A creative story for the season by a clever sophomore:

Pandora let out a sigh as she locked the doors of the café from the outside. She walked down the Seattle roads, and watched as children chased each other to the park and cars slowly passing her by. At long last, after a tedious day at work, she arrived at her apartment door and pulled out the keys to it. Once inside, she found a small, black envelope, sitting on kitchen island. She briefly looked around to make sure no one was there and carefully opened the envelope and read the letter inside. Her eyes widened, revealing her hazel orbs as she let out a gasp before sitting down on her couch and re-reading it over and over again to make sure it wasn’t fake. It was a letter from Detective Emily to talk to the person that was responsible for the day that changed her life forever: the killer of her childhood best friend.

“Alright, this is where she lives. She hasn’t left the house, and the squad will surround it, so you don’t have to worry about a thing.” Detective Emily said as he led Pandora to the house. There were no other buildings in site, just miles upon miles of trees. It would have been a nice-looking house to live in if a murderer wasn’t dwelling there. “Even though, be careful and don’t do anything rash. I know you’re hurt, but don’t let that anger consume your thoughts. Revenge is like a two-headed serpent: while you’re hurting the person who hurt you, you’re also poisoning yourself.” Pandora could only let out a small hum of agreement as she was more focused on keeping her composure. It had been nearly a decade since the murder and she’s been bottling up her emotions from the event. Who knows what would happen if she let all of that spill out? As much as she absolutely despised the woman behind the slaughter, she could not bear to cause a commotion.

“I’ve been told that you have murdered others too.”, Pandora said, as she looked straight into the her eyes. “Yeah, like I told you, I had a rough day at work, and I didn’t take my medication, so it just slipped when I saw your friend. It’s not an excuse-”

“Of course it isn’t an excuse! It was a matter of self control!”

The woman across from her let out a sigh and looked down at the table. “Do what you must to get some closure.” Pandora’s breath hitched. Is it worth it? This woman killed five other people, so she does deserve it. She’s going to get a life sentence anyways so it doesn’t matter. Pandora stood up and made her way to the other side of the table where the killer was sitting there. “No. I’m not going to hurt you. I may hate you but I know doing this won’t get back the lives that you stole. It’ll just add more fuel to the fire. After all, if I hurt you, I’m just poisoning myself, and I know that she wouldn’t want that.”

Anger can make you do things that you wouldn’t usually do with a calm state of mind. Seeking vengeance can only do so much and in the end, you usually end up hurting yourself than seeking closure. Even if that person had bad intentions and deserved it, the best way to deal with it is to grieve and move on from it. Holding in so much anger is unhealthy and wastes a lot of your energy. You’ll be trapped inside a cage and you refuse to let yourself out, though you have the key. Getting revenge won’t benefit you and won’t give you back what was taken from you, be it a family, friend, or an experience. It’s okay to feel emotions, but it’s not okay to use them as an excuse to hurt you and others.