Author: Nitya Valimbe, Class X E
No one comes into the world with darkness in their veins.
It seeps in slowly —
from neglect,
from laughter that hurts,
from love that leaves too early.
At first, they try to stay kind.
They forgive.
They shrink themselves to fit.
But when the world keeps mistaking gentleness for weakness,
something inside them learns to grow teeth.
And that’s how it begins —
not with rage,
but with exhaustion.
That boy from the orphanage —
He didn’t dream of death.
He dreamed of belonging.
But when no one ever reached for him,
he reached for power instead.
They called him Voldemort.
And Gothel —
she didn’t mean to cage love.
She just loved the way her mother did —
too tightly, too afraid of losing it.
Hurt became inheritance,
and she carried it until it carried her.
Rapunzel broke the curse.
Gothel didn’t.
And then there’s the man who only wanted
to make people laugh.
But the world laughed at him, not with him.
And when his heart finally cracked,
he painted on a smile so no one could see it bleed.
They called him the Joker.
But what about the ones who didn’t break?
The ones who had every reason to?
What if Cinderella,
after all the years of ash and cruelty,
had decided that kindness was overrated?
Would we have called her a monster too?
Would we have burned her story
and crowned her stepsisters instead?
Maybe the only difference
between the heroes we love
and the villains we hate
is who the story decided to forgive.
Hmmmm…..???
IYKYK.
