Monday, July 08, 2013

anger - freewrite

Her lip trembled as it jutted from her jaw. Red splotches formed at the very tips of her ears, filling in until they burned with a heightened temperature.  Eyes dark but fiery stared at a single brick in the wall across the room.  Huddled in a corner, she stared on for about an hour, unable to shake "the clench."

This was Sam's cooling down ritual.  If ever she became enraged, she'd head to a room behind the boiler without any windows.  Her goal was to focus the energy out of her body.  If the energy could not be dispersed, bad things would happen.  Sam called this "the clench."

It was actually Sam's brother, upon witnessing his sister changed before his eyes, that coined the phrase.  He came home one night, after football practice to find a trail of red dots around the back of the house.  He followed it down the basement stairs and to a back room behind the boiler. Grabbing a flashlight from the wall of tools he went toward the back of the basement.

"Hello?" he gently called out.  A small rustling sound came from behind the door.  He pointed the flashlight on the floor to find more dots on the ground.  Opening the door slowly he saw his sister huddled in the corner her hands dripping with the red stuff.

"oh my god, Sam!" he cried as he rushed forward to check where the crimson liquid was coming from.

"It's not mine, Travis..." she repeated in whispers.

Travis checked anyway.  

"Wrists and arms are okay, legs too. What happened, Sammy?

"He was going to kill her, so i got to him first"

Travis kept on checking.  "Who, Sam?"

"Mr. Glay."

"The security guard at the High School?  Sam, he's a high visibility case.  People will notice he's missing."

"I can't help who's nex.."  the words faded from her lips and the tears burned as they rolled down her cheeks.

Travis took off his jacket and placed it gently over her shoulders.  

"You have 'the clench', Sammy.  Grandma had it too.  There's no telling who will be next, it's not your fault.  C'mere." He pulled her into his arms as she shivered.  "I'll let Dad know.  He'll fix it."

Dad did fix it.  He created an accident at the school that explained by Mr. Glay would not be able to return to duty. He also came up with a type of meditation for Sam when she could feel 'the clench' come on.  

She was doing what she could to focus on that damn brick but it felt as if she could set it on fire with her stare.  The release would have to come another way.  There was the barista who burned her hot chocolate earlier in the morning or the politician on the sidewalk that held up traffic.  

"Annoyances and besides, i can't choose who's next.  They come to me..."

She stood up and reached for a dangling pencil that was attached to a clipboard on the wall.  The pencil seemed to move all on it's own as a name appeared in graphite. She let the pencil slip from her fingers as a smile crossed her face.  She had the next name.


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bah... i need more practice.  i don't have the energy to finish this story. :/  But i know where it leads...