text: I open my eyes and I see an all too familiar sight. My white padded room with one light bulb hanging above. My legs are broken and cast while they hang above me. I have been sick in my mind for a very long time, but today is a new day. To my left are monitors that read my vitals and currently indicate that I am physically stable. To my right is a plastic cup of water and two pieces of bread on a padded table. I’m too dazed to eat, I feel as if I have awoken from an eternal sleep as the things around me feel like the things in my head. I have been in this room for what feels like several lifetimes, but I know the real prison is my own self, containing the evils that have plagued me like all illness all the time. I have a feeling however that forever ends today. The doctor entered my room and informed me that my casts are ready to be removed on my legs, the reason for them being there still remains a mystery to me. I take my meal and eat while several male nurses in protective gear come to remove the casts, those who weren't cutting had tranquilizers at the ready. While confused, I continued to eat and soon enough the casts were off and the nurses were gone. I stare at my bare legs and see whole patches of yellow skin that was once blue and swollen now healed from whatever destroyed them. The doctor comes in again with an armored assistant and asks if I am interested in a new experimental medication that has the possibility of curing the hell in my head. He says we can start today, and hands me the bottle and leaves. I take two with no water. Five minutes. Nothing. Two more. Ten minutes. Nothing. \*two more\* I am alone in the room and yet I hear many voices. \*take two more\*. I hear it again telling me, begging me. Maybe just two more. I do as it tells me. The walls around are melting, yes they're melting to the floor. What reality is this? \*take it all\*. What will become of me? \*you will become what man was, is, and always will be...an animal. true terror that no god has ever seen, for you will become the god that all vulgar creatures will bow. we are the serpent, this pill is your apple, and you are getting hungry.\* My hand moves not by my doing, but by whatever thing foul or fair above me. I do as I am told. My vision turns a shade bloody red, and my eyes are truly open! There it is, I see it! Never has evil been shivered so much in fear at what I see in front of me. \*you are the black goat, the one sent by worldly powers to tear this world in two by your claws. all flesh will fall at the sight of you and no kingdom of this world will overcome the rage you unleash upon it. with your mighty horns may you rip the world apart until they are reduced to bare nubs, may you consume until you are left to gum what is left, may your screams be heard until you are reduced to aching whispers, and may you march in darkness until you are left to slither on the world that remains.\* I shall. I take the single light bulb that hangs above and shatter it on the ground. In darkness I screamed until a curious nurse came to inspect. He enters slowly and calls my name. I ambush him from behind the door and slash his throat with the glass. So brutal and so swift was my hand that his last words were left to mere sounds of wind. I close the door to mask the unholy preparations I make for my rampage. The guards notice the trail of blood leading to my room and prepare to breach. They enter and are left in a nauseous confusion as my once white room now a maroon confinement stands shockingly before them. \*now\* I pounce from above and sink my claws into the chest of the strongest man there who fell to my feet...heartless. I take the two on my left by their legs and use them to smash the four on my right. I pummel them all until there is no solid left as I crush the heads of the weaklings fallen at my feet in violent strength. One remains and he stands at the end of the room. I stand stronger, a beast no longer man, covered in fur once black now a deep crimson and I move toward him. The man takes his weapon aimed at me as he shakes at the sight of otherworldly fear. Whatever torture I would have brought upon him will remain unknown as the man turned the weapon on himself while I was only three steps close. \*now eat, for I have provided\* I shall. I exit the room and lay waste to all the poor souls who remained in my godless sight. Floor number one, floor number two, three, four, five, six. Six, six was the medication warehouse. I fill a bag with as many bottles as it can hold. I retreated to my room as advised by the morning star. He instructed me to commit evil so heinous that no one man could destroy it, and to be the bridge between evil of this world and the next. I climb to the top of the asylum and already I see the waves of soldiers entering the gates and at the mere sight of me some begin to cry. The thought of God was unthinkable in a time like this. They assume position below me as I stand mighty above them. I go to take my final bites of the life giving bits of the darkness below, but on the bottle I notice it peeling. I remove the false label and read “sugar pills”. I have been in a constant battle with my inner and outer self, and this was the excuse it needed to escape. I knew that my time was up and the voices in my head became muffled as my mind raced toward the end. I decided that no hand will take me other than my own. So I look over the edge of the roof and see my inevitable doom. I close my eyes and take a step. \*your doing is now undone, but darkness remains forever. rest now for your time is over, in my cold arms may you suffer for all time. wake again as i cast you back to earth just as i was, and may you continue this pain for as long as pain can be felt\* I shall. Evil was the cold hand that gave me the strength to escape my own self, but it cannot save me from this. I open my eyes and I see an all too familiar sight. My white padded room with one light bulb hanging above. My legs are broken and cast while they hang above me. I have been sick in my mind for a very long time, but today is a new day.