The Late Goodbye

The rain poured on me and I didn’t mind.

“I loved to walk in the rain,

So no one could see my tears.”

The lines went just too well with me. As the rain poured so did those memories and let it come back again. First the reminiscence of a recent newspaper headlines “WEREWOLF HUNTER STARTS ‘SAVE WEREWOLF’ CAMPAIGN” and then I was back to those times….

From the childhood days, I have been trained to fight and kill werewolves. Werewolves are dangerous; they kill people, so I killed them. The payment was also nice and I felt elated after each kill. It was nothing illegal also, as all humans feared werewolves and wanted them to be extinct. So I was a blessing to such people.

But a handful didn’t think so. They sympathized for werewolves and believed that one day a werewolf antidote would be invented which would cure all werewolves of their disease or maybe keep them under control. Such a person was my friend, my best friend in this world—Julian.

Though we had such ideological differences we were still the best of friends. On one side when I was busy slaying werewolves, he was busy in his research work on werewolf antidote and running a ‘WEREWOLVES NEED LOVE’ campaign. I never stopped him from doing so as both of us respected each other’s profession.

One day I turned up in a village where a menacing werewolf was killing villagers each night in the forest beside it. I was amazed and rather pleased when I found Julian in the village’s inn. He looked rather ill and sleep-deprived. Amazingly, he was not at all excited to see me as always. “Julian! Nice to see you here. Did you come here for some research work?” I asked, “You didn’t tell me you’d come here!”

He was not so excited on seeing me, “Hi. Today is full moon right?”

I was baffled by his question. “Yes it is. So why did you come here? And why hadn’t you informed me earlier?”

He gave no answer. Just vaguely said, “Hmmm….Full moon; the time when werewolves are the most vicious and powerful. Come on; let’s take a walk to the forest! I’ll tell you something…”

“Alright”, I followed him, though I was quite reluctant about it. I had always known him to be a pretty jolly person but his current behavior puzzled me.

I was walking with him when I saw a group of villagers going towards the forest with axes, spears and other weapons.

“Where are those people going?” I asked.

“Yesterday the werewolf killed a small child. They wanted to hunt the werewolf themselves…” Julian replied.

And I could really understand the cause of the villagers’ urgency.

“Well, I had told the villagers at day time to try and kill the werewolf in the forest as it has become very dangerous…”his voice trailed off.

“What?!?! Impossible!” I exclaimed. He had a lot of love for those monsters.

Julian smiled half-heartedly. “I have to tell you something important. Last month I had got a werewolf in my laboratory…”

“Julian, that’s illegal. You knew it and still…”

“Please listen to me first. In my madness I freed the werewolf and it chased me. Though it couldn’t kill me, it bit me, “he sighed, “I am the werewolf hunting people each night here…”

My heart quivered—a strange feeling of fear of losing someone inside me. “No, but why did you…? It can’t be…”I couldn’t say anything. And then it happened all too fast.

I could hear the old church bell ringing and I knew it was midnight. Julian changed suddenly like an angel taking the shape of a fearful monster—the monster I had hunted for so many years.

I would run to protect him from the villagers but they had already surrounded him. They were slowly killing him with their weapons and I was held tightly by some people who didn’t want me to get close to the werewolf.

I did shout, I did cry. But the joyous cheers of the crowds drowned my voice when they set the injured werewolf on fire. Julian had called all the villagers to hunt him because he was scared he might hurt me.

And suddenly it all dawned on me. I understood how it feels like to take away a close person from you and his only fault being he is a werewolf. I realized that for me so many people had lost their friends and relations. A werewolf is a human after all…and so many innocent people like Julian are hunted every day for becoming one.

Julian was right. Our world which is already so full of violence and hatred needed healers not destroyers. We have to invent an antidote for werewolves just as Julian had dreamt of. Healing was the answer to all evils… not destruction. If we start healing the werewolves now…we could save millions of people from being hunted by werewolves or millions hunted as werewolves.

When I realized it, it was too late. I decided not to follow the crowd.