UNRAVEL: A Collection of Shorties

Twisted

An entry for Wattpad Undiscovered  Stories One-shot writing contest

Theme: Life of a Disabled Person

Required Wordcount: 1,500-2,500 words

Rank 8

      Gaiety filled the room as Eric, Syd and Marco did a toast for their reunion. It had been six years since they graduated from college and now their respective careers were playing on all chords, despite of them being in a differently-abled bracket. 

     "I wish Henry was here. I haven't heard of him since ages," countered Eric as he whirled his wheelchair and bounced his gaze toward the picture of their barkada that was on top of the grand piano. He was now a bank manager of a prominent bank over the Metro.
     With that, Marco flashed a rueful smile and gestured his hands to tell them that maybe Henry had his own family now in a far-flung area. Marco was now an owner of an art gallery in the heart of Metro.
     "Ah, that squirt. Maybe he won a lottery and didn't tell us," Syd kidded as he clicked his tongue. He knew that they were talking about Henry upon reading Marco's sign language. Syd, the joker of their group was now an editor in chief of a famous sports magazine in the Philippines.
    They all laughed out loud and took a swig on their wines.
    "Wherever Henry is, I believe that he's also as successful as we are!" Syd crowed and they hoped to God that their long lost friend was doing just fine.
****
      In the dead of the night, a frail man in his late-fifties was ambling along the dimly-lit road, oblivious of what danger lies before him.
    Just then, the man felt that someone was following him.
    Unfazed, he just continued to walk and whistled a happy tune. The night gale blew with a malefic sound that brought shivers to his spine. Overhead, the silvery-moon cast a mystic glow that made this chilly night like the ambiance from one of Bram Stroker's spine-tingling novels.
     All of a sudden, a hand clamped over his mouth. The man thrashed as he tried to pry out the hands away from its painful grip, but it went futile.
    "Shhh..." The assailant shushed in a deadly whisper as he aimed the razor-sharp object against the poor man's throat.
     Wasting no time, the assailant mercilessly cut the poor man's eyelids, making the blood oozed on his wrinkled skin.
    "Now, you won't see any more how ugly and twisted the world we live in," the assailant purred and with one mighty cut of his scalpel, the man shrieked in agony as he tumbled on the ground.
     With a wicked glint on his stormy-bluish eyes, he lauded himself for doing another great job.
    "You all shall fear what you undermine!" He countered and let out a hollow laugh.
     It had been six years since he studied about the knife play and how to slay it despite of one's disability or impairment.
     Screw having a hotshot career; this was what he meant for.
   It took a lot of effort and hard work for him to hide from his so-called-friends after they graduated from college.
   "Celine would never want....anyway, love is blind."
    "Oh, man, Henry. Can you see our future after five years?
    "Henry, Mrs. Diaz said Hi and said he will see you in her office."
     At the young age of seven, he had experienced series of physical abuse with his father who was now rotting in jail whilst her mother whom he had inherited his blindness, passed away after he graduated from college. Despite of all his misgivings and all those hurtful words that people hurl on him, he managed to finish his studies with a degree on Special Education.
     But it never occurred to him that his life would change into a full spin that one October night after he went home alone from Syd's home.
    "What the heck are you doing with your life? Look at you, you are blind and struggling.  You have no family left and those friends you're with? Hah! They aren't worth it; they talk shit behind your back. Also, you do not have a hotshot job and people always make fun of you. Will you settle for those shits every day? Why don't you go with me? I know, you've been dreaming to be a kick ass action star since you were just a little boy. Why don't you give it a try?" said a voice inside his head.
     He thought better of it; he had been living in darkness all his life. He didn't have a chance to see the beauty—if there was any—of the world he lived in, but life made him experience that his blindness was a blessing in disguise for he didn't want to see what this twisted world looked like. He was twenty-one then, blind and alone. Absentmindedly, he traced the three-inch scar that ran around his chest brought by the abuse of his father.
    Fuck those assholes and all those people who made his life a living hardwire.
    He had known them as the shy and collective type but they took it for granted. They used his blindness to treat him like someone who was carrying a bulbonic plague.
It was time to make a move—he had to be real man who could protect himself. So, he made his decision that night; he will study about knife play. Every waking moment, the voice kept on telling him to follow his urge and Henry believed that it was the voice of his saving grace. He believed that maybe he had a special gift that other humans didn't have.