Revenge or Revolution?

20.

It was one such day of planning going on with Mr.Patrickson when Steve was trying really hard to remember the names of the bullies.

'You can do it, Steve,' Mr.Patrickson tried to be patient with him, 'It's just a matter of time before you remember things.'

'Time is what I lack!' Steve yelled. He felt like an embarrassment. It was not acceptable that he couldn't remember simple names. If he couldn't even remember the names, how would he recall what happened to him?

'I think we should take a break.'

'I think we should just give up!' Steve walked out of the room in disappointment. He was angry and he had to let go of his steam. He picked up his bag to find the squeezy ball he used to control his anger.

He tried to find it but couldn't place his hand on it. he was frustrated and threw his bag across the room. Everything on the bag scattered on the floor.

Steve groaned as he had to clean up all this now. He went towards the bag and saw a book lying there. He had seen that book somewhere before but he didn't remember where. He had never completely opened his bag as he was scared what might be there. Steve was scared of everything after the hematoma.

He picked up the book and it seemed to be an old book, more like a diary. And then it suddenly dawned on him. This was the dairy he used to write in college. he wrote all the significant details of his life in the diary. He had found the book of destiny and he shrieked loudly in joy.

'What happened?' Mr.Patrickson ran towards the inner room.

'I wrote a diary in which I had everything. Names, what they did to me and why they did it to me.' Steve had never been happier.

'That's fantastic! Where is this diary that you are talking about?'

Steve held his hand, where he had his book, high and grinned.

He flipped it open and started to read it. Flood of memories came. He started remembering everything. His head began to hurt. He flipped to the last page and the last date was 13th of August. And it wasn't related to how he got hit. It was related to Sandra and how she was on a break with Brian and in that time, she had slept with Sean.

'Sean.' This name didn't ring any instant bell inside him. And he and Mr.Patrickson read the whole diary together and it made everything so easy. The perfect plan still lacked a big thing to execute it. But they found the detonator. And now they could easily teach those bullies a lesson and beat them with their own vices.

Kyle and Sean were beaten very cruelly. But Brian's vice was something which won't bring any physical harm to him. It was hard to use it against them. But Steve had managed to find the perfect way to make Brian suffer the most with the least contact with him. And when he told the plan's ending to Mr.Patrickson, they jumped with pleasure at the brilliance of the plan.

'When do you want to execute the final stage, Steve?'

'I think 14th of August will be the best day. I wrote the diary everyday till 13th of August and it clearly means that the day when the incident happened to me was on 14th. And I want the same day to remind him of his biggest mistake of life.'

Mr.Patrickson had gladly agreed with it.

After the deaths of Sean and Kyle, Steve was the one who had called the Grestown high as an anonymous donor wanted to have a reunion of the college. He had also strictly specified that all the participants have to report a week earlier. If it happened, only then he would give the generous amount of money he had promised.

For the money, Mr.Patrickson put his restaurant on lease. Steve took all of his money from his "Harvard fund", details of which he had forgotten up until he read about its existence in the diary. Together they had enough money for planning the perfect reunion.

Sandra was waiting for the reunion just as much as Steve was. She had wrecked her brain in every possible way but she could get no legit proof that it was Brian who was behind the whole thing. But all she got was a phone call to his uncle. A necklace which might have belonged to Sean but there could be many necklaces which were made alike. And a story by Steve and she was sure that if she asked him to testify against Brian for what happened in college, to show a pattern of his violent behavior, he would straight up disagree because then his history of women harassment would come up.

******

Sandra lay in her bed with Brian besides her. He was caressing her forehead and it seemed so serene being there with him. She had started to justify the killings. The way Kyle had treated her and used his physical prowess to overpower her, he deserved to die a pig's death. She had always thought that sportsmen had more respect towards people as their whole career is related with the crowd and fans. But how she was proved wrong!

'Was I becoming a bad person too for thinking they deserved to die?' Sandra thought. 'What they did was wrong and I surely was in a trauma for sometimes and they definitely deserved a punishment. But was the punishment of death even necessary? I lived. They should also have lived.'

She was not a hypocrite. She knew the difference between what crime was worth getting killed and what were not. What Sean and Kyle did was worth a punishment, maybe even some years in jail but what Brian did was unforgivable.

She had never had such contradicting thoughts earlier. At one moment, she had decided that Brian should rot in jail for his whole life or just be given the death penalty. But the next moment, she would remember what Sean did to her.