This was a story i wrote for a competition.

“Just beat them to death”. As Aashish spoke these words, a chilling fear went through my spine. I never contemplated killing anyone, not even in my dreams. I know that it’s beyond me. I have had no experience in doing this. What if the authorities found out that it was me who killed them all? But, I realize now that I have to do it. There is no other go. Every day, rather every night for the past three months has been a nightmare. As these thoughts flashed through my mind, the thoughts went back to the events in the last three months. Working late has never been a problem for me. But in the past three months, working late and going back has been a constant struggle as these five gangsters (as I would like to call them) prey on me day in and day out. When I told this problem to my supervisor, he had a hearty laugh and said “the city has changed a lot. You have to adjust to the changing times. You can’t go home early just because you have this issue. Everybody faces this problem. Even Aashish faced this kind of situation sometime back. Ask him what he did to overcome that. Just work around as you know we will have a lot of conference calls late in the night”. “Sir” I said, “The other day when I entered the street at 2 AM, they were waiting to pounce on me. It is as if they know when I will come. I can’t take this anymore. If you can’t guarantee the safety of an employee, then I don’t see any point in working late. I am not able to concentrate after nine since I know that these predators will be there waiting for me”. Aashish gave me a piece of wisdom, “you know what, initially I was also struggling to come to terms with these, but as time went along, I understood that it’s fear on the person’s eye that they feed on. So try to stay calm and bully them back or better still, try to befriend them”. I said “What are you talking about? I can’t be friends with these thugs. Never. The other day I tried to shout at them but they came back with a vengeance.” I was on the verge of crying. That’s when Aashish suggested that I kill them. I decided to use pepper spray to unsettle them and then attack. I know that it needed a lot of courage but I have to do it. Somebody has to stand up and let it be me. I will show the world that I am not a coward. May be my son will take some inspiration from me if I am able to do it. It was 2 AM, and time to go home. I packed my laptop and started going home. My home is 3 KMs away from the office, and there is a dark corner near my apartment where these predators usually wait. I could sense my heart racing. From a distance, I could see my apartment and the dark corner as well. I was sweating profusely as I neared that corner, waiting for them to pounce on me. To my surprise I found no one. That’s when the watchman of my apartment came running towards me and said, “Aarthi Madam, the authorities took note of our situation. They sent a dog catching van today and caught the dogs that usually loiter here. So don’t worry, you can go home peacefully now”.