To keep a monster in check

Memory 1, the realization

On a Sunny day, in a city where it was almost always sunny and winters never came but the evening breeze was enough to chill you till your spine, during eight months of the yea; woke up a little boy excited to be going to school. He saw the light coming in from the tinted windows, the same windows that let in scary shadows of moving objects in the darkness of night. He noticed his sisters still asleep and decided to not to get out of bed and wait obediently for his lovely mother to wake them up.

Finally after what seemed like forever she finally came, "wake up everyone, hah look girls your brother is already up" she smiled at him. She came closer and rustled the girls until they woke up. "Time to get ready or you are going to be late girls" she said in her daily, worried tone. The boy worried like he was every morning "yeah wake up! Or we are going to be late, let's go,get up, get up!". The girls stirring screamed at him like they did every morning and he knew they had woken up.

He went to the washroom, brushed his little teeth until the toothpaste from the brush had all gone. Washed his face, after contemplating about the use of a 'soap' decided to follow his mother's instructions and quickly rubbed it on his face and with all the panic he could muster; and finally washed it. Got dressed, the white and blue pants that were the school uniform all clean and almost sparkling, he went downstairs to be greeted with his mothers smile and a glass of milk and breakfast.

"Mom, mom I came first again" he said while grinning. "You sure did my son" she replied while rubbing his messy hair, which he once again had forgot to comb. Near the end of the breakfast his sisters finally came, "oh mom! Not again"said one while looking at boiled eggs. "I told you I don't like milk, I am not having it" complained the other. "Look your little brother had his breakfast already. I don't want to hear any rubbish from you two, sit quietly and finish your breakfast, and quickly" mom said.

They finally reached school well before the time and the boy sighed in relief while thinking "today will be another wonderful day like everyday" and smiling. He met up with his friends, waited for his best friend, but he was nowhere to be seen that day. Soon the bell rang and he went to his classroom, KG-2 was indeed the best time of his life.

But that day during recess one of his friends played a prank on him. Playing little pranks was a norm, he played it on his friends and they on him and it kept on going like that every day; this was nothing out of the ordinary. The other boy Tabaraq quickly snatched the lunch box from the mat outside in the ground where all the kids used to sit and eat or play in the ground. "Give it back Tabaraq" the boy replied with his teeth gritted. "First you have to catch me before I eat all of it" he opened the box and took out a sandwich,the boy's favorite sandwich to be precise. Sniff, sniff "smells nice I think I'll have a bite" said Tabaraq. The boy knowing it was but a joke, started running after his friend "hey give it back, its mine, give me". After a handful of rounds around the mat Tabaraq said "is that all you have? I thought I was the fat one, I guess you must be weak as you are slow. Ha-ha… I guess I'll havea bite" while taking out the sandwich. Asmer at that moment thinking about his parent's words of having his whole lunch, because mom woke up early every morning to make his sandwich with love, lost all meaning behind friendship and jokes and rushed across the mat breaking the class rules and grabbed Tabaraq's collar. "I SAID NO!!" he screamed and all went blank for a second.

For a moment he was confused what had happened, he looked properly in the direction he was looking at. A boy red all over the face nailed to the floor, bruised, Tabaraq? "Who would do that to my friend?" he thought. Next he noticed his left hand on his collar, nearly suffocating his friend and his right still punching the face of the battered boy; what was more, it felt natural. Next he noticed was the lack of light, "but it is always bright at break" he realized and looked up, still punching. The two boys were surrounded by a crowd, kids from classes up till the grownup first grade, were also in there midst, staring at him in awe and fear simultaneously. "What am I doing?" "Why am I like this?" "When did I get on him?" "Why isn't anyone stopping me?" he thought all this at once and finally stopped.

He was such a nice boy, nobody ever complained about him,Tabaraq must have done something, yes he must have done something and that is why Asmer attacked him. That was the line of thought on the teacher's minds. On inquiry from a crying Tabaraq, it was clear poor Asmer was being bullied by him, as he had stolen the lunch box and all the sweet little boy had done was self defense. Indeed it was in fact quite impressive that Asmer had managed to stop the huge boy in the first place, quite impressive indeed. Tabaraq didn't come to school rest of the week. Asmer felt guilty, it wasn't really Tabaraq's fault, he knew that, it was just a joke; but the pride of beating a kid,amplified but the cheers and congratulations that surrounded him that day helped him quickly forget. But he knew one thing; there was something wrong with him. There was something inside him that wanted to get out, that loved violence, which thrived on pain. Something very dangerous, something that was never suppose to have been allowed to come outside, as it acted in a manner looked down upon by his parent; a 'monster'.