I couldn’t resist trying this exercise. It was one tough cookie, but one I’ll try again 🙂
Taming the devil (Alphabet Exercise)
At any other time I would have ignored the knock.
But the fact remains, without humanity the monster within me would claim complete control.
Can you imagine the thought of losing yourself so completely there’s not even an echo of you left behind?
Deep within my soul there is a part of me that welcomes the thought, a secret part I try to deny because it would be too easy.
Even then, as I walked towards the door, I prayed this time, this visitor, could help me.
For all my good intentions, I hurt people.
Going solo was a choice I made a long time ago, a choice that is part protection, part curse.
Hard as it may seem, containing evil comes with a price-tag and I must live a solitary life.
I know it’s selfish, but I opened the door anyway.
Just as a young boy was forcing his way into my lair.
Killing him would have been easy, and the monster would have taken great pleasure in it.
Luckily he sensed the danger and ducked around me like a phantom in the night.
My mind caught on quickly, understanding the boy had been an illusion.
Nobody in their right mind would visit my home unprotected, because everyone knows what I am, what I keep locked inside.
Only the most powerful of magic could hope to defend against me or, more accurately, the darkness within me.
Perhaps that’s why I felt a surge of hope, a feeling that was completely human and stemmed from the loneliness in my soul.
Quintessentially, I’m sure, the other half of me had the opposite reaction; it burned with hatred towards the perceived threat in the air, a threat that even I knew was a challenge to everything it stood for- it would have happily ripped the stranger limb from limb, unleashing a strength in my modest form that would have required an army of men under normal circumstances, and though I knew I shouldn’t, the fact I almost relished the prospect, was evidence that I had kept myself locked away for far too long, that my humanity was almost lost to me completely.
Right then, I had enough left to beat back the devil and await both our fates.
Some have questioned my ability to defend against the demon; they fear me because I should be powerless in the face of such possession.
To them, the fact I hold the beast at bay is a matter of sorcery and witchcraft is not to be trusted.
Unlikely as it may seem though, I do not have a magical bone in my body.
Vanquishing the evil would have been my first spell, if the rumours were true.
Wherever I go, and whatever story follows me, people either try to kill me or cure me of my sin.
X marks the spot – isn’t that the term used in executions; if only it were that simple.
You’d think, after all this time, they’d understand – conventional weapons are worthless.
Zapping this thing like a bug only feeds the hatred, and for me there is only one answer; perhaps this time they’ll find it.
Melissa Barker-Simpson 
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