Green Magistricide

                                          

Yet again, I awoke from my fitful slumber wishing I had been born colour-blind. Only to the hues of green. The tint terrified me in the dead of the night. I hated it, for it robbed me of sleep. Accusatory, it felt to me, at times. But I also loved it, more than anything else. Hence, I desired to erase it from my memory because it tried its best to envelop me in its soothing embrace.

In a village nestled amidst knolls, away from the raging flames of war, we were raised in a temple, two orphaned boys protected by a very gentle, compassionate soul. We became brothers of sorts, the priest; our teacher, our guide, our father. I was rescued by Master first and when the emerald-eyed child joined us a few months later, I witnessed infinite possibilities within that glistening jade pair, always playing together in the fields while Teacher watched, being a family evermore.

Upon turning nineteen, all we remembered were crimson and yellow.

Our home was set on fire.

“Your mentor was indoctrinating you in seditious literature!” They said, “Raising you to be future revolutionaries!”

Those men, who sought to open up the nation to foreign rule, bound the hands and legs of Teacher and shoved him to the ground.

The green meadows I envisioned turned scarlet in an instant.

The lovely mirror of childhood into which I peered, viewing a happy little family of three, shattered into thousands of shards in a moment.

“You!” One of them grabbed me by the collar, “Here, take this dagger.”

“W-why?” I stammered, suddenly tasting blood on my tongue.

“Nothing personal, you see, boy,” One of them sneered, “but we need to carry out a purge, eliminating anyone who may pose a threat to us. Look behind you.”

My brother was pinned to the earth, eyes wide, shaking his head at me, “No, they’ll give you two-”

“Silence!” Someone kicked him and a fine stream of red trickled down his forehead. However, he had grasped the crux of the matter before I did.

“You have two choices. Kill this one here or your teacher. Whoever lives will die on the inside anyway.”

My ears were ringing. A voice was yelling from behind, “Please, no! Don’t kill Master! I’m the better option, right? I have nothing to offer to the world-”

I raised the blade high. Teacher turned to look at me and smiled, murmuring, “Thank you.”

His head was sent flying.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed my brother trying to dash towards me, face contorted, but something silver whizzed past me.

Blood spurted out and smeared my left cheek, mingling with the drops of despair.

One beautiful green eye closed for eternity.

“Why…” my fellow student began weakly, one part of his countenance discoloured, breathing shallow, “… did you choose to save me?”

“Don’t you remember what Master used to say? ‘I am but a relic; you boys, on the other hand, shall be the heralds of change’. And yet you had the gall to speak that way! About how you had nothing to offer to the world!”

“Ah!” He closed the other eye, grinning slightly, “Thanks for reminding me I had homework left for tomorrow. Fell asleep during class, bad boy that I am… Wish this eye was gone too. Had to see your tears. At least grace me with a smile before I graduate…”

“I’ll see you off while you move out for higher education. You excelled at academics, always knew you were meant for greater things… Come, the boat is waiting at the pier…”

The waves curling around our feet, he told me, both eyes intact, “Well, this is where we part. Thanks for the… erasure of the sight of that blazing world.”

“You know, I hoped to sail many a sea together with you and Teacher.”

“That would have been nice. But things never go the way one wills it to, do they?”

“Don’t I know it… Anyway, your legacy of green, I’ll treasure it.”

“Even though I’m completely blind now, I’ll cherish your face. It’s etched into the back of my eyelids. I’ll be going now. Hold on to green, do not follow the path of ensnaring scarlet.”

“Do we have enough ammunition?” I asked. The man on my right grunted a yes. We had concealed ourselves, our stealth operation tonight. “We’ll be bombing the police headquarters at 12.”

A visor covering the lower half of my face, I whispered, elated, “My, my, who do we have here?” I took off the cloth. “It’s only been two years and look how you’ve risen. But perhaps you don’t remember me.”

A revolver aimed straight at the Assistant Commissioner of the Police, I smirked, “Maybe this will jog your memory a little. You have two choices. Die by my hands or get blasted to bits. Nothing personal, you see, but we need to carry out a purge.”

The man nearly fell off his seat in sheer terror.

“You… you’re that boy who killed your own teacher without hesitation!”

“So now you recall how ruthless I can be, yes?”

I pulled out a knife from my breast-pocket.

“Oh, don’t worry. Your death won’t be quick. I’ll take my time to gouge out both your eyes before I riddle you with bullets. I’ve done it before, but it was only one eyeball. Such a shame your irises aren’t green.”