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Challenge
Write about a terrible character—a monster, a villain, the worst person you have ever known—and make that character sympathetic to readers.
“The villains are all parts of me. For years I've been wondering what it would be like if all those negative elements were forced onto the main character's side. I can understand a character with that kind of anger."---Hayao Miyazaki. (Think Magneto in X-Men, the Ice King in Adventure Time, The Phantom in the Phantom of the Opera...) 100 coins to the best work :)

No One Weeps But the Children

He takes the children, one a night. They are never seen again, never heard from. The FBI have traced thousands of missing people to him.

They have pleaded, they have negotiated, they have offered bribes and enormous sums of money, but all to no avail.

The children continue to disappear.

Why can't they understand, that's he's just lonely? That ever since his face was first marred, that the children were the only ones whose faces didn't scrunch up in disgust, didn't yell at him, didn't hurt him. Children seemed to have the innate sense to comfort a hurt one.

He once had a child, actually. Once his face was marred, his wife couldn't stand the sight of him. She took the child, despite his beggings and pleadings. Left him crying there, on the floor, his ugly face covered by his hands like he was waiting for a blow.

And then he started taking the children. Their smiles were infectious, and their giggles made him feel so much better about himself. They didn't care what he looked like. At first, they missed their parents, but soon, thoughts of them vanished...and he was happy.

Today he stands on trial. He is to be executed tomorrow.

No one weeps but the children.

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