Chapter 4: Monster (2)

"It's all your fault!!!"

"Huh?!" I was flabbergasted and stunned as I stood still with my mouth hanging wide open when Aila shouted at me whilst she pushed me violently away.

What did Aila mean when she said it was my fault and why was she being like this?!

I had noticed them sitting alone without interacting with the other kids at the park making me feeling bad for them. All the other boys were playing soccer with me and the other girls were playing house, so upon me seeing them sitting there alone by themselves, I grew worried for them and wanted to invite them to play with the others too. I wanted to be a responsible older brother by being nice to them just like my older sisters were nice to me, so I approached them and asked them if they weren't feeling lonely sitting there by themselves.

I lacked the essential tact required to approach a situation like this and due to my lacking experience, my concerned enquiry spoken at the wrong time using the wrong words came of as an insult to them. I have no doubt that at that moment, I probably looked like a jerk getting off on their misery and my question probably sounded like me trying to rub salt onto their wounds leading to Aila shouting at me and violently shoving me away.

Tears came unbidden to my eyes as the sheer absurdity of the situation overwhelmed my childish mind and emotions. What was so wrong about being worried about them? What was so wrong about wanting to play?!

My tears were akin to throwing fuel on an already smoldering flame as they served to enrage Aila even further.

"What right do you have crying and acting like you are the one being wronged when its ALL YOUR FAULT!!!"

She indignantly shouted at me.

By now, silence had invaded the entire playing ground as all the other kids had grown silent whilst staring at us. They too were probably perplexed by the sudden shouting as they also stood there too stunned to continue playing any games as they watched the situation unfold.

I felt so wronged at that moment that I broke down into tears and started loudly crying and this had an unforeseen negative effect on the overall situation.

Children of that age were still learning to live as a cohesive group or unit, so the bonds holding the group together were still strong and undiluted by the ulterior motive driven bonds found amongst adults.

At the age of four to eight years, kids were still relatively pure with their relationships being untainted by the seeking of benefits or the seeking of the protection and the sense of security found in a group. They instead segregated their groups based on who played with them and those who didn't.

I was part of those who played with them so I was automatically a part of them. My twin sisters were amongst those who didn't play with them and so they were seen as not a part of them.

When the kids noticed that I was the one being shouted at and was the one crying, they felt that 'outsiders' were picking on 'one of them' and so their immediate response was to 'protect' one of their own.

I could not stop what happened next when one of the kids I had been playing soccer with picked up a fistful of sand from the ground and flung it into Aila's eyes.

Aila shrieked as her eyes were painfully blinded by the sand making her stumble and fall to the ground. Upon noticing this, Aina, the older twin, tried to intervene and help her sister but all she got for her efforts was a rough shove by one of the bigger boys sending her tumbling to the ground.

"Leave him alone! Why are you bullying him?!"

The boy who had thrown the sand indignantly shouted.

Mob mentality remains an inherent part of our human nature fueled by our innate desire to conform and fit together into a group. It is only when we live for longer and gain a wider repertoire of experiences to draw upon that two thirds of people go against the opinions of a group as proven by the Asch conformity experiment, however, the group of kids on the playing ground had no life experiences to draw upon and since none of them wanted to be a social outcast, they merely followed the opinion of the dirt flinging boy and started to insult and jeer at my sisters labelling them as bullies picking on me as the victim.

I was too stunned and confused by the sudden turn of events to respond when one of the boys got violent and struck Aina across the face with a back-handed slap.

I was not enraged by the prior actions of Aila towards me since she was someone I deeply cared about and my family. Rather, I was very much saddened by her suddenly lashing out at me. Unbridled anger and violence from my sisters I could cope with by shedding my tears however, I could never stand for anyone getting violent with my sisters… they were MY FAMILY and no one was allowed to hurt my family… NO-ONE!!!

I had never fought anyone prior to this and I had never seen a fight in the whole six-short-years of my entire life so I did not have any experiences to draw from. I merely followed my instincts and did whatever they told me to without any knowledge that those instincts i was blindly following were far removed from any normal human instincts and since I was so young and green, I knew nothing about vague concepts like 'taking things too far' and 'showing restraint'.

My fighting instincts bore their fangs to the world for the first time in my life and there existed no restraint to hold them back from the complete and utter devastation they wrought upon those kids… What happened next would forever remain the greatest turning point of my entire life and the sole reason I began to get known and feared... as an extremely savage and absolute monster.