They Called me a Monster

"Come with me."

This is a dream

"Right now."

This isn't real

"Do you know why we called you in here?"

I'm just tired. I stayed up too late.

Please don't do this...

"I didn't do it."

I couldn't

"It wasn't me."

I wouldn't

"It is inhuman!"

Wasps bloomed inside my stomach and swarmed behind my teeth.

I wish more than anything I had set them free.

Smite them with the wrath of the Testament,

Command the skies to rain the fires of hell

and watch their smiles melt under the flames!

But I am no monster.

I sniffled like a child.

I listened and did as I was told.

I was quiet. I was polite.

I was broken.

I didn't do it.

Guilty until proven innocent.

Here, you'll see!

But they didn't.

The time stamped logs vanished on their desk.

Emails never opened, just dragged to the corner and deleted.

My account pulled from payroll and buried with the phrase

Terminated.

I was never the monster you made me out to be.

My nails weren't claws.

My teeth weren't fangs.

Smoke never billowed from my lips.

But I can still taste the embers from the hell

you put me through.