Revenge Is Not Always Sweet

The 25th of April was a rainy evening with poor Reema Rathore sitting all alone in her house. Her parents had gone out for a movie and dinner leaving her at home to study for an upcoming Chemistry test. She remembered arguing with them using valid arguments about how it was only a unit test and that she was only in eighth grade and how these tests barely matter. Plus, the weather was too gloomy to study. But to no avail. They left her at home.

Suddenly, there was a clap of lightning and a flash of lightning so blinding her eyes burned. Just as she was about to switch the fan off owing to the chilly weather, the power went. Slightly scared, she picked up her phone to call her parents, but unfortunately for her, all the phone lines were dead.

Reema didn’t know what to do. Grabbing a blanket and a knife as a precaution, she sat on the sofa shivering in fright, anxiously awaiting her parent’s return. She hoped they would be back soon.

After an hour of staring at a curious artefact her father had brought back from China, she heard a knock. In her groggy state, all sense of smartness flew out of the window, and she went to open the door.

 Strangely, she could see nothing outside due to the lack of lighting. Shrugging her shoulders, she walked back towards the sofa with the goal of getting some shut-eye. However, she tripped midway and hurt her ankle. After tripping two times, she figured it would be smarter to turn on the flashlight on her phone. When she turned on the flashlight, she saw something which was green and slimy on the floor. On closer inspection, she realized that it was a snake. Feeling the light on it, the snake started slithering towards her. Petrified, she tried her best to move her legs, but they were stuck as if she was standing in quicksand. They just wouldn’t move.

The snake was right next to her foot and all she could do was scream. By the time her legs unfroze, the snake had sunk its venomous fangs in her foot. She let out a blood-curdling scream. After completing its job, the snake retreated into the darkness. Meanwhile, Reema, lay on the freezing floor feeling cold while sweating profusely at the same time. Almost immediately, she felt nauseous and vomited all over her mother’s favourite rug. “Oh no, I must clean it before the stain is irremovable.”, she thought to herself. She tried to get up, but a numbing sensation entered her limbs preventing her from doing so. The same feeling occurred in her face too. She was unable to feel her own body. She was completely struggling.

“I can’t see clearly. Someone, please help!”, she screamed hoarsely, tears dripping from her barely functioning eyes.

Slowly she was having difficulty breathing along with the other symptoms.

She suffered for four hours, unable to see clearly, finding it difficult to breathe and unable to feel her limbs and face, tingling all over her body. She screamed as much as she could but unfortunately, no one heard her.

“That was fairly easy”, thought Shreyas as he walked away from the Rathore’s residence. He had finally succeeded in wounding them the same way they had hurt him. “They deserved it.”, he thought trying to console himself. They had killed his family, so they deserved to die. The radiations from one of their factories had contaminated the groundwater and made his parents sick with an incurable disease. In the court case, they had lied and painted his parents as drug addicts. They deserved this.” They are vile, heartless, abhorrent creatures.”, he comforted himself,

But as he was crossing the road, he saw Mr and Mrs Rathore sitting in a car all dressed up. They seemed to be driving towards the mall. Now he was confused. If they were in the car, then who was at home? He was sure someone was there because he had heard and revelled in the scream. He squinted into the car once more and saw only Mr and Mrs Rathore which meant…. Reema was at home.

No….no…..no! He had killed their daughter; the only person in that wretched family who didn’t deserve to die. His mind reminded him of all the times she had been nice to him in school even though she was three years younger. All those memories flooded his head as he remembered her sitting next to him on the bus, chatting and sharing chocolates and other sweets with him. In general, being nice to him and treating him well. She had never discriminated against based on status.

It was then that he realized standing on the sidewalk, getting soaked, his tears mixing with the raindrops, that revenge is not always sweet. It made him just as bad as them.