255. Made in Heaven Part III

"I... was once a good man." Stefan looked into the cosmos.

"I wonder... Was it madness that made me... or was it sanity?

The world is a chaotic one, but who made me?

Either way... wherever I was made... I was-..."

Miguel stares at the cosmic nothingness.

"Here's a thought," said Miguel.

"'Why would you want to disappoint someone who loves you. You, who are as insignificant as a speck in the infinite worlds, were chosen by someone and loved by someone, why would you want to disappoint them?'"

"Yet, in the end, no one loved me. So I normally disappoint everyone.

How awful is the man who relies only on faith... because there is a chance that they would lose... and when they do, they would brush it off as a time where they didn't have enough faith. I tell you, brother or sister, you've had so much faith in that thing or person or whatever... I believe you did. Don't you ever tell otherwise..."

"How much more awful is the man who relies on faithlessness... because there is a chance that they would win... and when they do, they would brush it off as luck or a coincidence. I tell you, brother or sister, you've had no faith in that thing or person or whatever... Yet... you should've... What a waste..."

"When I was a child, I always thought that objects would talk to me since I didn't have any other friends. I watch that one non-Disney film I think... 'The Courageous Little Toaster' or whatever... and I'd pretend that my friends were these objects. They would talk to me while I stayed quietly listening to the silence of their laughter."

"I would pretend that my toys were my friends. The objects would then be like some sort of ecosystem of different beasts in this imaginary world of mine. Toys wouldn't be able to breathe outside the house and would need made-up space suits."

"Here's a thought... I would also take swims in the brook nearby... naked... because I want control over my body... Because for once... I finally have control over my decisions... not tainted by hatred of these normies... as you and Zed called them..."

"I hated them, too... But... You don't need to hate them... not anymore."

"Now... I was a lonely child. One time, I had a pet snail. However, my stepfather yelled at me because his friends kept eating his garden, so he stepped on Snaily. I cried, watching his body get crushed by his feet. I threw up afterward."

"Weird... I never had Grandparents... But I remember Dad forcing me to read books about law and stuff just to be a lawyer he always wanted..."

"When I was a tween-ager, they would laugh at me because I smelled bad. They would mock me, saying that I should take baths more, but no one believed that asthma was a thing. That's around the time I met you, who had the same condition as me."

"Boy were high school kids awful... I remember them punching the wooden walls of our school whenever they get 'stressed' in school."

"Remember when we roasted them by calling them Rhinoceros Rexes?"

"HAHAHA!!! Normies are Non-Sentient Dinosaurs..."

"I... I hated them for what they did to me... beating me... kicking me... Laughing at me..."

"I remember when they used to ring coins near my ears... Remember my disorder?"

"Yep... Miso Ramen?"

"Misophonia... Normies wouldn't believe that I had a mental disorder when they would make annoying sounds... Also had auditorial defensiveness... That didn't help...They'd call me 'liar' when I didn't react when the room is too loud. They didn't believe my explanations... Caused me to gain depression at a young age... I actually was diagnosed by my therapist..."

"Yeah... I hate these people..."

"No... Don't hate them, Stephen..."

"Why?"

"Because they don't deserve to be hated... These people are what they are... people... They fear what they don't understand... and therefore hate what they fear..."

"They were scared of us?"

"Creeped out... Yes... I know... We didn't deserve it..."

"EXACTLY!!! IT ISN'T FAIR!!! THEY BULLIED US BECAUSE WE WERE DIFFERENT, MIGUEL!!! FOR GOD'S SAKE!!!"

"Stephen... You're in danger..."

"In danger? Quoting Goddamned Walter White... I am the Danger. The world feared us and made us... Society made us, Miguel! Society created us! Call it 'cringe', but society makes its own flaws! We are its flaws! Society then tried to snuff us out! But here we are... rising as gods and rulers!"

"Stephen... We didn't deserve it... I agree with you! We deserve nothing that we've received from them! But that doesn't mean you have the right to take out everyone. You have no right to do this to literally everyone we ever knew! Believe me! You were my only friend before I met them!"

"And they broke us up! Them! We're victims of them! They turned us against each other! These normies! These people who you fight for! We do not deserve this treatment! Heck! You fought for them and what did you get? Mockery!"

"Stephen..."

"And when you bring them back, believe me! They would hate you just like before! You're a villain in their eyes! Even after everything you've done for them!"

"Stephen..."

"Served them! Did everything for them! And you weren't even invited to a simple Christmas party!"

"This sounds like it's targeted on me..."

"I-I didn't... mean..."

"Stephen... You may be an alien... But you're like us... You grew up with us... You're human... You feel bad... You act out on your emotions... You think like us! Please! Don't do this! They're just people who are acting according to their instinct!"

"So that's your defense? The world is overridden by animals? What is this? Animal Farm? You're the pig? You know what happens to the pig, right?"

"Stephen, please!"

"You're only defending them because you don't care about anything that they did to you! To the people you loved!"

"What!? NO!!! GOD, NO!!! All I've ever wanted was to be the bad guy... Take my revenge and destroy their lives... That was my original plan. Why? Because I deserved better."

"So, why didn't you!?"

"BECAUSE I SAW MYSELF IN THEM!!!Ever since I saw Tyrone get beaten by his buddies bigger than him! Ever since I watched my enemies have their lives ruined by the rest of the world as well! So I didn't hurt them! My real enemies, however? The people who acted awfully? I took their lives..."

"But you knew that they went through worse than you..."

"Yeah... But that doesn't mean they have to take innocents' lives as well to get what they want. Like you. That's why I'll murder you, Stefan."

"You don't see yourself in me, Miguel!? Really!? I AM THE SPITTING IMAGE OF YOU, JOJO!!! WE WENT THROUGH THE SAME AWFUL LIVES!!! WE WERE REJECTED BY WOMEN... BULLIED BY THE HANDSOME JOCKS... LAUGHED AT BY HOT GIRLS FOR HAVING TINY PENISES!!! WHAT MAKES US ANY DIFFERENT FROM EACH OTHER!?"

"I didn't give in to my ego, like you... I let it go... Because I don't need it anymore. I am not pathetic and desperate like you are, who never turned away from his rage and decided to use that rage for awful things! We were both rejected but I didn't piss on everyone for it."

"YOU WILL BATHE, IN MY DARKNESS!!!"

"And you will bathe in my light."

"You... You think that you are so heroic! In the end, you are just an outrageous and pathetic loser... looking for a purpose... You have no purpose! The world owes you its time! You were rejected constantly by this cruel Universe and you just take the beating like fucking usual! That's what you are! A fucking Lightning Rod who absorbs every tomato tossed into your face! You're a loser, Miguel! Keep taking the beating and see how this all ends!"

"You're right! I don't deserve this! But taking your revenge isn't right either because they don't deserve this! What you did is wrong and you know it!"

"Silence!"

"You have only one word left to say because you know that I'm right and you're wrong!"

"THERE IS NO RIGHT AND WRONG!!!"

"Says the idiot who thinks hot girls owe you an orgy for rejecting them!"

"FUCK OFF!!!"

"You're just a loser who was rejected and thinks that he would be rewarded for pretending to be some sort of Messiah! Guess what, Stephen!? You won't get rewarded for anything you've ever done!"

"YES, I WILL!"

"Yeah! By a fake world filled with fake people with fake feelings and fake memories made by a fake god!Face it! The way you act now means you deserved their treatment!"

"I just want SOMEONE TO LOVE ME!!!I... I DESERVE LOVE, TOO!!!" sobbed Stephen. 

"You'll find it... just stop-..."

"NO!!! DON'T YOU GET IT!? MY STAND DISABLES EVERYONE TO BE VULNERABLE TOWARD ME!!! I'M A WALKING TALKING UNLOVABLE SKUNK WHILE AT LEAST YOU HAVE SOME PEOPLE WHO LOVE YOU!!!"

"That's why you took everything away from me!? CRAB MENTALITY!?"

"What!? NO!!!"

"YOU KILLED EVERYONE I LOVED TO EQUALIZE THE GODDAMNED PLAYING FIELD!!! YOU PULLED ME DOWN INTO YOUR SORRY... LONELY... DARK ABYSS WHICH YOU DESERVE TO FUCKING WALLOW IN LIKE A LIFELESS SKELETON YOU ARE!!!YOU WELP!!!"

"I DESERVE LOVE, TOO!!! IT ISN'T FAIR THAT YOU GET SOMETHING THAT I DON'T!!! I HAVE NOTHING!!! I WAS WRITTEN TO HAVE NOTHING!!! I NEVER... WANTED... THIS!!!"

"Written? What!?"

"Don't you see!? WE'RE JUST CHARACTERS IN A GODDAMNED AWFUL BOOK WRITTEN BY AN AWFUL PERSON WHO WANTS NOTHING MORE THAN AN AUDIENCE TO WATCH THIS SOB STORY!!! AND BOY ARE THEY GETTING A TREAT!!!"

Not really... No one's reading this.

"WHILE WE'RE HERE AS ETERNAL SLAVES!!! OBJECTS FOR THEIR ENTERTAINMENT... FORCED TO LIVE AWFUL LIVES BY THESE SADISTIC READERS!!! WE MEAN NOTHING TO THEM, JOJO!!! NOTHING!!! AND HERE YOU ARE THINKING THAT EVERYTHING ENDS OKAY FOR EVERYONE!!! NO!!! I'M THE ONE WHO GETS THE SHORTER END OF THIS OMNIVERSAL SCHTICK WHILE THE WHOLE WORLD GIVES NO SHITS ABOUT MY DESTINY!!! TO BE THE LOSER EVERYONE HAILS TO!!!"

"THEN LET ME CHANGE YOUR DESTINY!!!"

"NO!!! THAT IS FATE!!! THE FUTURE IS ALREADY WRITTEN!!! I WILL... JUST THIS ONCE... WIN EVERYTHING WHILE YOU WILL ALL DESPERATELY CLAW OUT OF THE GROUND AND PRETEND TO FEEL SORRY FOR ME WHEREAS IN REALITY... YOUR FATES ARE IN MY CLUTCHES!!! I AM... STEFAN!!!"

"Then... it's final... We'll stop you."

"TRY!!! I FUCKING DARE YOU!!! I CAN OFFER YOU INFINITE DEATHS!!!"

"I'll kill you, Stefan. I will..."

"YOU DON'T DESERVE THIS!!! WHY WILL WE HAVE TO FIGHT WHILE THE WHOLE WORLD DOESN'T GIVE TWO SHITS ABOUT US!!? WHAT AN AWFUL FATE OF LITERALLY HAVING NO ONE LISTEN TO ANYTHING YOU'D HAVE TO SAY!!!"

"It's not a horrible fate, Stefan... It's blissful... Because if the whole world doesn't care about what you'll say... If the whole world just tramples over you... Then you'll get the last laugh... because it's their loss that they'd have no idea how beautiful you really are and how much you matter to them..."

"SHUT UP!!! I WILL NOT BE INSULTED... THIS... WAY!!!"

"Those who think criticism is an insult are idiots because they'd never get better."

"This... isn't fair... Why am I not... you...?"

"Because nothing is fair, Stephen... Hell... I wish I was you... Killing everyone while you're the one who has to be the hero and I get to take revenge ON EVERYONE THAT BROKE ME!!!But I chose to be better...And... you chose the kill button... We are who we choose to be... And that is the indicator of our fates.Either choose what's right or wrong... Shit... This is why I hated school... Because they score you about how good you are at everything... Well, guess what? We aren't good at everything... We're just who we are... Society scores us based on how we should act... But we're just... who we are... Beautifully weird... We're not the most skilled... we're not the best person... we're not the best at writing... drawing... math... we're all... beautifully weird and different... And you agree with me... right? We have control over our destinies... all of us... Because we're all equally weird to each other and we're all scored based on how weird we are... So maybe... if we all just work together for once and put aside the scores given to us based on our traits... then maybe... we don't have to fight over stupid shit like oil or land anymore... We don't have to fight over stupid shit like destroying this Universe... if we accept who we are and what is given to us... then maybe... just maybe... we'd stop...I have faith that the world... could put aside these differences... that's what I've always fought for, Stephen..."

"Beautifully convoluted, JoJo... But I do agree... But I just can't get over the fact that I have to win for once...I have to have... what others already had... what I didn't have..."

"That jealousy... That very jealousy toward others... caused this war... We envy each other, Stephen... Can't we just stop and let go of something so trivial?"

"No."

"Then... I apologize... But I'll have to kill you..."

"So be it..."

"I'm sorry it has to be this way..."

"I'm sorry, too."

Miguel turns from looking at the stars...

So did Stefan...