Seen

They say monsters are born, not made. I say they're forged in silence. I am the person who sits beside you in class, smiles at you in the hallway. The one who laughs at jokes you don't even know are jokes. I am the person you never see coming.

Compassion? I thought I knew what it was. Attention? I craved it. Power? I learned to measure it in heartbeats, in trembling hands. I learned early that being seen meant being feared. That anger, carefully contained, could be a kind of power. That control... was addictive. Sometimes necessary. And when it comes at the cost of someone else's life, it's intoxicating.

Raised in guilt and rage, I learned, I adapted, I evolved. I became something beautiful. Something... deadly. I narrate my own evolution. Read carefully. You might see yourself in me.