. Always mocked him, like he was nothing more than a nuisance. It didn’t help that the mayor seemed to take pleasure in bullying the quiet, awkward boy.

“I’m fine,” Lucas muttered, his voice low. “I’m just thinking.”

The mayor stepped closer, a smirk tugging at his lips. “Thinking? What’s a little brat like you even know about thinking?”

It was too much. The anger inside Lucas began to swell, swirling like a storm in his chest. He felt something stir within him—a power, a presence, a dark, cold force that seemed to rise from the depths of his very soul.

Without thinking, Lucas fixed his gaze on the mayor. And then, without a word, he willed it. He wanted Mr. Hawthorne to disappear. He wanted him gone. Gone, like all the others who had wronged him.

Mrs. Cragg stepped forward, her face drawn with concern. “Lucas, stop—”

But it was too late.

The fog around them thickened, swirling like a living thing. The ground beneath their feet seemed to tremble, and then—without a sound—Mr. Hawthorne simply vanished. There was no flash of light, no sound of a door slamming shut. One moment he was there, towering over them, and the next, he was gone, as if he had never existed.

Mrs. Cragg’s breath caught in her throat. She reached out, her hand trembling as she searched the empty air where the mayor had stood moments before. “What have you done?” she whispered, her voice laced with terror.

Lucas didn’t answer. He just stared ahead, his bright blue eyes blank, as if the disappearance was no more than a simple trick. But deep inside, there was a flicker of something darker—a feeling of satisfaction, a sense of power that he had never known before.

The fog began to lift, and the world returned to its quiet, eerie stillness. But there was a weight in the air now, a strange, palpable silence that hung heavy over the town. Mrs. Cragg looked around, her heart pounding in her chest.

"Where did he go?" she asked, her voice trembling.

“I told you,” Lucas said softly. “I can make people disappear.”

At that moment, the woman understood. She understood in her bones what Lucas had done. What he was capable of. She had heard rumours over the years, whispered stories about children with unnatural gifts, children who could warp reality with their minds. But those were just stories—nothing more than folklore.

Now, she knew they were real.

Mrs. Cragg stepped back, her face pale as she backed away from him. “You... you can’t just make people disappear like that, Lucas. It’s wrong. You’re... you’re not supposed to have that kind of power.”

Lucas turned his gaze back toward the forest, the fog now retreating into the trees. "I didn’t do anything wrong. Mr. Hawthorne deserved it."

Her voice shook as she tried to reason with him. "But you can’t go around—"

“I can do whatever I want,” Lucas interrupted, his voice flat. “I’ve always been able to. And no one can stop me.”

And so it began.

In the days that followed, adults in the town started to disappear. One by one, they were taken without warning. At first, it was small things. A neighbour who was always rude to Lucas—gone. The grumpy store clerk who always scolded him—vanished without a trace. People talked, but no one knew why or how it was happening. They whispered rumours, but none of them dared to speak openly about the boy who was always watching from the shadows.

But deep down, they all feared him. Because they knew, deep down, that Lucas was capable of more than they could ever imagine. And the more he used his power, the stronger it grew. Every time someone wronged him, every time they ignored him or belittled him, he grew darker, colder, until there was nothing left but the desire to erase them all.

In the end, the town became a ghost town. There were only a few people left—those who had always been kind to Lucas, those who never questioned him, those who had made him feel like he belonged. But the others? They were gone. And they would never return.

For Lucas, it was a world that was his to shape. A world where no one could hurt him, where no one could look down on him. He had everything he wanted, everything he needed.

And all it took was a thought.
 
Source: Some or all of the content was generated using an AI language model