AITA for really, REALLY wanting to make my enemies pay?
Several months ago, I (9F) encountered a very powerful, very mean spirited being (??? M). This horrible person had teamed up with this stupid, bald jerk who kidnapped me. (Adult M? I think? My guardian angel saw into his dreams and said he might have some unaddressed gender feelings to unpack, but that’s besides the point.) The powerful, mean spirited being, who I’ll refer to as L, was granting all of the stupid bald jerk’s wishes, and when my family came to rescue me, one of these wishes did something scary to my dad (30s, bigender). It made it so I couldn’t see or pay attention to him, and it really freaked me out.
I know I shouldn’t have acted rashly, but I panicked. I wished for L to undo what he did to my dad, and L did… which all sounds good, except. Um. He said he was going to come to collect a debt from me in the future, and I knew when he did, it would be really scary. My family has history with wish granting beings, and in the past, one of them REALLY messed my mom’s side of the family up. It forced my granddad to forget her, and eventually killed him entirely. It was awful!
So I was really, really scared. And so was my family. My mom (30s, F) especially. And because she loved me, she…- she made a wish, too. She wished to take on whatever burdens I beared— to be the one to pay the debt to L instead.
…And she did. He took the most terrible thing possible from her. He took away her memories of me, knowing that was what would hurt my family most. Deliberately, he did the same thing to Mom that had been done to her father before her, and turned me into a stranger.
Things weren’t… all bad. She believed me, at least, when I told her I was her daughter and that she’d lost her memories and it was all my fault. I think it’s because Dad was there to back up my story. Things became… different after that, though. I mean, how couldn’t they? My mom didn’t know me anymore. She didn’t love me.
L continued to wreak havoc amongst our friend group, who live in a weird, giant, magical, inter dimensional mansion (long story). He made someone else forget his mom. He killed a person—someone very beloved— just out of spite. He turned a third victin into some sort of horrible, body-stealing monster, and, of course, he continued to target me. He mocked me repeatedly for what happened, agreeing that it was my fault, and even tried to pit my mom against me, telling her that I didn’t love her anymore because of what happened, and that she was a failure of a parent, just like her dad. He was more cruel than I could possibly put into words.
So, eventually, we decided L needed to be stopped. Me, and several other people living in the mansion, including my family, teamed up to kill him. The fight… didn’t exactly go well, though. At one point, I was pulled into his machinery, and I well and truly thought I was going to die. But my dad— my hero— used magic he has to briefly control L’s body, pulling me from danger.
…L turned this against him, though. Just as soon, my dad lost control of L, and L took control of him. L already had several ‘puppets—‘ beings he’d taken over entirely, and he turned my dad into one of them. Nothing more than an empty, mindless weapon.
Eventually, the fight ended and L was killed. My mom got her memories back and my dad was freed from L’s control. But after that, dad was… different. He saw something really, really bad when he and L’s minds were one. An empty, vast abyss. A prison L spent years in. It became my dad’s prison, too, and although he’d only been under L’s control for a brief period of time, for him, it felt like years.
He was traumatized. He turned anxious and panicked. He couldn’t stay still anymore, and always felt bored and unsatisfied. Under-stimulated constantly.
And then, just when I thought things couldn’t get worse, D arrived.
…I’m going to need to do some explaining for this to make any sense.
In short, where I come from, there’s a ‘mirror world—‘ a world filled with twisted, alternate versions of the people from my world. Not all mirror worlders are bad, of course— I like my counterpart, and the reflection of the first wish-granting being— the one who messed my granddad up all those years ago— is actually a really nice guy. But there’s one thing really, really, REALLY terrible about the mirror world.
As long as a mirror worlder’s real counterpart is alive, they can’t die,
So even if a mirror worlder is an awful, awful person, nothing can be done to get rid of them most of the time. They’ll just come back.
That wasn’t supposed to be an issue with L. The beloved person who I mentioned him killing earlier? That was his counterpart, N. But after N was killed, his girlfriend dragged his soul back from the abyss, albeit… different.
Apparently, beings like L and N weren’t always wish-granting, mechanical beings. They were people before they were remade and trapped in cybernetic prisons. As wish-granting machines, they had no memories of their past lives. But when N’s girlfriend brought him back, she brought him back as a flesh-and-blood creature. Who he was before he was turned into a tool, memories and all. I’ll refer to this version of him as NK
Which is where D comes in. D is NK’s counterpart, as opposed to L being N’s. He’s the reflection of who NK was all those years ago, and when NK was brought back, he returned, too. But he still had L’s memories, and the same personality, too. I mean… he was apologetic, suddenly, but he was still a complete jerk!
I’m sorry if that’s all a bit confusing. To simplify: L was back. He had a new name and a new face, but that was still the person who tried to tear my family apart, and who put my dad through something so terrible.
In fact, when he saw how bad my dad was doing, he told him that if he didn’t get his act together, he was going to end up like L and start torturing people for fun just to try and feel something! How terrible is that!? After that, my dad started having really bad intrusive thoughts. He’d have dreams about hurting me or my mom, and just wake up screaming. All because D told him something that wasn’t true. We had to hospitalize Dad, eventually, because we were genuinely afraid he’d hurt himself over what L did.
D refused to accept accountability, though. Like I said, he apologized, but only to try and escape the consequences of his actions! He was just going through the obligatory song and dance! He wasn’t trying to fix any of the mess he made. Heck, he could hardly even accept he was the same as L! He couldn’t bear the guilt or whatever!
…And because of this, something weird happened to his mind.
He needed a scapegoat. Someone to blame. A trauma holder. So he made a new version of L— one that ate up all of his pain. And this new L, of course, immediately started causing trouble. He gave dozens of people in the mansion awful nightmares. Bloody nightmares. Nightmares preying on their worst fears and trauma. He even threatened to try and break my mom’s brain, too!
Eventually, he was stopped, primarily thanks to another very powerful being— a dream demon, specifically, who I’ll call NB. NB’s intensions weren’t to protect the rest of us, though. Contrarily, he stopped the new L because he’d FALLEN IN LOVE WITH HIM AND D, AND WAS SCARED HE WAS GOING TO HURT D WITH WHAT HE WAS DOING! BECAUSE IT WAS D WHO NEEDED TO BE PROTECTED, APPARENTLY?
Whatever, though. At least the problem was resolved.
Since then, D and L haven’t caused any trouble. They’ve mostly kept to themselves. But I just know they have to be planning something… and no-one else around me seems to be worried about that!? Heck, some of them are becoming FRIENDLY with D and L when they show up in the mansion group chat. It’s like they’re already forgetting what D and L did to me! To my family! And to them, too!
I want to make it so D and L can’t hurt anyone anymore. Them being around terrifies me. I hate how they’re winning over my friends. E- even if they’re really not planning anything, now, I can’t stand them. They make me feel unsafe. They make me feel angry. They seem so happy! They’re dating NB now, and seem to be at peace! While my family is still trying to pick up the pieces after what they did!
That’s not fair. They don’t deserve to be happy. I want D and L to feel sad. Scared. Every bit as bad as I did. NB, too. Stupid, ignorant enabler! I want them to suffer. I want them to cry. If I could, I’d put D and L back in that stupid prison of theirs… the ‘nothingness’ that they showed Dad to traumatize him,
But apparently, I’M the one who’s causing issues! I’m being vindictive! I’m being vicious! I should just let sleeping dogs lie and let L and D be. But why!? THEY started it! They went after me when I hadn’t done anything to them! I DESERVE to punch back! THEY deserve to suffer! A- and anyone who doesn’t agree must have never cared about me or my family.
…AITA? For wanting to put them through want they put me and so many others through, even if that means rocking the boat?
AITA?
Voting ended onJan 9, 2025