“What the fuck are you?!” he screamed, unable to believe I was still conscious.
“Karma. You ruined my life with your cruelty, now I will turn that cruelty on you ten fold. I shall show you the true meaning of despair, just as you have shown me. You shall learn the difference between our levels of hatred.”
I slammed my elbow into his face and fractured his eye socket. Tom staggered back, and without any hesitation, I delivered a punch to the gut that made him buckle, granting me the perfect opportunity to slam my knee in his face and bust his already broken nose. Nearly delirious from the pain, Tom was essentially helpless as I began pummeling him with my fists, beating him wildly until my knuckles bled. I had to admit, the fact that he stayed on his feet was commendable, but that only gave me a continuous reason to keep punching him.
Within seconds, it was Tom set against the wall, completely at the mercy of my punches. His face was a bloody mess, even worse than mine, but I wouldn’t stop. As long as I didn’t kill him, I had nothing to worry about.
‘Thank you, Angel. Thank you for setting me free,’ I thought to myself before a teacher grabbed me and pulled me away.
Three weeks suspension, a small price to pay for my vengeance. I was lucky not to have been expelled, but once again, Tom throwing the first punch was all the defense I needed. My parents, who were both furious that I had gotten suspended yet again but sympathetic when they saw how bruised up my face was, brought me home early.
“Oh my god, are you all right?!” Angel fearfully exclaimed, meeting me at the door and examining my face.
“Yeah, I’m fine, but if I miss anymore days after this, I won’t be able to graduate and will have to take summer school.”
“Your mother and I are going to discuss your punishment. You had better hope we don’t leave you out in the back yard with a tent and a trash bag to sleep in,” my dad said as he and my mom walked into the living room.
“Come on, let’s get some ice on those bruises,” Angel murmured, leading me to the kitchen.
“My suspension is actually pretty good news. Except for when your tutor comes and my family returns, we’ll have the house to ourselves for three weeks.”
Once again, my parents were distraught on whether to be mad at me or be accepting of my actions. Angel and I were ecstatic. During the morning, Angel and I would sleep in for an extra hour, wake up and make love while half-asleep, then go have breakfast, and wait for Angel’s tutor to show up. Once he arrived, I would help her with her work in all the ways I could. After the tutor left, Angel and I would have lunch and spend the rest of the afternoon chatting or making love.
One afternoon, Angel and I were taking a walk through the woods. Snow was gently falling from the cloudy sky and there wasn’t even the slightest breeze. We were walking hand in hand, just enjoying the glass-like scene of frozen nature. We stepped into a vast meadow, transformed into a sea of snow banks by the ageless winter.
“Ready?”
“Ready.”
We both fell back into a snow bank, letting the crystallized mattress cushion our fall as if we were immune to gravity.
“Beautiful,” Angel breathed as we gazed up into the falling snow.
She looked at me and placed her delicate fingers on my cheek. I pulled off my glove and did the same. Angel didn’t shiver as my chilled hand brushed against her soft porcelain skin. From her hand on my cheek and my hand on hers, I could feel warmth seeping into my body.
“Marcus, there is something I have been thinking about for a while. It was something that you said to me on the day we met. It was when you were telling me why you were about to kill yourself. You said that you hated and were disgusted by the human race. What did you mean? I have your memories, but I don’t know your thought processes.”
I sighed as I tried to think of how I was going to explain it. “When I was in that school for troubled kids, my soul was full of rage. Not only were my tormenters getting off without punishment, I had been locked away like a criminal. I looked at the system that had screwed me over and the twisted psychology of the bullies that had made my life a living hell. I realized that if I were to understand the forces that had ruined my life, I would need to understand the heart of those forces. I began to look at the human race as if I was not human. I looked at history and I studied the people around me. I looked at their flaws, their imperfections, their weaknesses, and their predictability. I was disgusted by what I had found.
Mankind is nothing more than an evolutionary dead end, the result of our ancestors becoming smart enough to survive in the harsh wilderness and thereby losing their evolutionary drive. When early humans overcame the obstacles that get in the way of the lives of species, they found that there were no longer any obstacles that required brain function higher than what they had. True, we made some technological progress: we invented weapons to defend ourselves, machines to help us harness the earth’s resources, and medicine to extend our lives, but we lacked the intelligence to use them wisely.
We became smart enough to build communities, but remained stupid enough to fight over resources. We became smart enough to use fire, but remained stupid enough to use it to destroy nature. We became smart enough to invent thousands and languages and religions, but remained stupid enough to be unable to find compromise or peace in a single one. We’re caught in an evolutionary limbo, where any opposing force that requires brain function higher than what we already have would undoubtedly kill us. The better you become, the harder it is to keep going, and we’ve reached our peak. Damn, it is one pathetically short peak. Now we’re stuck with the ability to make things that we’re too stupid to use properly, and underdeveloped minds that aren’t prepared for the things they think they can do.
I turned my back on this pitiful species and severed all ties with this world.” I then softened my tone and pressed my forehead against hers. “Screw the world, I don’t need it anymore. As long as I have you, I am content. Mankind means nothing to me. You are all that is important.”
Angel’s eyes sparkled as she smiled. “Can we head back? Its cold out here.”
A look of confusion crossed my face as I moved my hand from her cheek to her neck. “You don’t feel chilled at all.”
“Yeah, but its too cold out here for us to show each other how much we love each other,” she said as she kissed me.
Our romantic vacation eventually came to an end, and I realized I was basically getting shot with a double-barrel shotgun. Not only were we going to separated during the day again, but also being out for three weeks meant that I was drowning in missed home and schoolwork. I would have to work for hours every evening to try and get catch up, meaning that I still couldn’t be with Angel as much as I wanted to. If I didn’t claw my way back up from the abyss, then it meant summer school and no graduation for me, which meant that the time I could spend with Angel would be decimated. But after dinner when Angel and I would go up to bed, the tender love that had accumulated during the day would be released with unparalleled passion.