Meeting an old acquaintance

One night Ruby suddenly woke up, his skin was burning, and he saw an old lady holding an empty bucket with steam coming out of it. His whole body had second-degree burns. The old lady poured boiling hot water on him!.

Parts of his skin turned bright red and were swollen. As blood rushed to the area to try and repair the damaged cells, it continued to burn, moisture in the skin started evaporating, leaving it looking red, dry, and pulled tight. From there, it started to bubble, blister, and even split open and bleed. His skin turned an ashy, milky-white color due to prolonged contact with boiling liquid.

He kept shrieking in pain and passed out. He woke up in a hospital, they bandaged him, but it was still hurting. The police officer came to the hospital, I told him what happened, but he didn't even care. It felt like they don't care what happens to me, or in general, they don't care about poor people.

" I thought, why would she do this? I couldn't fathom any reason as to why anyone would do such a thing without any motive. The doctor told me that my left eye is severely injured. I would have permanent burn marks. They would hurt from time to time."

After being released from the hospital, Ruby decided to visit the old lady. This single decision would completely change his life. He went and knocked, but nobody opened the door. He thought no one was in the house, so he waited. After 5-10 minutes, he could hear the rumbling of a car.

Three people in police uniform rushed through the corridors and tackled him. They grabbed him in a chokehold and cuffed his hands.

The door creaked open at the moment he was cuffed, an old lady with fair skin came out.

"Can't you do your jobs correctly? Why is this demonic-looking beggar waiting at my door? What if I didn't notice him, and he killed me? If something happened to me, my son would have made sure that you guys do not wake up to see tomorrow's sun."

The police locked Ruby up in a dark cell. This cell was entirely different from the previous cell. This was where they kept beating him for a full day. He was released at sunrise, with broken bones on the streets. All twenty of his nails were pulled, he had lacerations on every body part, lost count of the broken bones after six.

He was angry for the first time.

"I don't mind dying, but why torture me."

His mind was numb, unlike his body. The pain deep in his soul tormented him after realizing that he can't travel or live his life independently anymore. The pain of the heart dwarfed the physical pain. All that mattered to him was freedom. He wanted nothing more from this world. He cried while asking the same question for the second time,

"Was that too much to ask?"

An unknown person sighed, watching Ruby's misery.

" Why not kill her?"

Now, on top of being burnt, his head, ribs, and back were also hurting. The police officer left him in an abandoned building. He looked at the police officer's face and thought to himself, where have I seen him before? He didn't have a cell phone, so he wasn't able to call for an ambulance.

" I am going to die, finally some peace."

At that moment Ruby saw a beautiful smile and a fair hand stroking his head. He wanted to grab that hand, but the beautiful lady told him to be patient. He came back to reality and decided that it isn't time to die yet. He was stranded in an empty place.

He couldn't ask for help, so he started to think.

" If I am going to die anyway, why not kill the police officer? Maybe if someone treats him like how he treated me, he may realize his mistakes."

he found broken glass on the side of the road which he picked. A decision was made. Now the only thing which was left was how to kill the police officer? The pain wasn't anything new to him. He forced himself to walk a bit.

"I know I will die if I overexert myself."

At that point Ruby found a drunk guy roaming around an abandoned street.

"Today is my lucky day. Sir can you please call for an ambulance as you can see I am injured and in need for medical attention."

Drunk guy was pissed, his mood worsened because of the unsightly condition Ruby's body was in, he didn't want to have anything to do with him. So he ignored his plea and started walking away.

Ruby was heart broken, this drunk guy was his last hope so he called again, and insisted to call for an ambulance.

The drunk guy didn't comply and kicked him. Ruby was losing his vitality by the second. Something clicked in Ruby's mind, he wasn't thinking straight anymore. Ruby was experiencing what happens when Human's are at the end of their rope.

The only thing he was able to imagine was the blood going through the drunk guy's veins. He didn't have long to live he had to make a decision.

Ruby grabbed drunk guy's foot with his left hand when the drunk guy tried to kick Ruby with his free leg. Ruby used the shard of glass and pushed it deep in the drunk guy's shin.

The drunk guy started rolling on the floor screaming prophanities at this moment Ruby popped his neck, rotating it at an unnatural angle.

The drunk guy stopped breathing. His now hollow eyes seemed to wonder what happened with him in his last moments. All of this felt familiar to Ruby, like he was meant to do this.

He took his phone and called an ambulance. That kick was the final nail in his coffin as he had a clear feeling that there was no going back to normal now. After just two minutes he heard the familiar sirens and expected the ambulance to pick him up but lady luck wasn't at Ruby's side or was it? The all too familiar face of the police officer greeted him, and looked at him with disdain, like how people who get dressed for an interview avoid poor dirty beggers. Ruby thought out loud

"I feel like today is the luckiest day of my life. Not only did I find myself a drunkard who died without any resistance so close to me, but I also found the police officer before the grim reaper came to embrace me in his darkness."

As the police officer was getting closer, he pulled the glass and pushed it in the officer's neck. Officer started gagging and tried to pull that glass out of his neck, which was a huge mistake. When he did, a stream of blood came out.

Ruby was looking at all this mess with a crazed look in his eyes. He looked like a lunatic old man.

He was hungry and the blood coming out of him was better than nothing, and it felt unnaturally appetizing. He started drinking the blood. The police officer looked at him with shock and horror. When Ruby's appetite was calmed, Ruby realized the police officer was shouting all this time. Ruby wanted to ask him something.

"Shhhhhhh!!!!, Why are you barking like a dog in heat? By the way, why did you treat me like this? Did you have any problem with me? Was all of this your personal vendetta? or is it just in your nature?"

All this happened when I thought I was finally starting to understand how humans think."

He tried to speak, but no words came out. Ruby left, but not before pulling the police officer's gun, mobile, and wallet. Ruby cleaned his mouth and beard, which were soaked with blood, then he started butchering the police officer in a corner, packed his meat in a polythene bag, and left.

[Are you thinking how the fuck is he able to butcher a dead body when 15 minutes ago he had a problem walking five steps? Who knows? Your guess is as good as mine.]

When he looked at the lock screen of the police officer's mobile phone, he had a photo of him with Sophia, his only real friend. He was her father.

He didn't regret killing him. He was happy with three meals and a footpath. Why did his uncle not let him live like that? He decided he will do what he wanted to do. Who cared about laws? Who cared about morals? He looked at the gun, which gave him a boost in his confidence.