Human Monsters Part 2

Rawan continued, "Larry, thank you for reminding me of the proudest man on earth... Thank you for reminding me of Daedalus. Do you know why he was the proudest man on earth? He believed he could conquer nature, not just his king! Not just the gods! Nature in all its glory!

Daedalus was the engineer of King Minos in Crete. Minos was the adoptive father of the cruel Minotaur. After Daedalus constructed the labyrinth for Minos, which housed the Minotaur, Minos imprisoned Daedalus on a deserted island along with his son Icarus so that no one could ever discover the way out of the labyrinth and to prevent Daedalus from rebelling against him.

"Years passed, and Daedalus could not bear the thought of his son growing up and living his entire life on that desolate island, so he decided to devise an escape plan. He thought and thought until he finally realized that in order to escape his fate, he would have to overcome the limitations imposed on him by nature.

"Daedalus decided to transform into a bird!

He and his son Icarus gathered feathers that had fallen from birds, and gradually, with the help of the feathers and a wax they possessed, Daedalus and Icarus constructed wings that would allow them to return to Greece. Daedalus warned Icarus that the wings were delicate and fragile, and that he should not fly too high, as the heat of the sun would burn his wings, causing him to plunge into the depths without the ability to return to the surface of the sea.

Daedalus was confident that Icarus understood his warning, and most of their flight went smoothly, until Daedalus noticed that his son began to ascend higher and higher. He called for his son to descend lower, but the winds prevented his voice from reaching Icarus.

Icarus inherited his father's pride and wanted to test the boundary between lies and limits. He gained so much altitude that his wings caught fire due to the sun's heat, and he plummeted rapidly into the sea.

"Without the ability to swim, all Icarus could do was wait for the bitter end... He sank deeper and deeper as time passed, and his desperate attempts to rise above the sea were futile, only serving to decrease the oxygen in his lungs, which soon filled with seawater.

"Daedalus was shattered by the loss of his son... the second monster, pride, took everything from such a great man... Lawrence, do not fall into its jaws as well..." said Rowan, as he looked at the young man in his chair who had remained silent all this time. He pointed at him and said, "You... you are a boy of Greek descent, are you not?"

The other boy nodded in agreement, albeit awkwardly.

"You are a young man... you... ha ha ha ha ha... you.... are addicted." Rowan said, a broad smile stretching across his face. The young man's face paled as he listened to the words of the eccentric man. Rowan continued, "You, you are addicted to body distortion. Sometimes it feels like a demon is emerging from within you, and you are utterly powerless against it.

"I know, I know everything, I know all about your nightly activities with other young people, endless orgies... drinking, even drugs... but sex, sex is what drives you! You have no control over it... it controls you... the blood flow to the lower body, the hormones at play... everything controls you, the ego is out of control, the ego fails to mediate between the id and the superego... the id wins. You are addicted. You are broken. A flawed creation of nature.

"When there is no sex, you become obsessed with pornography... always... and all of this, all of this, brother, has led you to do what you did."

The young man rose from his chair and began to stammer, "No... no... no... no... please... no... please... no..." His eyes widened to almost unnatural dimensions with the realization that Rowan was about to describe his greatest mistake.

Rawan shifted in his seat and said, "Are the images replaying in our minds? It’s not a big deal... it’s therapy... Anyway, one night, your addiction led you and a few of your friends, all young men, to commit an act that should never be done – you attacked a woman! You followed her into a dark street, and when no one could see anything, one of your friends forcefully pinned her against the wall.

"She didn’t understand what was happening and tried to resist.

"Without... success...," Rawan said coldly as the young man covered his face with his hands and began to sob.

Rawan continued, "You all pounced on her, and you started to strip her of her clothes just like a pack of hyenas tearing flesh from the body of their prey. And in turns, you began to penetrate her while she cried and pleaded for it to end. She tried to resist, but you simply pressed her harder against the wall each time, each one of you in turn. You, unlike the others, you, Nicholas, you!

"You enjoyed being a bit violent with your partners! You wrapped your arm around the woman’s neck, and with the encouragement of your drunken friends from the euphoria you all experienced, you tightened your grip more and more with each penetration...."

"She stopped moving...," Nicholas interrupted him with a cold gaze and a trembling voice.

"Yes! Yes! The monster of desire that you wept for caused the woman’s death!" Rawan replied loudly as his eyes widened in what seemed like sadistic pleasure from the entire situation.

Rawan continued, "This is number three on our list... Despite all the sorrow in this matter, she was not innocent either; within her, there was also a monster.