Chapter :The Evil

"Hell is empty and all the devils are here."

----William Shakespeare.

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18 years back.....

While leaning on the balcony of my Cimmerian penthouse, I watched the sunset over the horizon, heralding the inauguration of my labor.

It was always a form of labour to me, not some sumptuous service and yet it was a service of sort. Service of losing yourself and your consciousness for the sake of living. Thus far there were several instances where I felt like ending my life and ceasing this torment forever.

Punishing oneself is agony but traumatizing others that they would plead for mercy in the form of death is more plaguing.

The ghosts never abandoned me nor left me alone to repent and reflect on those crimes or sins even.

Sunsets to quite a handful of people signify something meaningful but to me, it's more of an expedition straight to the Tophet, i.e., the hell. Yet for some unknown reason, there I stood today, goggling at them mysteriously.

This morning I had an intuition as though a new adventure is about to commence in my wretched life. And somehow though, my heart today seemed to be settled and tranquil after so long that I even perceived the evening breeze enveloping me in a warm lush blanket making me feel as if I am enlightened by the blazing light at the end of the murky darkness.

Steadily I inhaled the cool fresh breeze which ruffled my hair, unaware, instead, I smiled leisurely to the nothingness beyond.

There I just stood relishing the cheerful moments from earlier times.

The one moment of contentment etched in my memory (apart from sleeping under the stars with my brothers) was the occasion when I stole the charcoal pieces to sketch a kid in the park with her parents watching her adoringly on a scrap of paper. I gave my best to implicate the scene before me. I wanted to capture it wholeheartedly because it was what I lacked and craved the most.....a family.

That day while I was engrossed in scraping the charcoals on the sheet, a shadow fell over me. As I peered up, I found a short stout man with shaggy hair smiling at me stealthily. And then he muttered out a few words obliviously,

" Beautiful but it still needs more work....".Soon he whirled around and never once he glanced back ...he just left his departing words that kept resonating in my head to date. Its meaning transpired to me a bit lately but I grasped the moral finally.

To have beautiful things in life, one needs to work hard and again skills worth it.

But unfortunately, shattering my moment of serenity, the doorbell rang as it echoed through the penthouse. Languidly I trudged my way to the door, my heart thumping frantically to announce evilness.

And there stood the Evil himself. Right outside my door.

Scowling at me he simply snapped, "Get ready, we have work to complete that I assure you, will please you immensely. "