Homeless Man

David and John were typical high school miscreants. Destructive youths and members of the high school football team, the pair was a dangerous powder keg of testosterone.

When they were not busy tormenting the chess club or giving wedgies to the slower band members, David and John enjoyed their second favorite—second to football, of course—extra curricular activity: bullying the city’s homeless. They were infamous for it.

In the past, the duo’s efforts were little more than petty. They would tip over the shopping carts or set fire to cardboard boxes, often times with their occupants still inside them.

This particular day, however, the pair decided to take their mischief to the next level. Going into their father’s garage, they found a large gasoline can. After they carefully poured a small amount of gasoline into a bottle, they made their way into town. When they found a homeless man rambling to a wall covered with symbols, written in what looked like blood, they knew they had found the perfect mark.

They ran up to him and splashed the man with the liquid and lit him on fire. They ran off as he burned alive, cursing at them as they fled.

That night, when in bed, the two chatted about their deed. They had a good laugh until they heard a noise coming from outside their bedroom.

John, figuring it was his father, opened the door to make a snide comment to him. When he opened the door, however, he was greeted not by his father, but by the homeless man they had torched earlier in the day.

Before the two could process what was going on, the man splashed them with the remaining gas from the can.

The next thing they knew, they were waking up in the hospital, burnt beyond all recognition. As a result of the fire, both David and John’s vocal cords were damaged severely. Being unable to talk, and having no relatives to claim them, they were soon set out onto the streets, homeless.