A involuntary pact

"Be carefully, Smith, don't bend forward so much to read, otherwise you will knock something over," Jim could hear a voice say behind him. He hadn't to turn around to know it was Billy, the school bully, who was targeting him already. Bully's friends were laughing as Jim tried to ignore his mocking. "Hey, I'm talking to you," Billy said more angry and a moment later Jim felt how he was pushed forward. He struggled for balance for a moment before he felt over and knocked against the item in front of him. When he felt to the ground, he could see the vase, he just had examined, tumble and fall, almost in slow motion, from the table it was on.

Jim was 19 years old and it was the last year of his school life. He always had been a great student but that also gained him the reputation as a nerd. And Billy, the football captain, didn't liked more than bullying the nerds at their school. He and his goons stood nearby and laughed as Jim felt. Time stopped to be slow-mo when the vase hit the ground, shattering in thousand pieces. Jim watched with panic as a cloud of black dust blew into the air and settled down on him, making him cough. It tasted metallic in his mouth and he wondered what the vase, which had been sealed, contained.

"Hey, Smith, look what a mess you made," Billy said and laughed with his friends.

"Hey, idiot, leave him alone," a female voice called from the side and Jim looked over to the voice, seeing Ella, one of their classmates standing there.

"This isn't any of your business, Ella," Billy said and looked back at Jim. "The nerd probably thinks we will be easy on him the last weeks of the school year."

"You and your goons better get your asses out or I'll get the coach," Ella said. Billy looked at her for a moment, trying to decide if she was serious about it. Then he shrugged, looked angry at Jim for another moment and then signalized his friends to follow him out of the room.

"Everything alright?" Ella said as she came over and helped Jim up.

"I broke the vase when I felt," Jim said and looked down on the shards of the broken vase.

"I'd better get the coach regardless," Ella said and looked at Jim again. "You're definitely alright?"

Jim nodded and watched her disappear too.

Jim tried to brush the black dust of himself, as he could hear another female voice behind him. "Oh my god, what happened here?" He turned around and could see one of the guides standing there, staring at the broken vase. "You're going to pay for that," she screamed at Jim with a high pitched voice before she came over, ignoring him completely and just looking at the vase. "Delos' vase, a one-of-a-kind piece. Priceless." She turned around and looked angry at Jim. "The museum is going to sue your ..."

"SILENCE!" Jim suddenly could hear himself say. He felt how his lips moved and formed the command, but it wasn't him who controlled them in that moment. It was a strange feeling, as if some invisible **** raced through his body and towards the woman. "I'M NOT GOING TO PAY ANYTHING, WOMAN," Jim could hear himself say again and watch how the woman stared at him. Suddenly her eyes blinked in a weird way.

"Of course not, Sir," she said, "the museum is insured for such cases and the vase was only a less important exhibit. We can put something else up while our restaurateurs working on putting the shards together again."