I am not a violent person. Not by a long stretch. I am neither spiteful, nor objectionable. Aside from the odd minor outburst after the occasional glass of wine, I am hardly one to ruffle someone’s feathers. And clearly, I do not possess a heart of stone.
But today, everything changed. Today was the day where I would learn to stop playing the victim. Today was the day...
...where I would finally get my own back on that evil bastard.
He had tormented me for too long. He had plagued me, oppressed me, forced me to kneel to his unbending will one too many times. That ungrateful fucker made me do things that I always considered beneath me. He would look at me with those same eyes I fell in love with once upon a time. But now, they were eyes of fury. Eyes of menace.
Eyes that scared me.
The first time he struck me, I thought nothing of it. I swept it all under the carpet, casting the whole thing aside as merely the unfortunate result of a bad day. But on the second incident, he drew blood…my blood. And on the third, the fourth, and the fifth…well, I suppose I should have never let things get that far in the first place.
In some ways I blame myself. But not anymore.
So of course, all hell broke loose once I finally decided to confront that mangy little coward.
It was a scorching hot day. I arrived back at the apartment earlier than usual, just to catch him off guard. He was too busy stuffing his face to notice me at first. But boy, once he did…he sure let fly! The two-faced back-stabber scarpered out through the window and down the exterior fire-escape like a jittery lightning bolt.
I promptly lifted up the window and set off after him, wasting as little time as possible.
It was go-time.
Down below the traffic rumbled with red-blooded fervour. The cars manoeuvred between one another in the midst of a fierce frenzy. Yet, that was nothing compared to the violent sense of injustice coursing through my veins.
I felt startled all of a sudden; gazing down at the tiny ant-like people beneath the shaking stairwell, peering up air the filthy city pigeons taking to the sky.
That’s when I caught sight of him once again, however.
Creeping through the neighbouring window...
Climbing over cabinets and tumbling under tables; the unknowing neighbour’s living room had become our unruly playground. My runaway culprit darted this way and that, bundling into the bathroom and right back out again. I eventually caught up with him in the corridor, chasing the little wimp back through the same window we had both initially entered.
Now, the only way was up.
Intent on placing my burning hands around his scrawny little neck, I swiftly accelerated up the exterior stairwell with that sweet feeling of revenge fixated on my mind. My newfound passion for vengeance was all that concerned me. And by the end, my feet were moving faster than I ever thought possible. First two steps at a time, then three.
Until finally, I came face to face with my lousy nemesis.
The one that had caused me all this turmoil…
“What do you have to say for yourself, eh?” I bellowed, cornering my former tormentor on the edge of the roof, “…any last words!?”
The poor boy looked up at me with glistening eyes. The same eyes I fell in love with once upon a time. He was cowering in the corner. Shaking like a leaf.
Suddenly I knelt beside him, no longer feeling ten feet tall.
And, well...that’s when I fell in love with that little tyke all over again, you see.
He may have been a terror. We may have fought vociferously from time to time. I might have even wanted to lock him out the door and throw him out for good, once or twice…
…but Sprinkles was my cat. My little furry play thing. And in spite of everything that had happened, in spite of all the fights and all of our troubles...only someone with a heart of stone could turn their back on a face as cute as his!
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