“‘I wish you were dead.‘”
“Those words left my mouth countless times when we were growing up, Joey. You and I always had our disagreements, always had something to fight about. The first time it left my mouth was after a fight over something so small, so trivial. A toy. I punched you in the mouth, you slammed that little action figure right into the table and broke the damn thing in half.”
“Just fucking ruined it. I couldn’t piece it back together again, and I knew dad wasn’t going to buy us a new one.”
“And, in the moment, I said those horrid words. Words that, most children, never really mean, do they? It’s not said out of honesty, but out of anger. Spitting poison from their lips as they wish not simply to hurt their own flesh and blood, but for them to no longer exist.”
“To be honest with you, back then, I know I never meant it. But when the tears welled up in my eyes and my heart pounded in my ears, it was all that I could say.”
“Of course I didn’t wish you were dead, Joey.”
“I loved you.”
“Loved.”
“Last week, when you and your group of bloodthirsty convicts invaded the APD, for a moment, we were back home, tugging an action figure between ourselves. Yet, when the figure broke in half, there wasn’t simply a pop, Joey.”
“There was a scream. A blood curdling cry for mercy as blood splattered the walls and bones broke beneath the skin. You weren’t breaking a toy, you were ending a life. The people in the APD I was so close with, who meant the world to me? You terrorized them with a sick little smile on your face all so you could get back at me.”
“Because you never fucking grew up, Joey.”
“Everything you do, not just to me, but to the world around you? It’s because you’re a black hearted child that doesn’t care about the consequences of his actions. So long as I got mad, as long as you were able to hurt me? It didn’t matter who suffered.”
“Be it an action figure.”
“Or someone who had a family to go home to.”
“Well you know what? You did it, you got to me. With all the hatred in your heart and the devil on your shoulder you finally made me realize something.”
“Maybe, all those years ago, I was right to say what I said.”
“I spent months trying to find you, and in return all I got from you was pain and strife. Mom and dad may want you back, Joey.”
“But I don’t.”
“At Ring of Dreams, it’s you and me. I don’t care about Jasper, I don’t care about Attano.”
“All I care about is putting you down.”
“For the betterment of Arcadia, for all those you maimed like they were toys in your hands.”
“I wish you were dead.“
“And, with tears running down my face?”
“I’m going to make that wish a reality.”