Malek Allari | Editor-In-Chief
There was once a reckless kid who believed that he could conquer the world and fly. Inspired by the stories of Superman and Spiderman, that kid never ceased to impress the ones around him with his delusions and naïve mind. He thought all would be fine if he was the hero to save the day. But then, one day, he discovered that heroes are nothing but bedtime stories. Stories told by the parents to their children to put them at peace from the monsters under the bed or the ones hiding in the closet. However, one day on a rainy night, with the thunder rumbling out and about, the kid discovered the heroes are no more than people who want to hide the truth from the public, and what the world needed what we call “villains.”
That kid grew up to understand that villains are the bad guys and that heroes defeat them so that they can save lives. One fateful day came to that child with bearing news. A day that he will never forget as long as he lives. A day when he knew by heart that the hero would sacrifice the loved ones to save the world, while the villain would sacrifice the world to help the loved ones. That reckless kid awakened a monster deep inside him. A monster in slumber and with patience will wreak havoc on the world. A reckless kid, so innocent, and yet a guilty monster at a young age.
The kid reached puberty when he first felt guilt. Guilt that he will never forget to this day. He disciplined himself enough to think with his mind and understand the logic behind what happens around him. He still suffers from the grips of the devil and tries harder and harder as time passes, but all in vain. The devil makes the kid succumbs to the sins of this world, and yet the kid tries to fight back with tears in his mind. With every tear dropping by, his innocence fails to save him, and the heroes he once dreamed of never came. After a while, the kid can do nothing but laugh. A laugh that everybody hears. A laugh that hides the pain and sorrow. A laugh that will suppress his loathing emotions, and he tries to put a smile on his face.
A face that is beloved by many, but none wants to associate with. A face that loves and is loved but hates the ones around him. That child, who curses that fated day, still feels a belonging somewhere in this world. He imprisoned himself in a room where he could leave anytime, but he is the poor convict and the cruel warden. In a world full of hate and love, the kid finds himself in the middle of the battlefield between the forces of love and hate. Some say that he is a victim of this war, but who isn’t? With all his might and power, the kid rose on his feet and drove both forces to him, hoping that they would shred him to pieces.
It was nothing but disappointment that he felt on that day. He tries to make things hard on people so that they kill him. The monster inside him laughed. The laugh was so loud it came out of the kid’s mouth too. The monster that was in slumber woke up with everything but integrity. Integrity is the only trait that makes the kid human and innocent. It holds him up to his morals and ethics, but sometimes, all he wants to do is let loose of this hell he is living. A hell where he chooses between two options: being a villain or being a hero. As actions have consequences, he was afraid of both. His fear grew so large that he screamed in agony whenever he heard the words “hero” or “villain.”
Years later, the kid who was afraid of two simple words and concepts grew up strong and firm. The kid, who is no longer a kid but a man of high esteem, never let the public know or even guess what he was doing. He became so mysterious that even science looked at him with a different look and expression. An expression of hunger for knowledge that it might ask the once reckless kid to be a test subject for a greater good. To become a hero to humankind. The kind of hero who sacrifices not other people but himself. A hero where integrity still holds him as his pieces fall off the body. The integrity will make him be remembered as a hero; however, that integrity also made him the villain who refused to save humankind. The man, with a dark smile on his face, said, “Humankind awakened a monster inside me, and you expect me to save them. I might as well lose my integrity, morals, and ethics to a bunch of knowledge-hungry people who abandoned their humanity for the sake of the truth that was always there. The truth is that heroes never win, neither do they lose. But villains…villains won the war a long time ago.”
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