Evil Opportunity

"Mr. Ulvi... Perhaps I couldn't make my point." the doctor said angrily. "We seem to be miscommunicating. So, I am asking you again; where is the girl? She needs my help, and I need hers!"

"This is none of your business, doctor." Mr. Ulvi said. "Now, go before something bad happens."

"I literally HAVE TO see her! She and the village may be in danger!" the doctor shouted. In the aftermath, I've heard a few loud sounds. From what I heard, I guessed that Doctor Hayati tried to get past Mr. Ulvi using brute force. They were now fighting physically.

"You villain!"

"Heartless felon!"

Just after the insult exchange, someone managed to land a pretty good punch on another, but I didn't know who it was... until the doctor started moaning and coughing.

"Oh no." I said.

The fight continued after a small stand-down. I heard the noises moving to another room inside the house. Soon afterwards, sounds of crashing crockery joined them. Lots of glass-ware shuttered, wooden chairs and whatnot hit the walls - and hopefully not the people.

Maybe if I was fast enough, I could use this chance to escape.

I stopped trying to listen to the fight through the door and pressed the door knob down. Only then I remembered again that the door was locked, and this was why I had not attempted an escape by myself so far.

At that moment, the house's main door opened.

"If I see you around doctor, next time, you are dead!" Mr. Ulvi yelled.

"Oh no!" I was more scared than ever now. I didn't know what Mr. Ulvi was planning to do to me, because notifying the doctor of my existance was a very obvious escape attempt.

The house's outside door closed again, and I heard footsteps closing up on the room I was in.

I got away from the door. It got unlocked, and opened.

After many hours, I could see some light again... and Mr. Ulvi's ugly face. He looked at me. I didn't look back at him, but kept him in the corner of my eye.

He spat at me from the door. His spit didn't make it all the way to me and landed about halfway between us.

"I can't believe you." he said. "Perfidious little pest!"

He closed the door.

"That wasn't so bad..." I sighed and relaxed.

The door was opened again.

"No food unless you deserve it." he said. Before he closed the door, I spoke.

"You could've just given him the note and that would be enough to make him go away in peace for now." I said.

"You think you are clever, huh?" Mr. Ulvi said. "I don't want him to just leave me alone. He can't stay in this village."

He turned around to close the door on me, but stopped.

"You know what I will do to that note?" he said. "It will fuel tonight's fire."

"W-what!? NO!" I shouted. "You can't do that!"

I ran towards him without thinking. He smacked me away with a stick that was conveniently placed just outside the door, for this exact purpose. I fell on my hips.

He closed the door without saying anything else, and locked it. I ran to the door and started punching it.

"If you do that, the village will never forgive you!" I cried.

"Shut up or your soul will go unhallowed, little witch." he said.

I stopped trying. There was no point trying to fight him. I could save my energy for something better.

I searched for the hole I have carved in the wall. My small piece of bread was still there. I was relieved a bit, since I most probably wasn't going to get another ration for quite a while.

Just then, I heard some squeaking behind me. I knew that this was the sound rats were making. There was at least one now, somewhere in the room. I started searching in the dark room, not with my eyes obviously, but my hands and feet. This would make a lot of people uncomfortable, but it was nothing compared to what I've seen and done while serving my father like a nurse. I could pretty much stand seeing or touching anything with little disgust - unfortunately, in the eyes of uneducated, primitive villagers who were blindly following their self-made religion, this was just adding to the idea that my father and I were some sort of demons.

The rat was moving around, like it was searching for something.

"Do rats eat bread?" I asked myself. If so, my piece of bread could be in danger.

I found my little storage hole again and put my hand inside to get the piece of bread out. But the thing I was holding wasn't the bread, it was the rat. I didn't let it go.

"Is it possible to eat rats? And is it even worth to begin with?"

Strange questions were occupying my mind, but these were the only sorts of stuff I could think of with an almost empty stomach.

The rat was trying really hard to escape, but I was undoubtedly much stronger than that poor creature. I had made sure that it couldn't bite me in the position I was holding it, so I was mostly safe.

"Wait..." I said. "I've got a much better idea."

Holding the rat with one hand, I proceeded to go on with a most disgusting and evil plan in my head.

Before handing my father's note to Mr. Ulvi, I had read the disease's description myself (although with a lot of hardship since I had no formal school education). Contrary to my father's hopes before leaving me to our neighbour's hands, judging by what he wrote, there was a good chance I already had that disease myself, although there were no clear symptoms yet.

The disease was almost guaranteed to be transmitted through bodily fluids. And since other mammals like cows were not immune to it, there was every chance that rats would not be immune as well. In my case, if I had the disease, it was going to take quite a while before the disease reached lethal stages, because I wasn't subjected to such high doses of the 'transmitting agent' like my father and a few other people did (as well as our neighbour's cows).

But either way, I was really seeing the perks of being the child of a well educated man; well, the only man in the village with any education beyond middle school.