- A fictional reflection by Kumar, Lokesh
Prologue: Three bodies in seven days shook the whole state police department and people of
city of Manning. They haven’t seen anything like this in decades, owing to strict law
enforcement. The mayor, the district attorney and the chief of police are assuring the general
public through a joint press conference that the city is in safe hands.
I put the remote control of my television down with a heavy heart. Those bastards suffered less
at the hands of death when I was executing them. I can still feel their heart beats, the gush of
fear in their eyes and the strength of struggles to unchain those shackles when I took them
down. I am not done yet, four more to go down. They wronged me, they destroyed my life.
They took my father’s life, the only one in the family that I had since mom left us 10 years back.
How dare they? They had to pay a price for this.
I was a happy kid. I never had an issue troubling me in my growing years as a child to an adult. I
remember the joys of expression on dad’s face when he won the litigation against city council
favoring a corporate lobby for the contract to construct city’s “Drink Pure” initiative-based
water treatment plants. Bypassing the law to favour self interest over public welfare was
unacceptable to my father’s conscience, who as a lawyer has always defended people’s
interests over favoritism by the city council for the last 8 years. He fought for all these years
and won. Only after his death, he left me clues to nab the culprits responsible for the same.
They made it look like a suicide but the truth is only the one that I know.
For what it’s worth? I am telling you it’s beyond the city’s own lot of many problems it’s
afflicted with. The city residents have not had access to clean water for the last 12 years. We
have seen deaths due to cancer causing chronic ailments among city residents. Thanks to the
government’s influence in maintaining a general opinion that city needs more industries than
ever to support a dwindling economy and a cash strapped council to work upon it. It is for the
greater good that somebody interfered and so I did. Alas, it’s too late. I wish I had woken up a
little early, maybe could have saved some lives. These companies dump the industrial discharge
wherever they want to and now they want to build those filtration plants to save city’s potable
water supply lines. Double standards. We create our own demons. And this city’s council
created these corporate sharks. They vouch for them, feed them and take care of them. What
about people? Even after staying in power for the last 14 years, what did they do for was
nothing else than destroying their lives.
Present is that I have initiated a battle where I can’t afford to stop. If I do, my conscience would
take my own life. These wounds shall never heal, I won’t allow them to. My personal suffering is
too strong for my bow and arrow to rest in peace. All I had was my dad and taking him away
was taking away my soul. Now these memories of all that love I had inside which I had to let go,
a forlorn attempt to escape from this darkness and forces of evil that surround my impending
doom, I embrace this monster. They will come after me with all their might. I won’t kneel unless
I take all of them down. I would pursue my cause of making this city safe, relentlessly. I repent
nothing at all.
And to you, dear bastards, come one come all. Hide wherever you want to, be shit scared for an
invitation to your deaths. Keep running. I will hunt you down and would skin you alive, tear you
to pieces and bathe in your blood. I won’t stop!
Epilogue: As soon as Ken was finished writing, a thump from city police chief landed upon his
masked face. His temporary hideout was busted. Luckily, all the years of self-discipline in
teaching himself all arts of self defense after retiring from the army helped him out. He
quickly bent down, dodged the kick, flipped and threw a powerful punch on jawline and an
abdominal kick upon his enemy’s face. Within seconds, the ghost vigilante disappeared.