Never Lose

            “But… I need my spleen.” Timothy said, rather timidly.  The other kids snickered at his response to their demands; His trepidation would soon yield, they felt.  One of the original accusers, one with those old sunglasses, stepped toward Timothy, out of the crowd.  His name was Blain.

            “See, Timmy, you don’t really need your spleen, we think.  We’re just tryin’ to run a little experiment to see if anyone would notice if we put it in a stew for Mrs. Cabbernackle and gave it to her tomorrow.  What are you, some kinda chicken?” and everyone started flapping their arms, making chicken noises, as was protocol for that remark.

            “But knives hurt, don’t they?  I accidentally cut my finger one time, and it hurt a lot.  It would hurt to stick it into my stomach.”  Why Timothy was gripping the knife harder, he couldn’t quite understand.  He had started out only holding it loosely, but his grip had tightened greatly since the encounter had begun.

            “Yeah, it’ll hurt a little bit.  But spleens are so cool! They don’t do anything, but I saw one in this movie, and looked all gooey and stuff.  We need yours! You have the best spleen! I bet it’s all clean.”  Blain finished his argument by poking Timothy in the stomach a few times.  It didn’t make Timothy feel any better about what was going on, but it helped Blain feel alright. 

            A few kids behind Blain started chanting, “Do it! Do it! Do it!”, and within a few minutes, the whole crowd of children surrounding Timothy had joined in.  Their voices pounded into his head, depriving him of the chance to deny their will openly, and soon eroding away his will to oppose them at all.  After all, if they all wanted this, how could it be wrong?  With a sigh and a grim quasi-smile, he held the knife up for all to see, and drove it into his belly with every ounce of strength he had.  Timothy wanted to finish before he chickened out, but there was so much pain.  The next thing he remembered was waking up in a hospital, and that wasn’t for long.  He had succumbed to the will of others, and they destroyed him.