Five Steps From Hatred

Submitted into Contest #153 in response to: Write about a character trying to heal an old rift.... view prompt

4 comments

Contemporary Romance

This story contains themes or mentions of physical violence, gore, or abuse.

Sometimes you loathe someone so much, your mind and judgement become clouded by rage and along the way, your loathing becomes morphed. All is needed is for a “v” to replace the “a”, “t,” and “h”, and suddenly your mortal enemy who lives to boil your blood is the person you want to comfort you when life doesn’t go your way. There is a fine line between hating someone so purely your innocent soul wishes only to murder them and loving someone. Love is a strong force not to be meddled with. It attacks you at the most unexpected times. You might want it to attack you. If you do, then this guide is perfect for you. One miniature argument could’ve passed between you, and now you currently spend every hour planning their downfall. This entertains you, but for some reason unknown even to you, you want it to stop. You want that classic enemies to lover’s fairy tale, perhaps, or maybe you just want to see the look of terror on their face when they realise, they’ve fallen for you. No matter your intention, there is a fine line between hating and loving, and you must act at the right times. Act carefully and life will be in your favor.

*

Step one: extinguishing the fire.


Imagine hating someone is like a flame raging between the two of you. That one rift that started it so long ago is the fuel, and your emotions for them keep it burning, on and on. Fires will last and last until you find the thing that extinguishes it. In this case, that may in fact be your love. Passing the line from enemies to lovers isn’t as easy as it seems. You don’t just kiss them once and realise they’ve obsessed over you all this time. They hate your guts, and you hate theirs. Firstly, you have to learn to get over your own loathing of them. Think of them in the way you’d think of someone very dear to you. Write down the things you hate about them and try to turn them into positives.


Their smile is so cocky, it’s the key to unlocking the mindless abhorrence that takes you on a frenzy smashing up things you only realise you care about after the moment subsides. Their smile is a blessing to see, it’s the very thing that makes you willing to jump off a cliff for them if they wished for you to do so; it drives a painless obedience to their being: you’d do anything for them. The way they saunter towards makes you want to snap their overly-muscular legs in two and hope they lose too much blood in the amputation. Their strut is everything. It holds a confidence that sparks something in you, makes you feel as if you can do anything you put your mind to.

Lie to yourself until you believe it.

*

Step two: understand your disagreement.


You can’t possibly hate each other for no reason at all. It may seem like that, and if it takes you hours of racking your frustrated mind to realise what fueled your fire, then so be it. You can’t heal an old rift without knowing what started it. You finally reach at the conclusion, and then you work towards agreeing to disagree, the simple practice to solving any argument. Try to see things from their point of view. You hate them so much you know everything you can do to irritate them. Essentially, you can control them. The same in true love. This is why the line is so excruciatingly thin. Both love and hate can influence your actions, both positively and negatively. Work it, experiment with it – keep trying until you can control them, make them love you. You can’t do this without understanding what drives their repulsiveness, what they despise about you. Work to remove the fuel from its existence so the fire can never begin to burn again.

*

Step three: tricking the mind.


Your minds can’t always notice fine lines between things until it’s too late. They are powerful things in existence, and it’s even more powerful to learn the craft of manipulating them. You can trick your enemy’s mind into forgetting the line between hate and love, and merging the two forces together. At first, it may not be true, but as long as you can make them believe it, eventually there’s no way to tell. Love is a war. Just like you tricked yourself, trick them.


Every time they lay their eyes on you, they want to slam your body into a rock and remove you entirely from existence, they hope your loved ones would be glad to see you gone. Seeing you is a difficult skill. They have to forcefully fight the urge to grapple with you and drag their lips across yours. Being around you is a method of upmost torture. It makes them livid. Your personality is a hellhole, a hellhole that threatens to suck away their meaning. They strongly trust you don’t deserve to be alive. One toe trespassing your aura is torture. It’s horribly difficult not to entangle themselves with you and let their woes escape their kissable lips when your personality is so playful and inviting, however you keep them living. Being around you is blissful, dancing on sunshine.


If you can control your own mind, then you can control theirs.

*

Step four: the ultimate key.


They say too many people fall in love over one, simple, gentle kiss.

The contact of lips is incredibly underestimated. If their mind is already beginning to forget their hate for you, then just one peck could be the key. No matter how much they hate you, a kiss is a kiss and feels the same, not that different from one received from someone they think they love. Confusion clouds the mind. Confusion is the key. Dominant people like your enemy don’t like to be confused for too long, so when they feel your lips graze theirs, they want to murder you, but they also want more. They have to decide, otherwise they stay in the state of mind for too long, and they lose their purpose. They go for the easier option. The human instinct drives their soul, and so they just have to have more. The kiss causes a fuzziness to paralyze their thoughts, and when you break away, they part from you hungry, and any hatred is blurred by the force that is love. You then should leave them there in this mindset, and you leave them in terror. They realise your plan, but it is too late for them. The line between love and hate is too thin, too tauntingly thin, and once you cross it, it’s as strong as ever. You can cross back from mistaken love, but when it’s this true, it’s impossible. All those lies become true in reality for the both of you, yet nothings ever over. They are still your enemy. The enemy you now love.

*

Step five: mentally making them your lover.


You can’t just start dating them if you still think of them as the person who hates your guts. You can’t love them just for the physical affection. You have to learn to truly appreciate their company and their existence all over again – imagining yourself with them is completely different from when you’re actually dating them, and can often shock you back into that zone of disgust for them. The reality is a maelstrom-like blow when you realise the person poisoning your thoughts with the feel of their lips is your mortal enemy, when they are the person you have to call your “partner”. The person you might marry, and start a family with. They might seem to threaten to swallow your soul when they dive into the pool of obsession with you, starving for anything that revolves around you and your magical touch, yet you can’t let that take control of you and let you forget that they are like any lover you could have. They are not your enemy who you have permission to kiss and caress. They are your partner, and you love them for them, and you don’t allow your collective past to push you into the same flurry of arguments every time you set foot in their company. Whatever fueled the original fire cannot fuel another – if you somehow cross that line back to enemies, then there might be no hope. You can only heal a rift so big as the one you two had once: if it returns, it’s a waste of precious breath and energy trying. However, like already said, if your love is true, you should never have to worry, as you won’t be able to cross the line back. You will have spats – undoubtedly, as you are a working-progress project – but they will heal by themselves. That’s just how love works, and it works no differently because you define yourselves as “enemies to lovers”.


Use this guide correctly and carefully. It’s a weapon not to be used blindly without understanding the consequences.


July 03, 2022 20:54

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4 comments

M Ezq
21:53 Jul 03, 2022

Another wonderful story! I loved how you tried out a different format for this week's competition. I moreover adored step one's example of "extinguishing the fire", really got me hooked. Fantastic work!

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Zoë Page
09:48 Jul 04, 2022

Thank you! This was an experiment as I've never properly done anything like this before, so I'm glad you enjoyed it!

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Coby Crosby
04:34 Jul 10, 2022

This is such an unorthodox piece. In my opinion, it's a little twisted but's emotional and eye opening. I never enjoyed a short story so much.

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Zoë Page
10:12 Jul 10, 2022

I'm so pleased to hear you enjoyed my work, thanks!

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