It wasn’t long ago that I nearly walked down that path of burning vengeance trying to find the one who killed my father.
Days upon months of searching through the shadows, battered and bruised wading through the scum to find answers.
Slowly becoming more desperate as anger and brutality filled every ounce of my soul. Those who had once been able to walk away with cuts and bruises now were lucky to even walk again.
But I never crossed that line, never allowed that tsunami of despair to drag me under. Not because I wasn’t willing but because I was saving it for him.
It took months but I finally found him as fantastical visions of everything I dreamed I would do, everything I would say filled my mind.
Yet I didn’t find a calculating evil that needed to be brought to justice nor a fantastical monster to slay, I found a broken mess of a man who made a mistake.
A kid not much older then me who made one wrong choice and now was inches from falling into the abyss.
I could’ve delivered him to justice knowing it’d corrupt him forever, I could’ve ended him where he stood knowing it’d carve a scar down my soul that would never heal.
I simply knelt down, let the anger fade away and forgave him. Not because I wanted to but because it was the right thing to do.
And you’ve been drenched in blood for so long you can’t see right from wrong anymore Kpavio.
I want to admire you for all the good you’ve done for this city but two wrongs don’t make a right. And the path you’re walking down is one that only ends in suffering and misery.
You may look at me like a naïve child out of his depth who believes in a fantasy but I know that given the chance, everyone is capable of good.
They’re just stuck walking in darkness because men like you have blinded them for so long that the light is nearly extinguished.
My fathers killer became an upstanding member of society and has done everything he can to redeem himself since that day.
A chance he never would have been given if you’d found him. He’d be locked up, anger and guilt festering until he became just another monster.
And I know most would reject that choice, would never be swayed by hope and forgiveness.
But I’d rather bring one in a thousand souls back to the light then condemn them all to the darkness you convey.
So prove me wrong Skull, show me that your violence and cruelty is the only path imaginable in this broken world.
I’ll continue to believe in the good of others, that this world can be better then it was meant to be.
And maybe one day history will tell which one of us walked the wrong path.
I have Faith Kpavio that it won’t be me.