The Inner Evil

The revolt of the inner me...

The jerk and jolt of the halting train, distracted me from my vacuum dream. The curtains of my eyes opened into the stygian darkness of my compartment. I looked around, envying my coupe-mates who were sleeping like logs.

I scanned the platform for a sip of coffee, but my eyes paused at the sleeping figure of a poor, homeless girl. Her clothes were aggressively ragged and dirty, but still much tidier than the platform s**t she slept on. I kept gazing at her face. She was shivering, maybe of the northern winter, or maybe of fright. I found my metals of sympathy being severely magnetized by her woe.

Moments later, I noticed a hefty policeman walking towards the same platform, his drunken legs aimed at the lone, helpless slum-girl. With no regret for his action, with no shame for his sacred uniform, he wasted no time in trying to strip the girl of her clothes. She got up with a shiver of fright and cried. The unwelcome music of her hapless cry pierced my ears and seemed to kill me.

The policeman made a second attempt, this time with more brute force to quench his macabre recreation. Blood heated my cheeks, I nearly drowned in a pool of fury.

I should somehow save this girl. I should get out of the train, run to the platform and save the girl.

Or should I? Should I welcome trouble? Why should I worry about this slum-girl? Who is she to me? Not my sister, not my mother, not my love. She is no one. She is Nothing.

But she is too young. Too young to be raped. Too young to die. Get out of the train and kill that thug.

No. I foresee wastage of money, wastage of time and even danger to life. The hefty policeman is too much for me. It is better for the girl to die alone than to kill me too.

It is her fate. The fate decided by God. Only he can save her.

Yes, only God can save her. But what if I am that God-appointed person? What if he wants me to save the girl?

No no. I am not God. I have no right to save her. Now see, the train has started moving. I have no time, no chance to save the girl. Forget her.

Maybe, I should jump out of the train and save the girl. I think I have a last chance.

No no. I shouldn't jump from a moving train. Forget her. This is her fate. I have no time to save her.

But But..     

The train moved far away from the screams of the tortured girl. I closed my eyes for a sleepless night. I closed my door against humanity...

 

     

Author's Note

The world is full of sympathy. I have given it, got it. But, empathy is something I am still searching for..... even within me. A story about human selfishness and one-dimensional style of living. About the fight between the good and bad in every man. The dominating thoughts of evil are penned in Bold letters. The dominated human thoughts penned in italics....

Edited by Shawn Reene, Bard Constantine

Reviews

[YouoweYoupay]

Oh my God...I could hear the girl screaming and crying for help in my ears. That was a powerful write that symbolized a universal and eternal struggle. Satan vs. God. Good vs. Evil. White vs. Black, courage vs. cowardice, and humanity vs. inhumanity. I enjoyed every part of it. Thank you so much fo sharing this. Keep writing.

-Wella.

[NoneOfYourBusiness akaK..]

you certainly bring that inner dialogue between bent reason instilled by a callous society and the human heart into clear and painful light~
begs the question ~ were we made like this? or conditioned to be this way?
excellent and thoughtful writing displayed in a raw sincere format that shines the reflected surface back at the reader . . . .

[Hello, Goodbye]

I love the fact that your work is blunt yet lacking any pretentious notions. It speaks honestly about the frailty of life and its difficulties. How there is always a fight between wanting to do the 'right' thing, or going even further and doing the 'good' thing.

And while you give no answers.. its okay because sometimes the hardest part is asking questions. We as humans love to look at our accomplishments but are quick to avoid looking at the faults found in our souls.

Good work man.. keep it up..

[Leanne Conway]

Very nice. Well written.

[Shivi]

Haha that's very true

[Matthews Reggie]

And the good hidden in u is the easiest to ignore.... Our minds are max creative to come up with wonderful reasons to ignore ur duty....

[Shivi]

Actually what you called as the rare human thoughts are not so rare! They are the ones that are constantly with you. But I think it's very human, again, to ignore those thoughts, the good ones.

[Shivi]

I liked the description and the way you carried the fight between the evil and good inside you. I wish you would continue another episode of this with how the good over powered the evil. That would be great to read. Nice one Reggie! :)

[SparrowPoet]

Quite a complex little piece with some good devices, like separating the persona's motivations and justifications of his actions with boldness and italics. For me this reinforced the fact that it is character, and not narrative driven. Very nice piece of writing :)

[Jess Quna]

Concidering how short it is,
I think it's amazing that one is still drawn into the story.
Also it's not just black and white, good and evil,
this story shows that there's grey, something to stand between them.
After all... normally no one would concider killing a person as something good,
yet here it shows that it's for the sake of saving someone
so it's not entirely evil either.
It also clearly shows the trait most people have...
pretending something isn't happening so they don't get into trouble themselves.
It's a great one-shot about a good topic.
Greetings,

Sarah