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shaking.
“Curiosity, I think you would call it.” Peter scoffed at the being’s response. “How does
that human saying go? Curiosity killed the cat, I believe.” “That’s not—who even are you?”
“That’s not relevant, Peter.”
“Tell me.”
“If I did you would not understand.”
“Try me.” Peter said quietly through his teeth, his eyes now open and scanning the room in search of the voice’s source. They were drawn once more to the empty corner of the room. “Why did you let those people die, Peter?” The voice asked as an interviewer would ask an interviewee. “You could have saved three lives for the price of one, but instead you let them die.”
“I didn’t let anyone die. I...” Peter trailed off, trying to find the words that would absolve him of his guilt; but he could not.
“Peter, did you not stand by and let that trolley destroy those people?”
“I didn’t do anything, you did.” Peter said, his anger rising at the accusations being directed at him. “I didn’t put those people on that track, and I didn’t send that trolley hurling at them. You did.” He stayed still, listening for a response, still searching for the source of the voice.
“Perhaps, but given the ability to save three of those people, you chose to stand by and let them die. Why is that?” The voice said, now sounding closer to Peter, but still wholly untraceable.
“If I had touched that lever, I would have been at fault.” Peter said, pointing to the glistening crimson red tracks behind him. “I would have been the force killing that one person instead of you.”
“But Peter, you would have also saved three people.” The voice said quizzically, with a calm and straightforward tone that sent shivers down Peter’s spine. “You would rather let more people die so long as it means you don’t feel the weight of their deaths on your shoulders?” Peter opened his mouth to disagree, but he couldn’t. “However,” the being continued, “you would kill three people to save someone you loved. How do you justify that?”
“I am a good person.”
“I did not say that you weren’t, Peter.”
“You don’t understand,” Peter’s voice began to waver, but he swallowed the tears that
were forming and continued.
“I think it is you who doesn’t understand,” the voice said calmly.
“She is all I have left in the world. I couldn’t sit by and watch her get—” Peter’s voice
gave out at the thought.
“So you are only willing to step in and save someone you love?” Peter didn’t answer, but
his silence was an answer in itself. “Humans are exceedingly interesting,” the voice said to no one in particular.
“I am not the bad guy here,” Peter hissed defensively.
“Why are you humans so set on the binary of good and evil?”
“That’s the way the world works! Something is either right or wrong, and this,” Peter said