Deadly Ink

    Mayumi stormed inside her room and slammed the door shut.  On impulse, she grabbed a ratty journal inside her backpack, its leather cover worn and torn as if it had seen things people would rather not have.  But despite how the journal looked from the outside, its leaves looked surprisingly new on the inside.  Mayumi, her fingers barely grazing through the pages, found the blank page instantly-- a page near the beginning yet near the end; a page Mayumi had been highly familiarized with since the beginning of time. 

    She poised the black pen on top of the page and started writing:

    Angry.  I am angry. My eyes see red for what he has done. 

    He dare lay a hand on my best friend and splatter the walls with her blood.  Jamaica, thank the Gods, is alive and well but she is an angel and could forgive so easily...but I, unfortunately, am not! 
    He's at the hands of the law now but why let him off easy when there's something I could do about it?  He will pay, for nobody messes with me nor the ones I love.
    Yes, he will pay for the atrocity he has done.
    I want him gone; for the hungry soil screams for his blood.  The darkness, with all its horrors, will welcome him in its arms and in it he ought to lay silent and still for all eternity. He deserves-- this devil cloaked in human skin-- the worst punishment that the heavens could ever bring.
    Michael.  Just writing your name leaves a bitter taste on my mouth.  In honor of my friend, within a fortnight you'll be...

     Mayumi stopped.  Does she dare write further?  She always had before without flinching and yet...

    It is so easy to destroy when one is angry, Mayumi thought, her fingers itching to write more.  In the past, she had written despicable horrors that would make any person's heart freeze inside his chest.  But this time is different.  Maybe Mayumi, with all her years, had finally matured and was more capable in controlling her anger.  Maybe she had written, over and over again, pointless deaths that had not made her any happier.  Or maybe she realized now in this lifetime, that while her pen has the power to destroy, she also has to be responsible in using that power.

    Mayumi sighed and closed her journal slowly.  What Michael did hurt.  Maybe he deserved punishment for what he has done.  But Mayumi also realize that Michael is human.  While that may not be an excuse, she had learned along the way that being part of that species is the ability to make mistakes.  The same way she always had.  Besides, if he were to be punished, it should not be by her own hands but through the laws his own kind had created.  She found most of them fair so she had faith that justice will be served sooner or later.

    Mayumi let her emotions cloud her judgment before and in so doing had lived life after life in angry turmoil.  Maybe, just maybe, in sparing Michael's life, she will also be giving her own life a chance.