Heroes, villains and the monsters they create

On a cold, wet winter evening, all you could see through the windshield was snowflakes. White dust puffs falling slowly like our lives. Once they hit the ground, they pass under the wheels of time. So why were we driving?

An emergency! My husband had an asthma attack that won’t come under control. I drove through the dimming sky and the hollow roads when we heard a loud thud. As if the sky tore up and threw a cannonball at us. But it wasn’t an asteroid. It was two superhumans colliding, falling from the sky and soon to fall from grace.

I swerved the car. A few other cars skid across the sides like Hotwheels on the road. My head hit, the bumper crushed against a tree. A dizzy feeling took me by surprise as I was trying to help my husband to get down. Another thud! The snow-covered our vision like a thick blanket. After it settled down, I found the doors of my car crushed like tin foil. My husband gasping for air as it trapped his lungs. I froze even when I heard people scream at me, telling me to get in a safe zone.

I was standing all alone. Shaking, shivering, and frozen as I watched my husband’s last breath turn into a cold wisp. One last time he looked at me with the reassurance that it is fine. But this wasn’t the time. This wasn’t the place.

The two superhumans kept fighting. I wished they would kill me too. I wished one of their laser beams ripped through my body, like the feeling of losing my love ripped through my heart. And somehow, every attack that took place around me left me unscratched.

Soon one of them flew off, the other followed. The crowd gathered around me. I remember someone holding me, trying to empathize. Some of them called for help to get my husband’s body out of the carnage.

I don’t remember if it was the cold winter or the moment of separation that my tears froze. I stopped crying. All I knew is I looked up for hope. Now I realised for them; there was no looking down. And why would they, the saviour, the mighty they soar. Us, we live down, in hell, where we belong.

It was time to bring them all down. Cease their existence. It was time we become a hope for others. We became heroes for others. We become them. And ultimately, we become their death.

— H