#3 Thump! Thump! Thump!

Thump! Thump! Thump!

A story borne from too much food and insomnia!

They’re banging on the door again.  They want to get inside but better yet they want me to come out.  I’m surrounded by a darkness that seems more dark even as I open my eyes.  What little light that remains with me in here, causes my eyes to see just a little more.  Two halves of a desk, a bent chair, pictures torn, crumpled, or bitten, books torn apart, clothes scattered, bits of hair, blood, and skin are littered, this is my room.  This is who I am.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

A voice cries an inaudible “no”.  The voice is more animal like but I know it’s mine.  Drool forms beneath my mouth and a drip of the mad-angry liquid falls on my foot.  In the darkness I can see the droplet slowly falling to my foot.  As the water hits, my foot and leg become warm.  This warmth turns hotly and courses through my body.  Something in my heart explodes.  My mind goes soft and a tint of red coats my eyes.

The explosion in my body rises me off from the floor.  I grab a bat.  I hear a loud screaming voice that I don’t believe is mine.  I see my television.  BANG!  It falls to the floor and glass shatters as it follows downwards.  My picture of all of us.  SMASH!  My framed diploma becomes a body that I stab with the dull edge of the bat.  I break the glass and twist the bat’s edge into the document.  I hop and dance.  I throw the bat as strong as I can and it hits the door leaving a mark.  I go to my bed.  As I breathe in and out, pondering whether to sleep and let the mad anger depart, but I will my arms to grab the mattress, throwing the sheets, and propping the bed over me.

The weight is heavy but I’ve burdened a load far much heavier.  The mad anger grips me again and the mattress flies past my head and falls above the two halves of my desk.  I’m tired but I jump over to my bed without a mattress and start crying.  I cry like I’m a child again.  I moan and sob, and suck gulps of air as I sob and tear some more.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

They call out my name “Matthew” and they plead for me to come out!  They stand outside my door.  And even with the door between us, I picture their strained and tear drenched faces.  I cry again and hurl a shoe where there heads may have been, if they could storm the door.  But they can’t storm the door.  I’ve locked it well.  The cold of darkness blankets my body but inside my body a rage-fire of hurt and anger makes me perspire.  They fight to get in but the only one to reach me is sleep.  I let the darkness take me and the sounds of the Thump! are gone.  All that’s left is the darkness when I close my eyes.  There’s nothing left, not even the hint of Thump! Thump! Thump!