Rayne: Our countries grow weak and complacent. They sleepwalk into servitude under our alleged allies, too docile to combat the real threats that fester at the eastern border. Those creatures stand at the gate and you would welcome them in with open arms!
Sunny: Sister…
Rayne: Toxic militarism this, toxic that… these are the words of soft, small-armed men who would fight their battles against us in pencil even as we keep the howling animals at bay for them. Ingrates. Society’s new pre-occupation with gentility and civility, this so-called ‘new way’, denies too much our inherent violent nature. Man is monster. Violent. Territorial. Tribal. Animalistic. We forget or repress these truths at our own peril. Don’t you see? This is a civilisation that has grown too fat and indulgent. It is narcissistic, neurotic and BORED with itself. We teeter on the brink of collapse and beg for our enemies to conquer us.
Sunny: And you propose a war to put everything back in perspective?
Runny: If that’s what it takes.
Sunny: Sister, you would tear down everything we’ve built? All the progress-
Rayne: Progress? You call this progress? Look around you. These sickening ‘new ways’… this is a regression into depravity. Fleeting distractions at best before somebody comes to set the table anew. If someone has to pick up the gun, I won’t let it be them. Not ever again.
Sunny: … What happened to Mam and Da… it wasn’t your fault.
Rayne: Sunny…
Sunny: You’re nothing but another warlord hiding behind her white face. No different to those you would butcher in cold blood.
Rayne: You dare compare me to those animals?! Why must you always be so obstinate? You refuse to see the truth simply because it comes from my mouth.
Sunny: That was true once, perhaps. A long time ago. But here and now, sister, you have become the greatest threat to all our nations. You cannot abide living without a war to fight. You march us into mutually assured annihilation at the altar of might for its own end, calling it self-preservation. You would kill us to the last man to prove there was no other choice.
Rayne: Why can’t you just stand by my side for once? That’s all I ever wanted from you.
Sunny: And all I ever wanted was to be you.
Rayne: How disappointing we both are then.
Rayne: No matter how much you bathe, the smell of my blood will never wash from your bones. You who murder your own kin. You are the true monstrosity.
Sunny: Oh sweet sister, you should die proud then. You raised this monster after all.
Rayne: …Sunny I’m scared.
Sunny: I’m here.
Rayne: Tell me the button story.
Sunny: You really don’t remember? It was one of those nights that Da stayed out late so we both went to go sleep with Mam. It must have been during that last summer because when the three of us cuddled together it would get so unbearably hot. Do you remember those nights?
Rayne: I do.
Sunny: And we would kick the covers this way and that because we were so uncomfortable but Mam would somehow sleep through it with a smile.
Rayne: She would sleep through a storm.
Sunny: One morning we both must have woke up early because of the heat. But neither of us wanted to get up and leave yet. I was making out shapes on the ceiling and you were playing with a loose button on your dress.
Rayne: I thought you were asleep.
Sunny: I was pretending to be. So you put the button up your nose. I thought it was the funniest thing. It took everything for me to stay still and keep pretending. I just wanted to laugh so hard. You were squirming so hard.
Rayne: I couldn’t pull it out and it just kept burrowing deeper inside.
Sunny: I thought so. You stopped fidgeting after a while. I opened my eyes and you were asleep with tears dried on your face.
Rayne: I thought I was dying. I didn’t want to disturb you or Mam.
Sunny: It must’ve fell out when you relaxed.
[Sunny hands Rayne a button from her pocket. The same one we’ve seen throughout the story]
Sunny: Whenever I think back to home, that’s what I always remember. You and Mam sleeping together.
#TheMonsterIsUs
abdulj. 