Shattered
I looked Him in the face. His thin, vampiric smile normally had no effect on me. But today, His gaze was a leer that brought out potent guilt and recrimination from within my psyche.
A cosmetic company gave – of all things – a crate of nail-polish remover to our teachers today in honour of Teachers' day. Don't ask me why. I do not know myself. But that morning, as the principal was about to announce the gift proudly and distribute it in grand, public fashion, an aide came to his side and whispered in his ear. The worry seemed to spread from his aide's face to his. He winked at me.
The school was turned upside-down in search of the missing nail-polish remover. Eventually they found it portioned out and stashed in the tables of three enormously popular cheerleaders. The cheerleaders obviously denied prior knowledge; but who could argue with physical evidence?
He could have. That morning, he had bamboozled the delivery people into letting him take the goods into the office. They thought he was doing them a favour; he knew he was doing himself an errand. A vicious errand of vengeance. After all, the girls had spurned him one too many times. He'd make them pay. Of course they would have stolen cosmetics, he convinced the already incensed teachers. The girls were sent away from the prestigious private school.
But that is only secondary. What matters is that I did not stop him. I was there early that morning, and I saw every malicious step of his plan executed. I did not – could not – raise even a finger to stop him or defend the girls. And he knew!
That was the power he now held over me. And I could not bear it. Against all the behest of my mind, I lashed out angrily at him, aiming my punch at his nose. My fist came away bloody, but a thousand fragments of him still leered, tenacious, at me through the broken mirror. I had been looking in that mirror for so long that I'd come to believe my soul was on the other side. Oh the little pieces falling, shatter. Shards of Him, too sharp to put back together - too small to matter … but big enough to cut me into so many little pieces.
I was Him
Izzy Afridi
