A Choice

Hate glides through the streets like a plague.

Singling out the cautious and reserved, it pounces.

Attaching itself to the back of one who cares, it begins to teach.

Perched on the shoulders of its victim, it summons the uncaring.

The heartless draw closer, crawling on the ground like black slime.

Emerging from the earth as a blackness from cast-off evils, it slithers.

The hate gleefully smiles with hollow eyes and broken teeth.

It beckons to them wildly. The shapes change as they move.

Morphing into grotesque parodies of those who would be friends.

They walk beside the caring. Smiling and comforting it as they walk.

The shadows whisper into its ear. They make it believe their ways.

They make the caring turn to hate with their lies.

The caring makes a choice. It brushes aside the evil.

It brushes aside the evil with a caring thought. A thought of self-sacrifice.

It brushes aside the shadows of slime as they crawl over the caring.

The shadows relentlessly try to drive a wedge into the caring heart.

The heart does not waver.

The heart stands firm. Hate is defeated.

One by one, the shadows retreat.

They retreat to the blackness of uncaring creations.

Hate follows, but with an evil smile. A smile of cruelty. A cruelty that will return.