Dark Place

It is sometimes said that the people who need to be watched the closest are those who are the quietest. The demure. The meek. 'He was always so quiet,' they would say. But at some point, the wire is tripped. A circuit in the psyche is opened and through it floods a living torrent of darkness many would find unimaginable. How easy might it be, given our human frailties, to have our civilized nature torn to shreds, replaced by an underlying psychotic drive to kill and all within the space of a heartbeat. It is something that lies dormant within all of us. Yet, who among us will lose control and let loose the devil within? Within these pages, are three stories. They could be about anyone. The next door neighbor, who, twice a week, hangs their laundry on a rope in the backyard. Or, maybe, the quiet man who sits next to you in church. He'd never hurt a fly. Would he? Presented here are the lives of three people, whose circumstances pushed them, untethered, over the edge, into the black abyss of madness. A place from which some return, changed. While others are lost forever in its convoluted web, where death becomes nothing more than a child's toy.