“Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”

-Buddha

The ambiance in the school library was completely sullen. One murderer, two pistols, three librarians, and four students laid motionless on the ground drenched in a puddle of coagulated blood. The ominous sound of police sirens became increasingly louder and louder with each passing moment, and an ambulance accompanied the police not far behind. They rapidly arrived to the scene of the crime. They rapidly arrived to the final manifestation of one teen’s internal boiling point. They rapidly arrived to Abraham Lincoln High School’s deadliest massacre ever. They rapidly arrived to witness the final tragic moments of the chaotic life of one Jack Bundee.

To fully understand the extent of the crime, one must delve into the deep layers of history that accompanied Mr. Bundee and his victims. The four students that were murdered were not chosen arbitrarily by Mr. Bundee, because this was no spontaneous school tragedy. He was a victim of incessant bullying which began back in his freshman year. Some kids usually commit something egregious in their adolescent years to ostracize themselves from their fellow peers, because relentless bullying doesn’t occur to just anyone. However, the sad fact of the matter was that Jack Bundee was a normal teenager with angst who happened to be a tad quirky and socially inept. Some people are not born extraverted socialites, and that shouldn’t be frowned upon, but embraced as a challenge to help them grow out of their shells.

Jack Bundee was a diffident man afraid of human interaction. Throughout his young adolescent life he was constantly abused by his stepfather to the point where he distanced himself from everyone. To be bullied by a peer was one thing, but to be verbally and physically assaulted by a family member was on another realm of disgust. His timidity and despair followed him into high school, where people immediately took to humiliation as a way of making him feel unwelcome. Day after day, week after week, and month after month went by where Bundee couldn’t find solace in anything, only further embarrassment and aggression. During lunch, he would go hide in his own sanctuary in the secret room of the men’s third floor bathroom where he waited for the period to end. In spirit, he counted the moments until his interminable life reached an explosive conclusion. Complete and utter apathy had finally set in, and the light at the end of the tunnel appeared distant at best.

The daily turbulence appeared to be a little much for Mr. Bundee. His proverbial walls had caved in. However, instead of turning to religion as a saving grace, he turned to an upperclassmen his sophomore year. Her name was Jill Dawson, but she was better known as Candy due to her affinity for sweets. Jack fell for Candy instantly, and her beauty gave him such emotional butterflies that she actually offset some of his internal anger. He first noticed her in the school library when she had trouble finding a book about the life of Buddha, so he hesitantly approached her. He introduced himself, and they seemed to hit it off. Two kindred spirits on the opposite ends of the social spectrum engaged in an hour long conversation. They talked a few more times in the weeks that followed. He opened himself up to her. He told her his life story. He came to trust her and dreamt of a day where they would be together at last, but it was unbeknownst to him that Candy had a boyfriend who just happened to be the starting quarterback of the football team. Although she yearned to graduate high school and get away from the kingdom of high school cliques, she knew it was in her best interest to cut contact with Jack. His lust turned into an unhealthy dose of public humiliation at the hands of the football team. For months on end, they tortured him. They teased him, beat him, and demoralized him to a point where the devil could be seen emanating from his eyeballs. Internally, he was an emotional volcano, patiently waiting to erupt. The more anger and displeasure that he contained, the more apathy he exuded to others. It appeared as if no end was in sight; no big break to shatter his loathing and misery.

Bullies tend to prey on people that they find to be inferior to their own selves. They feed off of trepidation and cause further resentment within their prey. So, when they find a prime suspect, they attack them like a banshee. That would explain why Jack Bundee was continuously harassed, but he honestly did not deserve any of the mistreatment that he received. It wasn't like he did anything wrong; it was just that he didn’t do anything right. It came to the point where he decided to attempt to commit suicide by the digestion of a lethal cyanide pill, which he bought off of the school‘s local rogue apothecary, but his mother stopped him before it was too late. His mom brought him to a psychiatrist who diagnosed him with depression and borderline personality disorder. The news that he needed a therapist soon reached his peers, and the egregious bullying continued once more at a rapid pace.

Jack Bundee began to research the Columbine High School massacre, and he found similarities between himself and the perpetrators of Columbine, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Bundee began to worship Harris and Klebold because he was captivated by their audacity to create their own version of comeuppance. He thought if they could do it, then why couldn’t he? They also were relentlessly bullied to the point where they just couldn’t take it any longer. They also didn’t turn to religion as an answer to their problems. They also chose to take the easy way out. Bundee went to his local firearms store and purchased two handheld pistols with the fake ID that he bought off the black market. The unfortunate event seemed to be inevitable. The last straw came on the Friday before the Monday massacre, when he was voted Homecoming King. He presumed that came out of nowhere, but unassumingly hoped the tide was slowly turning in his favor. As he timidly walked down the bleachers to accept his crown, arm-in-arm with Candy, he received a chorus of boos from the entire crowd. It was all one big joke. His peers thought it was all one big joke. His life was all one big joke. The tipping point had been reached.

The following Monday, he arrived to school around noon with pistols firmly entrenched in his trench coat. He coyly walked right into the library, where Candy, her best friend, her boyfriend, and his best friend all sat in a studious manner. Before anyone could react, bullets flied left and right. Bang! Bang! Bang! In a matter of seconds, he murdered the four studious students and the three surrounding innocent librarians. He proceeded to anticlimactically place a bullet in his own head to finally end the misery. Bang! The ambiance in the school library was completely sullen. One murderer, two pistols, three librarians, and four students laid motionless on the ground drenched in a puddle of coagulated blood. Time stood still as sirens could be heard blaring in the distance. The scene went dark as Jack's lifeless body cracked out one final smile and, somewhere in the recesses of his failed mind, the voice of reason applauded.