IT'S HIS GUILT

DANNIVOLE CENTRAL JAIL.

This dungeon has a great legacy for holding the most notorious criminals in this country. It has witnessed so many prisoners, so many sufferings and also few redemptions. This jail has always been that 'devil’s home'; which the mothers usually use as a tale to frighten their children to feed them. It really stands up to the reputation though. The great compound walls have hidden many horrors in its belly.

I am a mirror. I’ve been in here for almost three decades. There are mirrors like me, each in every cell. We see the prisoners suffer and show them how much they suffered. Their deterioration was our only entertainment.

 These rotten cells are always hungry. They just don’t like to empty at all, maybe. It’s been only a couple of days since my ex-roommate expired and there was another to come. I heard it from the guards above.   

It was a rainy afternoon. The clouds exploded the darkest grey all over the sky; if there was a soul for this dungeon, it would most probably be of this colour. It was pouring so hard that seemed like the sky itself was melting down to his jail.

The guard was unlocking the barred steel gate above. The unlocking happened only to either to bring in new prisoners or to take their dead bodies out. It was not more than two days that the dead body thing happened. He threw a man into the cell and locked the gate. He was not a very old guy, but comparatively the oldest person I was sharing this cell with. He got himself up, with the support of the concrete platform, from the water that already seeped in. The water rose up to his ankle level and the cigarette butts floating on that water caught his attention. He immediately came under the gate, and hesitantly shouted to the guard above,

“Ay, do we get cigarettes in here?”

“Yes!” he replied, and threw the burning butt on his face.

“Son of a bitch” he shouted, rubbing the burn on his forehead.

 He spit on his finger and applied it to the burn, as he was finding a place to sit. He sat on the ‘not so dry’ concrete bed. He surveyed his home forever, stressing his weak eyes. It was a small cell; a commode, a bed and me-stuck to the wall. He didn’t even bother to clean my clouded surface.

Later that night, the rain halted and all the water got drained into the commode.

It was dinner time and the guards started handing over the food packets. The packet was placed on a plate, which was tied to the rope. The old man took the packet, slowly examined it and sat on his bed holding his knees. He opened the packet and was eating those eggs ,each in a go. As he was going to swallow the third one, he stopped. The egg was hard, it was not boiled, so, he kept that egg aside and continued his meal.

There was a small palm-sized pit behind his bed and the egg fell into the pit. The stagnated water in it submerged the egg.

That night was really violent. The old man was still awake. Heavy winds and thunders didn't let sleep seep in. The rotten smell of the jail, usually doesn't let to scorn its existence very soon. He covered his nose with his forearm to ignore everything in and around him to take a nap for a while.

Gradually after he slept, the silence crawled into the cell. I was sensitive to movements more than the noise, because movements happen as a result of thinking and I heard thoughts very well. At that moment, there was something else I could hear. The egg…. It was the egg. It was moving, splashing the water out of the pit. It rolled itself out the pit and stopped right beside the concrete bed, exactly where his head rested. It wasn't grey when he took it out of the packet. It was also not this big.

All the night, it didn't even move an inch aside. It stayed there like it was nailed to the ground.

Few hours passed.

The algae which slept in those cracks of the cell walls, shined as the sunlight hit them. The old man woke up. He rubbed his sleep off his eyes, landed his feet on the ground and was holding his knees to get up. He was almost going to step on the egg. Thanks to his slow movements, he felt the egg under his foot before he broke it.

He picked it up slowly, the egg was beautifully ugly. It began to crack in his hands. He was amused. His red eyes were trying to see it more efficiently, I suppose. A beak broke the egg shell enough to pop its head out. It had black eyes and they were shining due to the light. The old man carefully broke the remaining shell to bring the whole creature out. It was tender, so fragile that even the old man's breath was burdening it. It didn't have feathers like other birds did. It had a shiny grey skin, with scales.

The old man carefully scrutinized it. It even had tiny hands beneath its wings. It's chirps were too squeaky. This creature looked really nasty. It's thick nerves at the end of its wings were the creepiest things I've seen. Old man gently placed it over the bed and looked at it as it reminded him of something. He didn't even blink as long as he looked at it. This weird creature was something he was relating to. His eyes were telling me something but he was not that close to me that I could read. But, the feeling he was dealing with was certainly not a positive one.

The guard standing was over the gate, smoking cigarette and was staring at the old man.

"What?", asked the Old man, slowly hiding the creature with his palm.

The guard nodded his head saying,

"Whatever it maybe, it wont be hidden for long , Oldie", and threw the cigarette butt at him again.

"Isn't your dad old?" said the Old man was in rage, "Don't ever fucking throw that at me.”

“My dad isn't a pervert asshole like you, you old shit.” he replied as he lit a matchstick and threw it at him stating his superiority. He left from there as it was time to serve the prisoners, the food.

The matchstick fell near his palm in which he hid the creature. The guard went off from there. The creature jumped into the fire as it was longing for it. It grew along with the fire to half the size of the Oldie. He was shocked. His eyes were popping out, out of surprise.

"W-w-what are you?" he asked, with a sense of disbelief and amusement. He distanced his hands from that creature.

It was quite large to be a bird. It seemed like a cursed creature maybe from the hell. The dark energy it posses around it, filled the every smallest corners of the cell.

As soon as the guard lowered the food, it grabbed swiftly and was eating vigorously. It finished the packet within seconds.

Then, Its eyes popped out of its face. They glided in the

air with the support of nerves protruding from the eye cavities. 

"Don't you remember me?" it says, placing those gliding eyes exactly in front of Oldie's eyes. 

Those eyes were so intimidating that he lost his conscious in those eyes. He was completely hypnotized. He was crying involuntarily.

" Tears are rolling off from your eyes like the fingers you rolled on her delicate lips and neck." 

It pulled back its eyes back, pushed him to the wall and sniffed his neck with the nostrils on its beak. 

"You smell awful" it said in it's whispering voice. 

It was definitely not a nice company to have.  

It left him to cry even more, and crouched on the platform watching him. All of a sudden the jail was filled with strong rotten smell. The smell was not from the bird but from Oldie. It smelled like some memory he was recollecting; very dark and nasty. His strong pungent smell made himself vomit; and the creature quickly drank the vomit, sipping with its two forked tongue. 

It was disturbing and he was disgusted. He kicked the creature in the belly. It cried loudly and furiously expanded it's wings over him. The hands under its wings were pressing his throat with agony in its eyes. Oldie couldn't bear that sound. He had to close his ears. It rose over him and grabbed his shirt with its beak. It tore his dress, completely into bits and pieces.

This naked man had lost his senses by then. He was shouting gibberish at that creature, which caught the attention of the guard. The creature calmed down and lied on the commode. Its was scraping out the moss in the walls and was filling its belly. 

As soon as he heard the guard approaching, he covered his nakedness with his arms. Even though, he was still naked. 

The guard looked him into his eyes for a minute and said with a disgust-filled smile, "I told you that you can't hide anything in here for long. Didn't I?".

Oldie couldn't sit with his arms covered for a long time. He didn't care about his nudity anymore. He sat on his bed watching the creature sleep. He didn't try to do anything, it seemed like he wanted what was going on.

 It was snoring out loud. Within a few hours, Oldie slept too. Their snores filled the cell with a pure silence. 

The bird- faced, snake- skinned human creature woke up after a few minutes. It was restless, probably hungry. It slowly released its tentacles through its moist wings and tied Oldie's arms and legs. He was still sleeping and that horrible thing, slowly started to peel his skin off and that woke him up. By the time he woke up, it was feeding on him. He couldn't move; he couldn't do anything but to scream out of pain and wobble like a jelly. It pressed his neck against the floor to keep him still. 

With his choking voice, he asked, 

"Why the fuck are you torturing me? What in this world are you?" 

" You know who I am. Don't you Mr. Grandpa?" it said bringing its beak closer to his ears, "You poisoned her skin, with your nasty hands and venomous thoughts, don't you remember?" 

He had nothing to say, but to weep in pain and misery. 

"Don't cry Grandpa. Spare them for future. The pain you caused her is gonna bleed you even more." It said and continued to peel his skin off.

 His dark blood was oozing out of his body. His concrete bed was painted black with his blood. The creature was having a lavish meal though.  

The darkness slipped into the cell. He was still alive. The lump of flesh was all he was. He did commit a heinous crime it seemed, and the revenge was inevitable. 

Approaching him again, it asked, "Grandpa, how did you shut her mouth for that long?You blackmailed her, isn't it?"

He couldn't speak, he had no energy left in him. He accumulated all the little strength he had and said, " Please, just kill me right away." He pleaded. 

"I know how you did it", it resumed, "I also can shut your mouth for a while", holding his hands firmly, it opened his mouth, cutting his lips with its beak, separating his jaw, taking its beak deep enough into his mouth to cut his tongue off while he was fiercely wobbling. It flung the tongue into air and swallowed it. Blood allover. 

I've never seen a person go through this level of physical violence ever. 

As the time passed, the creature did many more things to him. It poked its fingers in his eyes, ate the mashed eyes, cut his ears off and his fingers too. He was no longer fit to be identified as a human. He was unfit even before this day though, but now he is also physically unfit. 

"Didn't the girl plead you?" it asked him holding him to the wall. "Even if she did plead why would you listen, after all it was you who taught your granddaughter to respect WHATEVER elders say." 

He was just a sack of flesh hanging on the wall. It was holding him alive only to seep in him. 

"For everything you changed for that girl, for every irreversible fault you've done, you deserve ME in you" and it crawled into his mouth tearing every part of his body apart. 

Everything that was left in the cell was black blood and smelly flesh. Nothing other than that was worth noticing. Absolutely nothing. 

The next day, when the light hit the cell, the old man was lying on his bed with his clothes on and looked completely normal. He didn't sleep. He got up and came to me; first time since he entered this jail.

He cleaned the cloudy layer on my surface and stared at himself for a couple of minutes. I too was staring at him with in disbelief. I saw him dead. but he certainly not. I looked into his eyes to read him. I saw a little girl being undressed. I saw her uncomfortable eyes while he was playing with her body parts. Her mouth was shut by his palm. His pleasure was evil. Something was looking at this along with me. It was behind him. It was THE CREATURE, it was always with him. I saw it all of it in his eyes. The girl, the creature and also the devil in him.

He suddenly punched me hard; hard enough for me to break into pieces. His hand was bleeding but this time, it was bleeding red. He wrote something on the wall with his thick blood and then he grabbed a piece of me from the floor and swallowed. I got stuck in his neck, pierced his muscles with my sharp edges and he, choked himself to death. 

That afternoon, the piece of me which was still on the wall was waiting for the guard to see his dead body. I was by that time, disgusted by his heinous presence. The guard saw him lying dead and also saw some scribbles on the wall. 

It read-

"MY GUILT KILLED ME." 

It was about the creature he was talking about.The creature wasn't real but it definitely existed in him. It was always with him since that crime he committed. As soon as he started choking, I saw it flying away. It took off to the grey skies. It vanished into the grey clouds, as soon as the last breath was departed from him. His soul came rushing out of his body but couldn't go out of this cell. It was imprisoned in this cell forever and ever. 

At that moment, the ugliest creature one could ever see seemed far more beautiful than his wicked soul.