Alphabet Soup

Catharsis

Catharsis

        Seth slowly eased himself out of his chair, trying to loosen up his stiff muscles. He had been sitting in his depressing little jail sell of a cubicle for nearly eleven hours straight for the third day in a row thanks to his boss demanding that he work extra hours on a project that technically was his boss’s sole responsibility. Between the nearly blinding whiteness of the cubicle walls, the mountains of paperwork which seemed to be determined to marry his right hand to his pen considering how many corrections and suggestions he had to write on them, and the seemingly constant criticism of his boss, Seth wanted nothing more than to scream for his boss to stop his ridiculous obsession with his flirty new secretary for long enough to actually do some of his work himself. But, as usual, Seth kept his cool. Tonight, he could get all of his negative emotions out of his system until they started to build up once again. Tonight was his Release Night.

        Hopping into his dark black sedan, Seth started the drive to the local Releasing Center. The drive was quite short, seldom more than fifteen minutes even when the roads were busy, but it felt like an eternity to Seth. He had already waited three whole months for his turn to Release. Granted, having a turn once every three months was actually quite impressive; most men Seth’s age were lucky to Release every six months. How often and how much someone got to release was strictly controlled by a committee that based their decisions on age, hours spent working, difficulty of job, and other factors that contributed to stress such as family size and health. The lowliest laborers only got to Release once a year and even then they couldn’t do much with the opportunity. From what Seth had heard, some people in high government positions and possibly the heads of a handful of corporations actually got to Release every single day with enormous effects.

        When Seth finally parked outside of the Releasing Center, he was so giddy with excitement that he practically skipped through its doors. The Releasing Center was open 24/7 year round, mostly run by computers although a few technicians were always on hand to make sure things were running smoothly. There were never more than twenty people Releasing at a given time. 

        Each Releasing was scheduled by a computer the moment someone finished their Releasing process and the date couldn’t be altered. If you missed your opportunity, you would have to wait until the next appointment the computer gave you. This was rarely a problem for people like Seth who had Released dozens of times, but inexperienced children often missed their chance. The privilege to Release was bestowed on each child starting on their tenth birthday, although it was barely a taste of what working adults experienced. Comparing the two was like comparing the light of a match to the sun. Still, the process always managed to eliminate the negativity that was constantly plaguing its users. Ever since the first Releasing Centers had been opened back in 2038, crime rates had plummeted. Since only people below the age of ten, the mentally ill, the town’s Releasing Committee, and people convicted of felonies were forbidden to Release, very few people had pent up emotions which couldn’t be dealt with in a reasonable manner.

        Seth swiped his driver’s license at one of the twenty kiosks and waited for it to compute the amount of time he would have to wait before he could Release again as well as how much damage he could do when he Released today. The calculations would be finished in five minutes after the town’s Releasing Committee reviewed his data. The randomly selected committee of five men and five women worked extremely irregular hours without being allowed to release for the entire year, but they received extremely large salaries in exchange for their service to the town as well as complete immunity from any effects of Releasing for the year. As Seth waited for his results, he couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like being on the Releasing Committee. Going an entire year without Releasing would be horribly stressful, but he would have a great deal of power over everyone else in the town without almost nobody else ever knowing it since only Releasing Committee members had access to Releasing records. It wouldn’t be worth it, Seth decided as he saw his results. Waiting three months to Release was already agonizing enough at times. When Seth saw that his Release Level was in the bluish green area of the meter, he allowed himself a wolfish smile. Someone was going to get it big time tonight.

        A Releasing Chamber opened behind the kiosk, allowing a whoosh of air to escape from within. Seth walked into the tiny room and sat down into the large red armchair resting in the middle, barely noticing when the door slid shut behind him. A screen covering the entire opposite wall flickered to life across from him, showing the faces of everyone in the town. A polite and somewhat feminine voice issued forth from the walls. “Good evening, Seth Adams. Who would you like to release upon today?”

        Seth didn’t need time to ponder his target; he had selected his victim quite a while ago. “I choose to release upon David Winter.” The screen changed, leaving only the picture of Seth’s boss until a list of statistics popped up next to it: his age, his occupation, his wife, his lack of children. What the computer neglected to mention was the fact that he had begun to take an unhealthy interest in his secretary, perhaps because of his wife’s difficulty having children or perhaps because he simply preferred younger women. Whatever the reason, it was clear to Seth that this man was the cause of a great deal of stress to all of his subordinates, constantly berating them for his own errors and judgement and taking credit for their accomplishments. Something had to be done. Seth confirmed his choice to the computer.

        The data next to David Winter’s face was replaced by a diagram of his body. “Where would you like to release?” the computer asked. Seth considered his options. With the amount he was allowed to Release onto his boss, he couldn’t kill him, but he could cause him a lot of pain. Hopefully, that would be a nice wake up call for him. Now, which areas could he damage while causing the most nasty consequences. He still had to work under this man, so it couldn’t be any kind of brain damage unless he wanted to suffer even more at his job. Damaging his heart or lungs would lower his life expectancy quite a bit, but that seemed too unoriginal and bland for Seth’s taste. Finally, Seth selected the organ he would Release upon. He couldn’t control the exact effects of his Releasing, but he was sure they would be highly unpleasant and embarrassing. Better yet, the process was completely anonymous, so David would never know the cause of his misery. Seth selected his bladder.