This world is… just evil by Bogdan Dragos

it was around 3 AM

no sleep

no work in the morning
either

so she got up

turned on the TV
tuned it off

got her pack of smokes out
of the handbag

lit one

and smoked it as she
stared
at the fish tank from up
close. "This is how I used
to watch TV
while growing up," she said to
the only moving fish in
the tank. "The screen didn't mess
up my vision. But the
things shown on it
did.
I've a very bleak vision of
the world now."
She blew the smoke against
the glass

The one fish that still moved
around was too busy
eating from the flesh of its
deceased
friends to notice her

"You look pretty happy," she
said. "Say, have you
ever regretted
talking someone out of suicide?
Um? Well, I had.
I, uh, was seeing this guy whose
little daughter died. She
had some nasty cancer or something
like that.
Poor guy was so devastated
that he just wanted to go
after her. And that's where I kinda
came in.
I convinced him not to
do it.
Now he's in prison.
Yeah, the only way to avoid prison
would've been if he actually followed his
daughter.
Ah, I know you don't watch the news,
and I applaud you for that,
but if you did, well, you'd know about
the robber who returned
the money he stole from a store
because it was not
enough to save his daughter. Yeah, that's
how it went. Guy just shows up
with the money and gives it back
over the counter,
apologizing and saying it was just not
enough to save her.
Crazy.
He was caught shortly after and is
now serving time.
And this is the world we live in.
Healthcare is so expensive here
that a man has to
rob a store to pay for his
daughter's surgery. And even that's not
enough. And when he gets caught
the law punishes him, of course.
And then I punished him even more. What in
the hell was I thinking? Telling him not
to kill himself. He should've
done it. That way
he would've been happy, away from
this shit world.
Now he's in prison, under suicide
watch, thinking that I'm out
here waiting for him to get out.
I'm sorry... but I'm not waiting for him.
Haven't exactly found someone
else yet, but it's not like I stay
away from that either. After all, I too am
part of this world, am I not?
I'm every bit as wicked as the rest of
it. I do feel remorse though.
But I doubt that's gonna change
anything. This world is... just
evil, you see?"

The fish still didn't
acknowledge her presence behind
the glass. It kept
drifting from carcass to carcass
enjoying itself
tremendously