That was the last droplets of love on him, which stopped her from moving away after seeing the kind of evil he had become. She regretted for a moment that she should have never come been there to meet him. In the many years of her absence, he had never become the man she had wanted to be. The qualities in him, which she had hated evolved to make the rough and ugly evil out of him. She started feeling guilty for leaving him and not stopping him from becoming an evil.
"If you're thinking that you should not have left me, know this. There had been many incidents, which could have happened differently: You could not have left me; people could not have laughed at me; people could have been kinder to me; I could have been more tolerant; and so on", he said seeing her eyes, which had already reddened due to her emotions. The feeling of her own irresponsibility of being supportive to him, the hatred that he had acquired all qualities that she hated the most, the anger that she could not stop him, the pity that he had lost all his good character and many more feelings reflected on her eyes.
"But...", he continued after a pause and said, "Things just happened just in the way they were supposed to happen. It's everyone's nature to be whom they are and show what they are. It's my nature to show what I am. So, even this incident is happening this way, because it is destined to happen this way. Nobody can change it".
Something was stopping her mouth from opening. She tried her best to fight with the external force, but before she could open her mouth, her eyes gave up and started shedding tears. Her lower jaw dropped and she started weeping about how truthful his words were. At least she started believing that what he was saying was true, but she couldn't accept it. Her mind was blocked completely and she was about to faint. Her eyes closed and she was loosing her balance. The whole world was revolving around her, she could sense that she was falling, but she had no control over her body.
When the ears started losing their sense, they had heard that scary loud laughter that emerged from his mouth. The laughter was making her condition worse. Her hearing sense depreciated faster. She didn't give up this time. She stopped controlling her cry. Suddenly, her mind recovered from trauma and took back the control over her body. She wiped off the tears on her face and looked at him boldly. He was stricken by surprise that she had enough courage in her to face the evil inside him. After a moment, he started laughing at her again.
She shouted, "Stop it. Look at your face. Do you even remember how handsome your face used to be? Do you know what made me fall for you? It is the innocence in your face. Do you have any trace of that in your face now?" He went to the mirror and looked at him. He turned to one side to see the dark circle around his one eye and then to the other side. He saw how creepy his reddish eyes were. He tried to smile. For a moment, she saw that innocent smile in her face again, but still it was ugly due to his red eyes. The next moment, his eyes shrunk and his eyebrows came down to make the face scarier than ever. His lips broadened and rapidly a laugh emerged from his face. He looked vile than ever.
She still didn't give up. She knew that he always valued facts more than emotions. So, she started collecting the facts to prove him wrong, so that she could see that innocent smile again on his face. "See. You're right that things happen as they're destined to happen, but have you thought about yourself? Think about what you value more. You've always wanted to be the kindest person on the world. You got that thought, because you were the one, who was destined to have that thought. How many times have you cried on my shoulders thinking that you should have been a kinder person to me? How many times have you regretted killing that frog, which didn't intend to harm you?", she said in a caring tone. His face softened. The evil laughter in his face came down, and he started to listen her like a child and think over her words.
As his face started calming down, she wanted to capitalize on it by adding a few more facts. "See! You used to be a person, who can't even kill an ant. Remember what you've told when I asked about you?", she asked. His face showed the sign of deep thinking. In an excited voice, she continued, "Ant is afraid of us. It doesn't know what it is doing. It is just its defense mechanism. Humans are strong enough to bear this pain. We should have the mercy to let it live".
As she was telling that tears started overflowing from her eyes. Even the greatest evil of mankind would have turned merciful by looking her face. Slowly he shook his head and stopped. He seemed to have come to a conclusion. She started smiling with rolling tears as she saw that he was becoming calm.
"I can't, right? I can't", the words came out of his mouth. His face got reddened gradually and the anger started occupying his face again. "Yes. I can't", he shouted and continued in the angry tone, "I can't, right? I'll show you what I can. I'll show you that I can. I'll make you regret saying that. I'll show you what I can. I can show you what I can". He repeated these words in different tones.
The smile in her face vanished in a moment and her voice broke down. She couldn't rise her voice as she kept staring at the weird expressions that appeared on his face. He lost the eye contact and turned his eyes to ground, and started to walk around the same place. He kept saying, "I'll show you that I can". His voice had already come down, but she could still hear what he was saying.
After a moment of thinking how to bring him down, she held his and turned his face towards her. She said in a caring tone again, "Look! You really have to show me that you can, but you should know what you should show to me". "Ya! I don't know anything", he said. "No no no! I meant to there is something that I want you to do for me. For me. Won't you do it?", she asked.
He stood for a while with a confused face. She continued, "I know that you can. You were much more capable than what you think you are. There is something that you can do, which no one else can do. It is your tolerance. See. Everyone can kill an ant. You can also do it, but think about this. Is there anyone else, who can be tolerant with a steady mind and take the biting ant in the hands without hurting it? Can anyone do it? You alone can do it".
The deep thought phase continued in his face. She was in a dilemma whether to continue or not. He looked at her as if asking her to continue. She took care of her words this time not to tell anything negative to him. After a small thought, she continued, "You are the kindest person I have ever seen. You are probably the kindest person, the world would have ever seen. That is how capable you are. That is what you can do and that is what you should do. There is a lot more that you can do. Why are wasting your time in revenge, anger and other emotions".
He seemed to have moved by these words. His voice really came down. He asked, "OK. Now what are you asking me to do" in a mild voice. He looked like he got exhausted with his thoughts and waiting for her to clear his brain. With confidence she said, "Become that innocent man again. Let the world celebrate your temper and tolerance".
A sudden loud laugh burst out of his mouth. His laugh was sarcastic and he focused all his laugh at her. She could not understand anything. Her face went into a deep chaos. "Was he playing a trick with me? Will he even be so evil? Are does this mean something else with this laugh? Why is he taunting me? Has he gone mad? No. Why is he laughing at me? It is irritating", millions of thoughts kept running in her mind in a loop as he saw him laughing at her.
"Look at that face!", he said and continued laughing. He wanted to continue the sentence, but he couldn't control his laugh. He tried his best to take some breaks in between and uttered these words, "Innocent face... Innocent face... just look at that... innocent face... like a fool". His voice increased much and his laugh echoed throughout the room. Her body started shivering due to the vibrations created by the echo.
She went into a different universe were the laughing sound waves became invisible physical forces and started to compress her from all sides. She froze in her position as the layers of sound screens were compressing her. His face tore through the screens and approached her. From both sides, his hands tore through the screens and held her face. As the hands turned the face towards him, the screens started to vanish and she came back to the real world.
His angry face close towards her. He stared at her innocent face. His eyes showed glimpses of mercy for a fraction of second. He closed his eyes and opened them back like a hungry tiger looking at a trapped prey, which had no way to escape. He pushed her face back and gave an evil smile at her. She couldn't move for a while. The shock had paralyzed her for too long.
She could see that he started saying something, but her ears were totally silenced as she moved through different universes in a short span. Finally his sound started increasing and in a few seconds she could make sense of what he was saying. She heard the following: "Innocence. How foolish! Let me tell you a story. There were three kids in a place. One of them was me, of course! One of those kids bought a box of sweets. He wanted to share it with us. So, after eating his share, he kept two shares one for each of us. The other kid was readily eating the sweets when he was offered the share, but the poor I was busy with my own work. Before I could finish my works, I could hear from the kid, who bought the sweets that the other kid had eaten my share of sweets too. It was hurting that people were selfish and being a predator, and consuming other's shares also out of desperation. In a moment I came back to the understanding that the high priority work that I was doing needed a small sacrifice and I had taken the right decision. My theory about my loss was indeed convincing. When I went to the place where the sweets were placed, to my surprise the box was still present. It looked like someone had deliberately hiding the box from me, so as to irritate me. When I had approached the box, I had the feeling, "People in the world are actually kind. They just want to irritate me, but they have kept the share of sweets for me".
When I took the box in my hand, and opened it, I found that the box only had empty wrappers and no sweets. There was a loud laugh inside the room. It was from the person,who had eaten my share. He laughed at me, because I had been a fool in believing that they would even be kind to me. The laugh kept echoing on the walls. I was standing the same way you were standing now. I couldn't understand what was happening around me.
Suddenly I felt as if I was inside a cage in a zoo and the whole world was laughing at me. Then I was on a circus and the audience were laughing at me. The laugh kept echoing inside my ears even after he stopped laughing at me. He had the pride of depriving me of what I deserve to have and successfully making me trust that there was a hope of kindness in the world.
I learnt a lesson that day. I was not cheated because I was greedy. I was not cheated because I wanted to take off someone else's property. I was cheated because, I believed in people. I was cheated because what was required at the particular time. I was cheated out of the desperation of someone else. I was cheated because I was innocent."
It took some time for her to process the whole story. After that she replied, "Is that all bothering you? I'll make him apologize to you. Don't worry. I'll do anything for you".
He started laughing at her again. She couldn't take it anymore. She shouted, "Stop it". Before she could speak anymore he said, "That's exactly how it feels when someone laughs at you. And what did you say? You'll do things for me? Do you even believe that I'll ask you for a help? Or did you think that I'm so incapable of doing my own work? You don't have to do anything for me. I had already killed him, You should have seen how he begged for mercy. It was the funniest thing I had ever seen. He was funnier than how you're now".
She couldn't believe that he could behave that way. She felt that everything she believed about him was a lie. She started to feel that the whole world was made out of lies.
He looked at her confused face and continued, "Kindness doesn't exist darling! The world shows no mercy. If you're sick, the world feels happy that it is better than you. If you're a fool, the world won't empathize on you. Instead it would make you feel guilty for your incapability. The world doesn't know the difference between innocence and foolishness.
It's tiger's purpose to hunt. If it becomes tolerant and tempered, people would make it dance in a circus and have audience laugh at it. If the same tiger escapes the circus and turns towards the humans, they run away in fear".
"But what did you achieve by killing him? Did that change your past? Don't you think that your logic is made out of flaws", she asked in an angry tone.
"No. It didn't change the past, but it did change the future. Innocence makes you a laughter stock dear. People admire at the cheaters. They admire at the people who do scam. Have you ever seen anyone laughing at a criminal, a killer, a rapist, a terrorist? People simply hate criminals, avoid criminals, and at times become criminals. The world accepts criminals, but not the victims. This is the world of happy cheaters and humiliated innocents. Killing him did send a message to the world to not laugh at me anymore. This is how villains form. The society creates it's own sets of rules, which it never follows. I create my own rules and I strictly abide by them.
When the honest people become evil, it creates tremors in the dishonest society. They feel a serious threat for their unity and they do their best to kill the evil in the name of protection to common people. What they never understand is that they are the actual evils", he concluded his theory.
She was moved by what he had told, but she couldn't accept it. She started to find reasons to disprove his theories, but all she got was a set of memories. The memory when she got insulted and humiliated in her childhood for being innocent, the memory when he was waiting at her door crying and begging for her love when she was doing the terrible crime of cheating on him and many more memories that proved his theory that, when she was innocent, the whole world laughed at her, and when she did crimes, the same world had begged to her for mercy.
