Chapter 23: Lesson learned

When I woke up I saw that I was on a bed… my head still hurt a bit and body was in tremendous pain… I tried to sit up and see where I was but I couldn’t… I was too pain stricken to even sit properly… But still I managed to see what or rather who was beside me… it was Evie… she was still sleeping or rather she was unconscious… slowly I recalled the incidents of the previous night… a terrible thought crossed my mind… Taylor had struck her with a chain… was she alive? I hoped she was because I couldn’t do anything but hope…

“So, how are you doing Miroku?” It was Louis’s voice.
“I am fine…” I replied, still worried about Evie.
“Don’t worry; Evie is alright… the doctor was called last night…” Louis read my mind.

I didn’t notice before but I had bandages all over my arms and body… and also around my head…

“Don’t try to get up now… you need rest… I am going now… I have to check the other guy…” Louis got up.
“Other guy?” I asked him.
“Taylor…” Louis replied.
“It would have been better had I finished him off last night… but now that you have brought him with you I will kill him here…” I told him rather loudly.
“Stop it! Everyone makes mistakes… it’s about time you forgave him…”
“Forgive him!! Are you serious… after all he has done, you want me to forgive him? Never!”
“I know he has done some great deal of damage to you… I know he almost ended your career and I also know what he did to Evie…”
“And even after knowing those you want me to forgive him…”
“What he did wasn’t at all good, it was a terrible thing to do but please you must think about it…”
“No, there is nothing else left to think…”
“Sam told me what happened in that pub…”
“I was under the influence of alcohol…”
“So maybe Taylor was also under the influence of alcohol when he did that…”

The last part got me thinking…

“So what if he was under the influence of alcohol… he had every intention to do that…” I told recalling the comments Taylor had made that night.
“Alcohol brings out the beast from within a human…”
“Maybe it does, but Taylor is beyond forgiving…”
“Do as you please then, but Taylor has promised he won’t bother you guys again so, you must also promise the same…”
“I can’t do that… Taylor must pay for his deeds…”
“Let me make this one thing very much clear to you… Taylor almost ended your career but it was during a match… anything can happen during a match, players have even died while playing, but you didn’t do anything different did you? No, you did something different you almost ended his career but not during a match…”
“What you are trying to say is that we are very much equal?”
“No, not that… what I want to convey is that you must forget the past…”
“I never hurt anyone in my life… I didn’t beat him up for injuring me, I beat him for laying his hands on Evie… if Evie can forgive him then definitely I can too…”

“I have forgiven him Miroku, please listen to Louis…” Evie spoke after hearing our conversation.

“See Miroku, Evie has forgiven Taylor… now please try to forget about those incidents…”
“I am forgiving him… but not on a permanent basis, if he ever decides to hurt us again he will get killed…”

“I have learned my lesson Miroku, I was wrong in doing whatever I did… and I am apologizing for it… and if I again repeat those mistakes you can do whatever you like…” Taylor came inside the room.

His state was better than mine though he was hurt… those chains I hit him with had left their marks on his body… he couldn’t stand straight and also walked with a limp…

“So it’s settled then…” Louis said.

“Yes…” I told.

I can’t deny the fact that although I forgave Taylor I didn’t forget everything he did to me and Evie… so I decided to keep an eye on him… no, I didn’t trust him at all… after all those incidents who would have??