The Need for Balance

Vampire Owl: Can I bite him? Can I?

Vampire Bat: It is of no use. He is the Devil.

Shadow: How many times do I have to say that I am not the Devil, but his messenger? If my king knows that I was called by his unholy name, he might decide to send me to another dimension of hell.

Vampire Owl: I think he is having an identity crisis. May be he s the messenger devil, a new form of the Devil. Somebody needs to talk to him about his existence. He is confused.

Shadow: I am not confused. You people are just too hopeless. Where is your uncle? I want to talk to the vampire lord. Call him.

Uncle Dracula: Stop teasing the Devil’s messenger. Tell me, Mr. Shadow. Why are you here? You know that you are not welcome, and none of your kind has any programme here. Your master is banned from coming within twenty five kilometres near this castle. We are free thinkers here and we have chosen to join your opposition.

Vampire Bat: I think he was actually planning to go to the werewolf abode or the cemetery. He needs to find some souls for his master or he will be burnt in hell. Well, it is quite a natural process for him, but he would want to avoid that.

Shadow: I am here as a messenger and you keep talking without stopping. Do you mind letting me speak?

Uncle Dracula: If you have kept your master’s plans to take over the world away from our area, you can speak about your message.

Shadow: Yes, and the message is simple. We want you to stop helping the humans to be good.

Vampire Owl: This is interesting. Do you mind telling us why? Is the Devil too desperate for souls even when he has too many souls already?

Shadow: Absolutely not. There are never enough souls. There is a balance which has been maintained throughout the centuries. People can be told to be good, but forcing them to be so actually destroys that balance. It should be the result of free-will. Some of those people you forcibly turned good are actually causing problems at the purgatory, and you are shifting the balance in favour of heaven and purgatory only, which is a serious blow. There will always be humans of pure evil, but still…..

Uncle Dracula: You really can’t stand people getting any better, right?

Shadow: Why do you have to think so? There has to be darkness for the existence of light. Otherwise, what is the point? The good can thus turn more good. You can’t change the nature of man. It is just supposed to be evil, and goodness has to be taught. Your extra effort is a bonus that the evil nature of man doesn’t need. We need those souls which we deserve. We won’t take them by force, but you can’t touch the free-will. The angels have promised that, and you have to maintain your neutrality.

Uncle Dracula: So, you expect us to remain silent when evil happens?

Shadow: Your alignment is supposed to be neutral. I am pure evil, as you can see from these wings made with hell’s dark matter. The evil has to be punished, and as humans have opted for free-will, we have to allow them to choose. You just cannot ban evil. It is like banning alcohol – people have to know that it is bad for their health and stop drinking alcohol. The righteous world is possible only when people can choose to be good even when temptations haunt them. Yes, we have a full list of temptations which we supply, but we do that for the good people to survive the same and rise to an even better level.

Vampire Owl: I should have recorded this on my phone. Here is a shadow talking like he is everything except a shadow.

Uncle Dracula: We will still choose to do good, it is a team decision.

Shadow: By all means, do good or evil. It is a decision that is left to you. But maintain your neutral nature when dealing with, when affecting humans. They should themselves choose the good and evil in the end. Only then can we function properly and do our duties.

Vampire Bat: Well, even we don’t want to see the hell going bankrupt, I guess.

Vampire Owl: There are lots of people who deserve the place, and I am sure about it. The Devil should actually take some humans early.

Uncle Dracula: Well, justice is often not served right in this world, and so the existence of hell is a much needed thing. The law of humans is in favour of the rich and those in power, and lets make sure about the better functioning of hell. We are people of the blood, and we have to do our job, but lets make sure about the existence of the good and the evil together without affecting free-will too much.

Shadow: It is much appreciated, Lord, the Count Vampire.

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

***The images used in this blog post are from the Official Facebook Page of the movie, Hotel Transylvania.

TeNy