d with childlike fascination as though he were seeing the sun and the morning clouds for the first time. But behind that fascination was profound gloom, dark and Stygian. It changed the c

squint, didn't flinch. He stared at the sun — directly — and didn't take his eyes off ev

membered the hands, black and calloused, like the devil's hand, that grabbed him at the neck, ribs, groin, and eyes. Hands everywhere, all over his body, working their ways into where his soul w

embered his bravery, his courage. One man against five, he gave a good

y strong,” his father would say

a,” he wo

ou must be ready to fight

, Pa

break you. Don't let

n't,

is world. Humans are heartless and evil. I suffered

on the hospital bed all shrivelled up, at the very brink

g, both physically and mentally. Because that's the only

ed, “with every fibre of

lood, he fought bravery. Even when he saw nothing but red and black and grey, when sharp things gashed his body in different places and blood spurted out on every side, still he fought bravely. And he won. Yes, he won. He took a man down. Saw the man fall down flat as though felled like a tree, his hand clutching at his throat as death rattles issued out. And he defeated the other four, too. He

that in sync with the morning breeze. David envied them. I wished he were one of those tulips, those bright, beautiful things, firmly planted on the earth and tended, with no worries, no cares, with just the sole aim of their existence being to take up water from the root and take in sunlight, and then beautify the world. But