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15.Scared of the unknown

W I N T E R

John and I was led to a dark room, both tied up tightly in a wooden chair and blindfolded. What a scene from a movie doing here, right?

Xavier and Becky both have left to somewhere, no one knows. I just wish Xavier will come here soon and free us. I mean, just me. John has to obviously go to the prison after all of these chaos calm down.

We both have been silent since now. And the room filled with this eerily silent is suffocating me to the core.

Finally, John breaks the silence. "Scared of the unknown?"

"No... karma's gotta way of making things right," I say, grateful and laughing inside for Becky's stupidness. She couldn't even think of covering our mouth. But still, the room is also so dark and secluded.

"So... what's your story?" I ask John, wondering why he became the person he is now.

"What do you mean?"

"Well... every person, especially person like you, has a story which lead you to who you are right now. A bad past... I guess," I explain, making John chuckle lightly.

"Well,... at least you do know that," He continues. "My parents weren't the best parents. I know I wasn't the best son either but I at least tried. But them... they didn't even try. I used to see my classmates so happy with their family. I felt jealous. I wanted that. So I started studying hard to make my parents proud. And I succeeded.

"Well, not in making them proud but achieving academic goals. But you know what... they didn't even look at my result. They said it was some nonsense, they didn't want to look and waste their time. So, I change my direction, I started taking pleasure from other's pain. And I... I started doing this shit." After he was finished, the silence roam around the entire room eerily.

"Well... do you regre-"

"Regret. I don't know. I feel like I just didn't choose the right direction and that my parents led me to this," John interrupts me.

"Well... did you try to talk to them?"

"I tried to," He chuckles darkly. "But do you think they would listen to my nonsense? Fucking nonsense, they said."

"Well... I don't know what I would have done if I were you but to be honest, if you have continued achieving academic goals you might have been a person you would have been proud of," I continue. "Well... in life, everyone tries to make someone in their life proud. I am not telling this is bad, instead it is a good thing. But everything has a limit. One becomes greedy so it tries to make that person every time proud, leading them to become toxic you know.

"What I am trying to say right now is, if you have chosen to try continuing to make them proud, then you might have turn out the same. But if you've tried to make yourself proud, then... things might have changed. Well... let me stop here, I don't really want to put salt on your injury so..." The room again filled with a silence, but this time it was a comfortable silence.

After sometime of silence, I break that. "Don't think you are the only one facing challenges and problems. To me, every problem is the same, neither big nor small, but the outcome rates the problem. No one knows what that smile has hidden inside, so I try my best to not judge people. You know... you're not alone. Everyone have problems. Everyone."

"I am happy that this world at least have some good people like you," John starts, making me laugh.

"Well... there are some, but I am not one of them," I continue remembering things that I have done which I'm not proud of. "I have also done shīts that I regret. I guess that's how you learn or drown."

"Nothing or nobody is perfect. So, it was boon to happen," John starts. "We can't expect the good to always remain like that or be perfect in every field. I've been there where lots of people had high expectations on me, but look at me now."

"You still have the rest of your life to change yourself," I say, knowing very well that he is upset right now.

"I know," He continues. "Well... I would just find a way to change my life and think about some stuffs in the jail."

I remained silent. It's the only thing I can do right now. He has done a big mistake and the good part is, he has learned his lesson.

We spend more than twenty minutes blindfolded and tied up here until suddenly the door burst open and couple of people which I assume as cops come out of the door. I can feel one person which I know who he is by his cologne and hands untie me. He removes my blindfold and cups both my cheeks.

"Are you okay, Strawberry?"

"I am now." I give him my genuine smile and stands up. Xavier helps me walk when I realize that my feet are sore for sitting here for quite some time.

I realize the people are cops, just as I suspected. They have handcuffed John and is making him stand up. I look at John one last time and give him a small smile. At least I am glad he has realized his mistake.

Xavier looks at me and raise one of his eyebrows. I just shook my head and walks us out of the room.

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𝓥𝓸𝓽𝓮 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓒𝓸𝓶𝓶𝓮𝓷𝓽 𝓲𝓯 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓵𝓲𝓴𝓮𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓬𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻.

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