Caution Tape

<p><strong><em>CORA</em></strong></p><p>It's exhausting pretending to be normal.</p><p>Go to therapy. Hold down a job. Smile.</p><p>So much smiling.</p><p>All I can do is attempt to corral the burning rage that sits in my chest.</p><p>It's getting hard.</p><p><br></p><p><em>My mask is slipping.</em></p><p>I'm slowly losing my grip. Reality is getting blurry.</p><p>I'm yearning to lash out. To taste blood.</p><p>For someone to see me for what I truly am.</p><p><br></p><p><strong><em>NOLAN</em></strong></p><p>I've kept myself in check. Built the perfect lie. A well-adjusted man with his entire life ahead of him.</p><p>Allowed myself only daytime fantasies and night drives. It's not enough.</p><p><em>I'm too hungry.</em></p><p>Then there's her. Chipping away at my lie piece by piece.</p><p>I see her. She has a darkness in her eyes that matches mine.</p><p>I want her. I want her wrapped in plastic squirming and begging me for mercy.</p><p>My trophy. My toy. Mine.</p><p>And so it begins.</p><p><strong>One game.</strong></p><p><strong>Two mutual monsters.</strong></p>