Can anyone be born truly evil?

Perhaps I should rephrase the question: What is evil? Is it an emotion? Or is it a lifestyle choice? Or, like a missing hand or an attraction to others of the same sex, is it merely something you are born with and can't do a bloody thing about?

The true answer to this question is one that has been disputed over since the dawn of time. It seems as though everyone has their own separate answer based on what they choose to believe. But not I. My answer to this primordial question isn't quite as simple as a "yes" or "no", and it is not my faith – or as the case may be, my lack thereof – that provides me with this answer; it's experience. My own cruel, harsh experience. I believe that everyone is born with an equal balance of good and evil; and over time, one side will take precedence over the other – the side that they let show, and nurture.

Or, in my case, the side that is encouraged by others. There's not always a choice, and likewise, it is not always the encouraged side that is favored by those who encourage it . . . because they may not even realize what it is that they are doing. They haven't the slightest idea of the horrible ways in which their path may twist by foolishly telling one cat what he can't do.

I am Macavity. And this is my story.

The name changes everything, doesn't it? You thought this would be some sort of heroic tale about some softhearted, pathetic little Jellicle. Ignorant little mary-sues, the lot of them. Not one of them could do an ounce of evil if their blissful little lives depended on it. The story you're about to be told doesn't focus on the ever-so-pure, so-angelic-it-makes-me-sick tribe of miserable cats and their trite little Jellicle Ball. It's not about a beautiful, evoking search for some cat's inner peace and tranquility. No, in this story you will learn what a real protagonist is, and how truly unfair and cruel a place the world is. It's time you woke up from your dream, little kitten, and learned how life really works.

You think I'm just an evil, depraved lunatic. I know. Honestly, the rubbish they drive into kits' heads these days. Evil and depraved I most certainly am; there's no use in denying what they have made of me. Not anymore. But I am not, never have been, and never will be a lunatic. A lunatic, a madman, a psychopath – they are all synonymous with one thing in my case: falsehoods. Bloody falsehoods, rumors originally dreamt up to scare kits but that are now so naïvely lived and breathed by everything this side of London with a brain and four limbs. And even that's polite, for looking at some of those blasted Jellicles would make you doubt that the brain was even necessary. Perhaps, ultimately, that was why I was cast out?

But I digress. If you wish to turn your back on my story without giving it so much as a passing glance, then do so. Believe me, I have long since desensitized to the lack of pity from that odious tribe whose name I scarcely dare to mention even to this day; one more ignorant, careless soul can't do much harm. But the tale of a normal cat who has lived bereft of the most basic rights that even a newborn kitten should be entitled to – if this intrigues you, then stay. I ask only for what I deserve: a chance.

I mentioned earlier that the Jellicles are all perfect mary-sues who couldn't ever do a thing wrong. Well, that isn't exactly true. For you see, they are the ones who made me who I am today. They are responsible for everything I've ever done wrong, all of the crimes I have ever committed. You may know me as a fiend in feline shape, a monster of depravity, the Napoleon of Crime . . . but it is only because of them that I have become this way. My image has been sculpted in the broken mold of their wrongdoings and by no fault of my own. It's shocking to learn that such perfect cats could ever construct a mistake as big as me, yes?

Read on, and you will discover that evil comes in many forms; its true face is often the most innocent face of all. You will learn what evil truly is, and how it can only ever breed more of its kind. They say that good will always arise from bad, but I can safely say that they are wrong. There is more to what we consider "good" than meets the eye, much like there are always two sides to every story. Even the Jellicle Moon has a dark side, and it is this side whose guiding light illuminates the path I am now forever doomed to walk day and night.

-M.