A Monster Was Born ✔️

Your Shining Light (Part IV)

Suri sat by the ghost girl on a nearby bench as she recounted her story. After the ghost had seen the man, all of her memories rushed in like waves pouring, causing her to remember everything. Her real name was Kana and she was born to a family with loving parents. She had dreams of becoming a doctor and making a lot of money while helping people with disabilities. However, a day came when she and her parents had walked on a street late at night, silent with no people, returning home after buying a cake from her favorite bakery. They figured that since they lived in a good neighborhood with few crimes, it would be safe. Kana's parents didn't even see it coming when they were both stabbed in the back, their blood pooling on the pavement, their eyes going blank with dimness. Her dad only said the final words, "Run away, Kana. Run away and don't look back."

Her feet forced her to run, even though it made her feel like a coward, though she was crying the whole time, and her tears soaked her sleeve with her parents' blood on it. She prayed that day but the world was not kind to her. A news report came out that next day saying that a pair of corpses were found on the streets, and that important organs as well as the victims' belongings had been taken. No wallet, no id, not even clothes had been found on the site. Kana knew that could mean only one thing.

She became miserable. All that time she had lived a privileged life. She knew about homelessness but that was the first time she was forced into that experience herself. Scrambling to get food, trying different places for a warm shelter to sleep in, finding substitutes for her pads when she gets her periods. It wasn't long before she simply wasted away.

"That's why," she turned to Suri, sniffling. "You have to do it. It's the only way. I'm sorry, but please do me this favor. Since I've arrived with this form, I can't even hold a pen, much less a knife or a gun. I don't want to leave this burden to you, and I could leave it to someone else, but--"

"Wait," Suri interrupted, still recovering from her shock. "Are you asking me to kill this man for you?"

"We can find a way to hide the fingerprints, and I know a place to dump the body. I promise we will think of a way so the police will not suspect you."

"No, I..I can't..."

"Please, Suri. If I don't do this, I will never be able to rest, not until I place him in hell where he belongs. It's what my parents deserve, at least. They're good people, and they loved each other. They don't deserve to have their lives taken away like that. Even now, they must be suffering. They will continue to suffer until he suffers with them."

"Are you sure things will get better if you kill him?" Suri asked quietly.

"What?" Kana exclaimed angrily.

"When you think about it, he must also have a family, people who love and care for him, even if he is a murderer. They will be sad and angry if he is taken away. Then they will search for the person who murdered him.Their souls may never rest, and would wander the world like a ghost, just like yours. Their hearts, burning with hate and the need for vengeance. Then the next person will also have their family taken away."

"All I'm saying is, is it worth it? Continuing this cycle of hatred and vengeance? Taking a life as compensation for another?"

The ghost girl was silent for a long while. At first, Suri thought she was just gathering her thoughts on what to say. Then, she realized she was angry. Angry at her.

"Suri," Kana whispered. She was barely holding herself in, tears trickling down on either side of her face as her red eyes stared in horror. "Suri, what...are you saying?"

Suri felt her heart thumping loudly in her chest. She herself felt on the verge of crying. She's never seen Kana like this before, saying words that she had never imagined her saying. Everything before was going so smoothly. She could even remember their talks back at her room, when she offered to help find her memories, when they chatted about art and books and school, like they were friends who knew each other for a long time. She didn't understand what went wrong, why Kana couldn't see her point of view, why she couldn't see that she didn't want to kill someone.

"He's a murderer, Suri!" Kana screamed at her. "My parents died that night. My parents, who had so much to live for, who had dreams of their own, and people who loved them preciously. Shouldn't their lives matter as well? Shouldn't their lives matter more than that of a murderer who treats human lives like they're garbage? If you can't even understand that---" She wiped the tears from her face with a sleeve, sniffling. "---I understand if you don't want to become a murderer. I can just find someone else. But please, don't say that he doesn't deserve to die!"

Kana hovered for a while, waiting for Suri's response. But Suri didn't say anything. She was fuming on the inside of course, but she didn't say a word. She wanted to tell Kana how not wanting the man to die doesn't mean she thinks of her parents' lives as worthless, or that the man's actions were somehow justified. But she knew Kana wouldn't listen. And so, minute after minute passed, the two girls still facing each other like enemies, neither of them surrendering. Eventually, Kana opened her mouth, her eyes withdrawing away from Suri's.

"Fine," she said bitterly. "So be it. I don't need you to fulfill myself anyway."

With that, she was gone.