Every Hero Has A Dark Side

I clenched my teeth and balled my hands into a fist. "If that stupid yoga instructor repeated one more time how Nirvana is the result of complete and absolute silence of mind and yoga is well blah blah blah I swear it isn't going to be good for his health" I muttered under my breath.

"That's right..... brilliant..... calmness.... Nirvana is the result of the absolute silence of mind. Anything you do anyway you behave your karma doesn't leave you....... it is inevitable that one will face the consequences of one's deeds--" my instructor spoke in a coaxing tone. I got up from the floor where I was sitting cross-legged on the ground. Me and a class of 9 other people together used to meditate in this class of Mind fitness."Okayyy" I said under my breath. I stood up on the ground and faced my instructor. This yoga stuff was driving me crazy. "Please sit down" he said in a breezy voice "unless you want to use the washroom?" He asked. "l want to leave", I retorted quickly. "We all do my dear girl we all do. We all will leave this world when the time comes. It is better that we practice Nirvana and, yoga so that we can be known as the--". "Fine" I said as I grabbed my bag next to me."Fine" I said again "I have no interest in achieving enlightenment AND practicing yoga so there" I said storming out of the room gritting my teeth tightly and clenching my hands so hard that all the blood drained out of them. I knew it wasn't the fault of my instructor but it had been a big change for me going from gymnastics to yoga there. I was not sitting for a single minute in gym jumping from here to there, swinging on the rods doing somersaults, cartwheels, flips and now yoga?. 'Seriously Mum?' I had said then 'I can't sit for even a single minute, how do you plan to make me sit for an entire hour and focus on God. Seriously I am an atheist'. But my mother had convinced me to give yoga a try. Why? Well, I still was figuring that part out.

One day when I was sitting in my gym and I realised that I could hear my best friend thinking.Her voice was blurry though. I thought that I had misinterpreted and that she was actually talking. I asked her to repeat what she had said and she said that she had not been talking at all. And I don't know why I believed her because... well I hadn't seen her lips moving and then she couldn't have been speaking then. Unless she had been practicing ventriloqulogy. Then a few days later I could hear my mum thinking something in the kitchen."Do you know what I was thinking to make in dinner today?" she asked me. "Yes mum" I answered innocently "well I do know You're thinking about making curry rice again aren't you mum? ". "Of course! you know me so well" she remarked."Oh yeah?" I said concentrating on her mind. I could hear thoughts more clearly now. "And what about that red dress you bought without anyone knowing? planning to surprise dad on the anniversary? .And what about that blue vase you broke in the showroom and had to pay for?". "How do you know these things? You weren't there when this happened I - I, have you been reading my diary? but that's funny because I don't keep one". She paused indulged in her thoughts and then reached apparently a conclusion, "You're becoming a DOCTOR WHO, aren't you?. "Mom...." I said rolling my eyes. Sometimes I thought that my whole family was delusional except for me of course. And that's my theory why mummy made me join yoga classes so I could further develop my powers. I paced out of the yoga room and yanked the rubber band which held my blonde hair in a ponytail and they fell across my shoulders. I decided to take the shortcut back to home and tell mama that I.... well left Nirvana classes. Well, it's my decision. I do whatever I want.

I decided to take in energy snicker bars from Aunty Em's Store and turned right to face it. I narrowed my eyes. Something was off. Aunty Em never lets the showcase lights off. Never in the morning and absolutely never in the night. She believed it attracted customers for her. "I have to check on her," I said to myself and quickly crept inside the store. "No" I said as Panic crept into my voice. Aunty Em's body was lying on the ground near to a very scary pool of blood. Suddenly I heard some voices or thoughts I should say. I was now able to distinguish between thoughts and voices. I shut my eyes and slightly cocked my head following its source. It came from the cashier machine. Two guys in black Ninja outfits stood there. One of them had a gun in his hand and other one had a bag in which he was shoving aunty Em's sale for the day. Aunty Em was an old pensioner who ran the shop alone after her husband passed away. The old lady couldn't remember the way to the ATM and banks. How could she ever remember accounts nos., all the pins and FD's and dates et cetera et cetera? So instead she kept all her saving locked in a tiny almirah in the back of the room. "l have to save her ....I have to save her". I begin chanting it like my mantra and yelled, "hey" towards the two ninja guys before I even had the time to think oopsie lemme call the police first. I'll say that I was probably crazy. But hey I'd spoken in a moment of weakness. "Get out" one of the bad guys said (oh ya spoiler alert I was pretty sure by that time that those two were bad guys. Since when do good guys rob stores?). "No, you get out" I snarled. The same man said again "We don't have time for this Jake, shoot her and get back on the way. I'm sure the old bird has more of this lovely treasure". He said scooping another handful of change. Oh ya! and I could practically see drool slipping out of his mouth when he said this. I shut my eyes and concentrated, slowly straining my head to hear what they were thinking. Baddy number one was thinking about killing me and bad number 2 was thinking that killing me wasn't really a good option but they had to do it. It was hard to concentrate with a gun pointed towards me but I did so anyway. That guy thought that I couldn't move because:

 1) I would be stunned with the gun pointed at me and

 2) I wouldn't know where the Bullet would be coming to the center, left or right. 

He thought to shoot my leg and leave me writhing in pain until the police arrived or before the pain made me pass out. He shot towards where I stood and I dodged right. The bullet hit the wall behind me and for a moment I was Stunned. I had never heard a gunshot before. Obviously except for movies but this was a real-life gunshot.I froze not knowing how to react. I remembered how aunty Em's lifeless body was sprawled across the ground. I jerked myself and studied the expressions of the two bad guys. They looked stunned and pissed that I had managed to dodge the bullet. I took advantage of this state of theirs and quickly dashed towards the baddy no. 1 and aimed a sidekick at his hand. The gun clattered to the ground. The baddy no.2 roared in anger and threw a punch at my face. I had already anticipated that as I had read his mind and that again means that made it very easy for me to dodge his moves as the two of them quickly decided to involve me in combat. Three years of gym training really helped me here. I dodged every one of these moves, barely though, cause reading Minds of two people was really difficult for me. Fortunately, they both were comprehensive and lacked proper coordination. Every Move of their's I dodged left them stunned and then I use this surprising state of their to leave them bruised and battered. I threw a punch at Baddy number one and kicked the other guy in the right shin. He fell down with a thud. I took the gun which was lying on the ground and held it in my hand as I had seen it in the movies. For a second or two I was tempted to shoot both the guys. How dare did they hurt Aunty Em and try to rob her, an old pensioner of no support of what little belongings she owned and her entire life savings. How dare they? but I controlled my anger. The least thing I could do was to just not leave them conscious. I brought the gun down harshly and introduced the butt of the gun with the head of the man who had risen once again to harm me. The Baddy no. 1 crumpled on the ground. The man was getting up again when I brought the gun down again and he shared his partner's fate and crumpled next to him. I went to the small telephone line next to the cashier counter and held phone to my ears to see the line was still beeping. Stupid thieves disabled every light and fan etc. but apparently did not know how to disconnect the telephone lines. ( Seemed new at the job). Luckily, I dialled the police and they came there in a bunch of sierened cars.

Aunty Em luckily made it out with a single harsh head injury and she thanked me profusely for my help by a gift hamper which contained everything from 'every flavor colour beans' to 'snicker bars' Woohoo. She decided to keep a worker for taking care of her and her little shop. As for the thieves they were taken down to the police station and investigated. Turns out I was right and they didn't have that much experience in robbing stores so that's why it was easy to defeat them. And then.. finally ...me. Well, I am still confused about who I am what I am trying to be. I decided not to tell the policeman about my powers. I didn't want him to think that I am delusional and send me to a psychiatrist. When I went home that day (with a police after narrating my heroic incidents of the day a little more heroically) I knew that this wasn't the last of my psychic powers.This was just the start to something more weirder, amazing, magnificent, mind boggling and uncanny. While fighting the bad guys that day I understood a very important lesson: every hero has a Dark Side......