Demented

The Grim Kid

                [Minnesota: 12 years back]

There is always some grim kid in every college of the world. Across the globe, and across the pages of history, a kid's always lost in thought on some backbench that had gradually became his throne. The kid's not thinking about the theories of science or complex formulas of Mathematics, the grades enact as much. When everyone's laughing over the lame tripping of Lola Fogel or cheering over the fortune of Professor Duncan having a kidney infection, this kid would sit in serenity, lost in thoughts. Perhaps this kid has a wider imagination, perhaps this kid is a socially inapt introvert, perhaps he's just someone who's brother was brutally murdered two years back by a hobo, after which the house has gone awfully silent.

They thought Adler Garb was the kind who was still lamenting the bereavement, but Adler was different. He was a grim kid not because he was an introvert or sad or imaginative, he was a grim kid because he didn't belong there. He was grim because the life forms around him weren't worth chatting with. He would devise plans for night hunts in his mind while the teachers scribbled on boards and his classmates giggled at him. No one dared say a word on his face, the dark aura was felt and feared but never acknowledge.

Then there was this girl Katherine Lurie, equally grim but the bullys' favourite, unlike Adler. She'd sit two benches ahead of Adler. Would jot down notes silently in her notebook, stutter when called upon to read. Would shuffle on her feet when the other kids giggled. She had a little group of supposed friends (unaccepted members of society) with whom she could make small formal chats and relive the moment five times at night, smiling unknowingly. She wasn't beautiful, she wasn't ugly. If she'd only trim and straighten her messy red hairs, put some makeup on, act sophesticated, perhaps she would have been more lovable. But the way she was now, not even the smelliest kid of the college would drop a love letter into her locker, there were far greater treasures to chase after. Not that she did wanted a love life, her father made sure of it.

While Adler's imagination went bloodier and messier amidst the rush life that had rejected them both, Kat's went darker. All she'd think about was the beating. It was no surprise to the world that her father, her only parent, was a sadist. One of the major reason why everyone kept their distance from Katherine. They all feared her father, the man rumored to have been eating children. In reality, the man had never eaten a baby but if served with the right amount of booze and the right amount of workload, he might as well. That was what happened every other night at Luries' , he'd eat her daughter's soul. Little by little, he'd extinguish the flame of life he had lit himself once, that too under the right amount of booze and workload. 'Why is my glass empty?' actually referred to 'Why did I have to put in two extra hours in the slaughterhouse?', and Katherine always ended up paying for those extra two hours. She'd have scars to show for it for a few days and they kept replenishing quite too often.

Now, why would bullies go to all the trouble of harassing the daughter of Satan? Because Satan didn't care. Katherine was a punchbag and she was being useful in both school and home.

Adler knew he was no hero. On that hot clumsy day, he unknowingly ended up a hero for someone.

He had been chafed. Killing animals was becoming boring. He wanted to feel the exhilaration he had felt while killing Rune. Animals and humans are so much different when it comes to killing. Animals fight till their last breath, they don't beg for mercy like humans do. The animals' willingness to continue fighting seemed to mock Adler. The open jaws of a boar seemed to be a smile when Adler would land the last blow, but a human will beg and pray – that much Adler was sure of.