This is only about a third of the story, the rest is part of Fate’s Darkened Beauty V1 #2.
In the 1960’s, a boy named Howard Jones was born. He didn’t develop like the other children and when his parents became concerned they took him to see a doctor. They found out he has a very rare disease that caused his bones to reabsorb into his body during adolescence. As he slowly disappeared into himself, he was subjected to ridicule and teasing by the other kids in his neighborhood and school. They made up stories that he was some kind of a monster that would come into your room at night and steal your bones. They would say to him, “Howard Jones will steal your bones. It is yours that he now owns. He’ll come for them while you’re in bed. He’ll take them all and leave your head.” Howard was tormented by this up until his body collapsed in on itself and he suffocated when he was sixteen. Even then, the kids would still write the saying and other cruel things on his headstone. His younger brother Harlan would clean off the headstone every day until his parents just couldn’t take the constant harassment any longer and had to move to another town.
Years had passed by but Harlan never forget about his brother and would make trips back to his hometown to visit his grave and clean off the graffiti. One day while he was visiting Howard’s grave, he saw that someone had actually tried to dig him up and wrote the old haunting saying that hurt him so much on his stone. He was overcome with grief because he realized this would never end and his brother would never know peace. His desperation filled the air as he wished there was a way to get people to just leave Howard’s grave alone, that desperation was picked up by something. As the light began to fade, a tall man in a hooded cloak approached Harlan. He said, “I can bring you your dreams and seek revenge if you like.” Harlan was numb to the world and didn’t seem to pay attention to the tall man’s orange eyes when he asked, “Oh yeah? How the hell can you do that? I just want people to leave him alone, that’s all.” The tall man laughed and replied, “I am known as the Dream Giver. At times, I collect only fear as payment and this can be one of those times.” Harlan scowled at the Dream Giver and said, “I’m not afraid of you, I have no fear to give you.” He laughed again saying, “No, it’s not your fear I’m after. I want the fear of those who hurt your brother.” Harlan looked him in his orange eyes and said, “I do want everyone that ever hurt him to feel the fear and the pain that he did but, how am I supposed to do that?” He removed his hood and cracked a smile then said, “I am the giver of dreams. If your wish is to exact revenge, I can give you what you need to do so. All you have to do is wish for the power and it will be yours.” Harlan thought about everyone from his childhood that picked on Howard and felt an anger unlike any he had ever felt before then he raised his head and said, “Fine! I wish I had the power to seek revenge on the assholes that messed with my brother. If you’re happy now, I’d like you to please go away. I have a lot to think about.” The Dream Giver Laughed once more, waved his hand and said, “Granted,” as his eyes glowed a bright orange.
Moments later, Harlan awoke in the graveyard next to Howard’s stone. “What the hell happened?” he asked himself, “Was it a dream?” Then his head began to hurt as it was crammed with information and memories that were never there before. One memory was burning in the back of his mind until he played it in his head like a movie. He saw the young men who dug the hole, he watched as the three of them wrote on Howard’s stone and urinated on it. He was filled with pure rage and had an idea of how to exact his revenge. Harlan blinked his eyes and was startled to find he was no longer at the grave site but in front of a house. Though he had never been there before, he knew exactly whose house it was. It belonged to one of the three teenagers that desecrated Howard’s grave. His name was Jim and Harlan knew exactly what he was going to do to him.
The next morning, when Jim woke up, he began to scream in shock and pain. His parents ran to his room to see what was going on and they found him still screaming in a blood soaked bed. The lower part of his right leg was split open and his entire tibia was removed. On the wall, written in blood was, “Howard Jones will steal your bones.” The boy was rushed to the hospital where the police began asking him questions like, if he had any enemies and if he knew what the writing on the wall meant. When he finally started talking, he yelled at the investigators, “Alright! It was Howard Jones that did it alright, it was a freaking ghost!” The officers there were confused by this so Detective Johnson asked, “Howard Jones did this? As in Howard Jones will take your bones Howard?” Furious, he replied, “Yes! My bone is gone, yes him! Me and my friends were messing with his grave and wrote on it a couple of days ago alright. I mean, he even wrote his name on my freaking wall, in my own blood. What am I supposed to think?” Detective Johnson wrote a few things on his notepad then asked, “You just wrote on the grave and nothing else? Are you sure about that?” He hesitated at first then said, “Well, we kinda tried to dig him up. Then we, uh, kind of peed on his grave.” The detective gave him a stern look saying, “Are you serious kid? If I were a ghost, I’d be pissed off too. Who were the other two boys you mentioned?” The pain in Jim’s leg began to creep in, “Um, I’m sorry officer, it hurts. I was with Joey Wright and Derick Marshal.” Just then the doctors came in to give Jim some more pain medication then he passed out.
Detective Johnson decided it would be a good idea to check up on the other two kids that were involved. He first stopped at Joey Wright’s home and knocked on the door. “Hello?” a woman answered, “Can I help you?” “Yes ma’am, I need to speak with a Joey Wright. Is he here?” Johnson asked flashing his badge. She replied, “Yes sir, he’s right upstairs sleeping. I’ll go get him for you.” He waited outside for a few moments until he heard the woman shrieking in terror and ran inside. Detective Johnson went to where the screams were coming from and opened the door to see Joey quivering face down on his bed.
j.r.fate 