I once Destroyed a Soul.

I remember the last time I utterly and completely ruined someone's life. They were going on about Humpty Dumpty, and how no where does it ever say he's an egg, and yet he's always drawn as an egg and that everyone just has assumed he's an egg for whatever reason. They were going on for sometime about how these things get started for no reason and that it's ridiculous to follow such conventions when they begin out of thin air.While this person was talking, I casually reached out and grabbed a book from my shelf, as I am wont to do. Without fuss, or rush, or even a hint of malice on my face, I flipped through the book with a seeming disregard for what was on the pages. As the person drew to what I was guessing was going to be their final point, and the corner stone of their eight minute rant, I interrupted by reading the following aloud...

"Humpty Dumpty most likely began life as a 17th Century riddle, which were often presented as short poems at the time. When one recited 'Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. Four-score Men and Four-score more, could not make Humpty Dumpty as he was before.' One was to then ask 'Who is Humpty Dumpty.' The answer being, of course, an egg."

I then snapped the book shut and put it back on the shelf where I'd found it. I have the honor of watching a soul die. It just withered there, as if on the vine, the light behind their eyes winked out as their view of the world and themselves was shattered by a few sentences. It would have been horrifying if I was capable of being horrified. Instead, I must admit I was fascinated by the process. Their temples actually went gray as I watched.

That person works in accounting now. I feel bad about it sometimes, but the book was right there next to me on the shelf and sometimes people need to be told.