Vigilante

        

His was the world of dark.Born into the darkness and raised unto it.He was robbed of the gift of sight at an early age.Born into this world with such a deformity he was left as a child,at the gates of a residential complex.Abandoned by those whom he would have called his parents.Alone in this world with nothing but darkness..Unlike others he chose to embrace it.Made it as a part of him.Lack of sight was compensated by the heightening of other senses.He could sense purpose,detect emotions  apart from his heightened hearing and sense of smell.

As a child, he was raised by the people living in the residential complex.Out of the compassion.Humanity too they would say.They would feed him and provide shelter.Warm roof against the cold rains. But as he grew the people were quickly tired of him and sympathies started to run dry.Providing for such a being no longer a child proved to be difficult.. And he was cast out again to fend for himself.As ever he didn't complain once,but adapted himself.He would scrummage through whatever scraps people left in trash,and slept under an enclosure in rains.

       In such a rainy night,as he crawled beneath the night guard's empty shed ,he sensed presence of unknown people in the vicinity late at night.Half wondering who it could be he followed the sounds.Presence of strangers was not uncommon,but at this time of night it was suspicious.He could detect malicious intent in those men.They marched up the steps of the building silently.He scrambled on after them keeping a safe distance.  Suddenly  a scream pierced the silence of the night.He rushed up the stairs,falling and flailing.The men had broken into an apartment and were attacking the residents.In he jumped into the fracas,lashing out at every evil doer he could sense.He knew every man residing in the building by his sound.The man who was constantly engulfed by vile fumes was to his right,the lady with the high pitched voice was screaming her lungs off behind him.He attacked everyone else.The thieves bewildered ,injured and scared out of their wits made haste to flee.Sensing them to be gone he stopped,panting breathing heavily.The residents looked upon him with equal fear,wonder and gratitude.He could smell fear on them.They made a move,as to offer him something as a token of their gratitude.But he backed away,not wanting any of that gratitude and retired to his previous place.

The next day the news spread throughout the residential complex of his heroic act.People marvelled at his instincts and praised him.They came from afar with their offerings.Shy in presence of so many people he holed up himself in the debris of the construction.People would leave their offerings,food,some scraps of cloth for the cold days. But still they would be afraid.He could sense it.He would come out only after they had left,snatch the offerings and return to his hiding place.

            With the passing days,acts of his heroism grew.Whether it was saving a girl from being assaulted late night by gang of drunks or almost killing an abductor who tried to kidnap a child.His fame spread far and wide and the crooks thought twice before entering.The word spread about the guardian of the premises and the thieves kept their distance from it.Still he wouldn’t come to terms with mingling with the people showing gratitude and cowered in his hole when they came.The residents built a permanent living quarter for him. They started providing him with food. There was also a small number of people who resented him. Who considered his presence a filth,a degradation upon the otherwise upscale society ,his acts of heroism not with standing.  Voices were raised by these few again and again shouting for his ouster but they were drowned in a majority who loved him for his deeds.

One fateful day,he sensed presence of evil.An unknown person had just entered the premises.Every hair on his body stood straight at the mere passing of this person.He could sense that something was amiss,he couldn’t know why.So he followed that person,maintaining a safe distance,hiding whenever he could, to go undetected.He was spotted by a resident,one of the few against him who ordered him to back off as the person was known to him.He retreated but his instincts told him otherwise.

He started shadowing that man again.Unknown to anybody the man had a weapon concealed on him .The man moved towards the children's play ground.He withdrew the weapon,a revolver and entered the playground.At once the atmosphere was rendered with shrieks and screams of the frightened children. .And the man took some children as hostages in the abandoned clubhouse.The vigilante started running towards the clubhouse at once,mustering all his strength.Somebody yelled at him to back down,this was a matter for the law enforcement agencies.Ignoring the pleas,he approached the area.It was a dark place,with almost no lights.But that didn't matter to him.He was born in darkness.He belonged to darkness.Relying on his superior hearing he entered the clubhouse through the back door.As he proceeded he could hear the sobs of captives to his right..He turned right in the corridor.He sensed a giant shadow of an object blocking his path.A disused pool table had been upturned and was used as a barricade.Crouching past it,he entered a room.

      He sensed the children’s presence and the man’s.Preparing for a strike he waited till the man was far away from the children.As he heard the man’s foot steps die away  he quickly sprang upon him.Shots rang out.The man shrieked as a devil,the devil in darkness took form and descended on him,cutting and ripping him.The struggle brought them near the room.And in a desperate attempt to save his life the man fired shots blindly in the air ,hoping to strike his target.The room lit up as each shot was fired.But alas,although the bullets missed the vigilante,they struck the children,killing  two of them.The vigilante stopped,horrorstruck by the outcome.He smelled Death,deaths of innocents.The man was dead too,but he had taken his toll.

That day was a black day for the society.They mourned their children lost.And joined in the few blaming the vigilante.They thought maybe the police could’ve better resolved the situation without his interference.Now everyone was against him.They wanted him dead,but couldn’t bring themselves to shed blood. Finally they decided to use a humane killer.And after capturing him and holding him captive they injected him with it.The humane killer brought on a painless and quick death..His body,stiff from the onset of death was thrown alongside the huge trash can where the truck came to pick it everyday.

 Inspite of darkness in his own life ,he had brought light in others’ while he lived.

True to his nature,he was Man’s best friend.

-Jyotirmay Khebudkar