DAY FOUR : A Clash of Thoughts

January 14TH

In the prison, seconds turned into minutes, minutes into hours, and hours into days. Each hour, each minute, each second of the nights was longer and profounder. Stoki became lately overwhelmed by regret.

Death seemed inevitable just as his pain turned inconsolable. At noon, the guards came and informed him of the result of the medical report. He tested negative for insanity

After the examination of his brain cells, mental health professionals found him psychologically ill; however, he was not considered legally insane. At dawn of the following day, he would be immediately executed.

"Don't be so sad my comrade. It's not your fault at all," the Devil said suddenly in the middle of the night "it's fate that wants you to have this terrible end .You can't escape your destiny because it's like your shadow, no matter how far you run ,you will always find it a step ahead of you"

"But we are the ones that create our fate, no!" asked Stoki

"Surely not, we are but dummies moved just as fate pleases," the Devil replied caressing his black beard as if trying to evince some wisdom, "it's only the trivial matters that are left for us to do in life. Every action we take is predetermined by the principle of causality. Most reasons are outside the self. So saying that we create our fate is only an illusory result of a previous series of inextricably linked causes or principles that have been internalized in your brain. You blindly go through life parroting that Man is the master of his world, you find it coherent with your reason , a long list of expectations experiences and criteria to measure the truthfulness of a case. You believe them and then you act upon them"

"No, I am not a puppy "Stoki reiterated angrily

"This is the most blindingly ingrained trick that fate has ever played over us. We are brainwashed into believing that we have a will because we don't see the invisible powers, not specifically God, that impel as to take the paths pre-destined to us. We hide under shades of freedom and free will. But if you were to propel a stone that were to be given reason and self-awareness, it would believe its whole life that it's flying out of its own will. The mind that you brag about is the shiny grass on which the trick is laid. You have not chosen to be a man or a woman, black or white or even basically to be alive. So how dare you say that you create a life that was imposed on you without one word of consent"

"That's right" replied Stoki in a submissive tone "there is no way out"

The atmosphere was blank as if Stoki had already died and the Devil was attending his funeral to communicate with his slumbering soul. A moment of quietness reigned before a sadden, strong, quavering voice with a serious tone broke the silence

"Of course there is"

Surely it was not the Devil. It was the Angel who jumped exuberantly into Stoki's right arm, swinging his white wings that made the room bright enough to see its contents, including Stoki with his gray clothing , his white-and-black bed ,an empty wooden bowl with scraps of dark bread around and a half-empty bottle of water on the uncarpeted floor.

Though the Angel sounded no better than he was, he put in all his power to produce powerful shreds of light that could, even temporarily, keep away the darkness that conquered the place for a long time. The Devil was in the left side and the Angel in the right one. A fierce battle had almost begun!

"As every cloud has a silver lining, as every illness has a way for healing, as every night has a day, every weary soul must have a chance to be redeemed from moral decay. It's never late to do the right thing. It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness"

The Angel's light was still struggling with the comeback, diabolic power of darkness. But it redoubled its beams as Stoki interacted positively with the well-chosen words of the Angel.

"I agree with every word you say" said Stoki immediately but hesitatingly in a manner that evinced scepticism

The Devil was confounded with what had just happened.

"If Stoki entertains strongly such poisonous ideas, the Angel will restore his stolen power and he may even eradicate me. I must stop this before he ruins everything" the Devil maliciously babbled to himself, then clapped his hands ridiculously before he retorted

"Good rhetoric, but what if the body of that soul was soon to perish. There is no time left for optimism. It's the end of the road, old bulb. It is the last night. Five hours and this game will be over" said the Devil stressing on the last sentence.

"It's not true – it's whole humbug" said the Angel

Stoki was not convinced. But it's no use arguing now. There are more serious things to think about, death.

The Angel had got now a difficult mission. He had to find a feasible way to root out the ingrained the evil at least to make Stoki's last moments righteous and benevolent.

"Look, Stoki," asserted the Devil addressing Stoki but steadfastly staring at the Angel, "first your God doesn't love; otherwise, you wouldn't be here. Second, you didn't have the chance even to live with neither your dad nor your mum as most people do. You spent your infancy in the orphanage and no one came even to foster you as most of other orphans. At the age of 18 years old, they threw you to the street because you were able to work. Rich families exploited you after toiling in their fields. No nutritious food, no high wages. Remember the long, cold nights and the suffering, the agony and the poverty that accompanied them. At the end, you were convinced by my suggestions to change your life path. You, finally, made your mind to take vengeance on every rich, every supporter of the rich and every person that honoured the rich," the Devil posed because Stoki was shedding tears .

The Devil intentionally wanted him to remember the painful past and stir his emotions.

"Why me?" shrieked Stoki. "People are not fair, fate is not fair, and life is not fair."

The Devil rejoiced because the Angel's light returned dull by now.

"Life is not fair" said the Angel quietly

"With one whisper I managed to demolish you both" the Devil sneered slyly at Stoki and then at the Angel, "is that all what you've got, old bulb"

"Life isn't fair," repeated the Angel with hoarse, higher-pitched voice this time, "but because it is, in a way or another, unfair for everybody, it is fair for everybody. Life is not a place for an everlasting joy where people can have whatever they want; life is like an open-door school where everyone is obliged to enrol at the very moment of one's first natural cry.

"Life keeps pushing you around and around to teach you how to mount up and uplift yourself. It is a school that hires no instructors because everyone remains a student from grade to grave. Each one has unlimited chances to blossom, but the bulk of people allow circumstances to diverge their way from happiness. Life's tests always aim at empowering you, upgrading you, and making you the best version of yourself and not a mere copycat. Some succeed, but some prefer to cheat in the test; they go after shortcuts to reach fast; they want to mount to the highest stories without struggling with the stairs. They cherish the way that's packed with evil pitfalls , which are furnished with attractive, shiny roses and delicious fruits. But as soon as they fall into one of them, they , regrettably, find out that the seemingly innocuous roses and the yummy fruits were dipped in poison" The Angel looked alternately from Stoki to the Devil , from the Devil to Stoki, then fixed his gaze at Stoki and roared out loud

"And when they get lost, they ask WHY ME. After so many classes in this school, it's a pity that you have not even learnt how to ask the right questions. Instead of asking WHY ME, ask WHY NOT ME, ask HOW TO FIND THE REAL ME. Accept the test and say loud and proud TRY ME"

Stoki was magically pacified by the Angel's impressive speech. He was like a crying baby yearning to suckle after a long time of gnawing hunger. He listened intently to every word without any disruptive gesture.

All in a sudden, he again looked sad, darker than he was. The speech made him grieve more as he eventually realised that he was but a victim of the Devil's manoeuvres.

"That's untrue, I will not stand quiet while I am spoken to like that. That's a naked smear, a blatantly glaring lie, an unjustified claim. I didn't compel you to do anything, I'm innocent. I suggest and you are free to act. you have the utmost latitude to reject or accept, approve or disapprove . Stoki, you are accountable for your misery. I have no involvement"

"It's your influence that sway people into acting as if they were independently aware of what's going on." replied the Angel in the same roaring tone

Unexpectedly ,Stoki stood up , turned right , and pointed his index at the Angel as if to say that he was also implicated in the manoeuvre

" But where were you all this time ? Why didn't you make the truth clear like crystal as you are doing now. It's your duty to guide not to nag or brood ".

"You can guide a horse to the water , but you can't make it drink. I talked , suggested, promised, infered ,advised, asserted, commanded, adjured, warned, urged, alerted , shouted ,but you never listened. The enlightened ways were , to quote you, expensive, time-consuming and boring . The darker ones, on the other hand , were easier, shorter , and more viable . You never noticed that a very simple sign of favouritism toward the Devil's suggestions weakened my power and strengthened his . Every single devilish choice you made delibitated the effectiveness of my help and undermined the light coming from within."