Born This Way

Fifth : The Gay Superhero

Organisers Note: Once again the judge and the organisers enjoyed the story so much that we decided it needed a special mention and hence it won the fifth place. Happy Reading!

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The Gay Superhero

A gay Superhero? Why not?

What comes to your mind when you think of a gay superhero?

Maybe he comes on a unicorn, or shoots arrows from a "rainbow"?

I am not that, I am just as normal as any other guy. Then what makes me different?

I lost someone I loved more than myself because, he was bullied, and ever since then I am on a crusade to avenge my lover's death.

Sometimes I wonder, what was his fault?

Because he was born this way? Or he had balls to accept himself, a free will to be what he was?

I won't let another Kush succumb to injuries.

My name is Omi, and this is the story of my crusade.

In past 3 months 11 men and 8 women were attacked by homophobes for being in love with people of same gender, they term it "unnatural".

I was able to rescue 17, 2 remain undiscovered.

Social workers tried their best to raise voice against it but, nothing happened as all the killings were termed as well-planned suicides.

This was barely a news.

No one had a clue who was behind it but, I knew it.

Trilok Kelkar, who is Deputy CM of Goa and Kush's paternal uncle. He was behind all of it.

Kush and I cameout to his family accidentally and things started falling apart, he was caged in his own house.

On 26/Oct/2019, Trilok went to counsel his beloved nephew.

Kush threatened Trilok of telling everyone that how he kept sexually abusing Kush when he was a kid.

On 27/Oct/2019, Kush allegedly committed suicide.

Kush was a fighter. Someone who'd never think of committing suicide.

Even after knowing all this I have no evidence against Trilok, He seems to have picked a fight against homosexuals and I am going to put an end to it.

Yesterday, I got a call from Neera, Kush's sister, she trembled while speaking, "Omi... Don't go to the Pride today... they were talking about some blast", and she hung up.

The Pride march had already begun, I called Sushant, a friend from Raahi trust, he is one of the organizers.

"Sushant, they've probably fit a bomb at Shivaar Maidaan, I am on my way".

By the time I reached Shivaar Maidaan, thousands of queers had already gathered there.

We couldn't afford to evacuate the premises; it would've turned into a stampede.

With ongoing International Investors Summit, there were barley any security forces available, bomb squad would have taken forever to reach.

Volunteers and I started frisking the key spots.

After an intense search we found a suspicious bag, there was a ticking sound coming from it, we found a classic time bomb.

Strong enough to destroy the entire venue and it was going to explode in 17 minutes.

I had two choices, either to run or run with the bomb.

I took the bomb and ran as fast as I could. Reached a safe distance in about 12 minutes.

Thinking that I'd die anyway I tried to cut the power supply wire and luckily it worked, being a tech enthusiast helped me defuse the bomb 2 minutes before the explosion.

However, the day was saved but the war isn't over yet.

-Sachin Pendharkar