Madness

One look. That was all it took. Feelings long forgotten now slammed into him, staggering him with their vicious, almost tangible, force. They burned through his mind with sharp intensity. The thoughts long buried in darkness, now beginning to smoke and smolder with life. He tried to keep it all inside, struggling to smother the fires as the memories returned.

“Just calm down”

He heard the words but couldn’t make sense of the sounds. His thoughts were whispers. Barely noticeable. Fleeting smoke curling off the growing flames. 

The shadow before him breathed weakly, “Look, just try to understand…”

His mind was slipping. He could feel the rush of his own pulse as he watched reality crumbling around him a muffled blur. 

The shadow was pleading, “Look, I’m trying to…”

“If you’d Just let me…”

He desperately wanted to listen. But something inside him wouldn’t. Something couldn’t. Memories pressed at his mind like gravity from all sides. Images long forgotten now bubbling up like vomit. He could barely hear himself amidst the growing chaos within. His thoughts now nothing more than the last moments of a distant, dying echo.

“Please just try to understand…” it’s voice thick with desperation.

Understand? He shook his head. He didn’t want to understand. He was tired of understanding. His breathing frantic as the shadow’s words distorted like white noise against the panicked screams of his memories.

“Why won’t you JUST LISTEN” it begged.

The hammering sound of his heart filled his ears now. The break of waves against rock. Again and again, crashing against him. He raised a shaking hand to his head, clenching his hair as if it were the last link to his sanity.

“Don’t do this….” “Don’t do this…” “DON’T DO THIS” it screamed

He struggled against the pictures flashing through his mind and the screams that scarred his memories. But He was tired of fighting. Tired of holding back. Tired of control. Tired of restraint. Tired of forgiveness. He could feel his mind beginning to crack and splinter like an old dam about to burst. The urge to unleash consuming him like a cancer; to let it all break, to wash away every painful detail of that day.

“Please…”

His body retched with anger and the dam gave way with a symphony of madness. The shadow’s words washed away in a torrent of rage. Their cries were all he knew. Revenge was all he felt. The gun in his hand was justice. His arm raised with purpose. His thumb pulling back on the hammer with conviction. The sharp click of the metal ringing out as if to tear the world in two.

“You don’t have to do this…”

He strode toward it now. Each step echoing off the walls of the dark room like the drums of battle. Each step drawing them closer. He watched it take form as he closed in. Arm leveled, staring down the sights of the gun, he watched it. He watched the Shadow writhe. He watched it twist; watched it cower at his advanced. He savored the moment as it whimpered into the form a human.

“….please…” he whispered