The Unleashing

     “Seriously” Steve declared, pausing to take a bite off of his particularly large slab of pizza, “Never underestimate someone’s ability to be an asshole.” The bright ballasts above were reflected in the little cups of cooked pepperoni that contained just the right amount of grease. Steve grabbed for his bottle of Mt. Dew, which sat still on the floor beside him waiting eagerly to please its owner with the odd, green colored fluid contained within, like so many of its carbonated ancestors before. The kid he was talking to was fiddling with his MP3 player. One ear bud perched comfortably in his left ear, while the other one dangled helplessly in front of his Toys R’Us work shirt like a bungee jumper whose friends left him hanging while they stood laughing safely above.

     Just then the alarm on Steve’s watch went off. It was a KISS watch he had since he was a kid, which was really just
Gene Simmons face on a wristband, with full make up and a long red rubber tongue that stuck out every hour. He saved up his allowance for over a month, and helped the old lady next door with her yard work to be able to buy that watch, and has worn it ever since, only taking it off when showering since it wasn’t waterproof and he didn’t want to drown one of his childhood idols.

     “Well it’s time to get back to work kid.” said Steve as he polished off the last bite of pizza. The kid didn’t say a word as usual; he just stood up and started off to wherever he had to be, never once looking away from his little digital jukebox. All of a sudden, Steve felt a wave of dizziness come over him. He rocked back and forth on his heels, resembling the local town drunk after getting booted from the pub at closing. Gravity finally got the best of him and Steve fell backwards, hitting his head on the floor with a tremendous crack. His eyes rolled into the back of his head until they looked like solid white marbles inside his sockets. His body was flailing and convulsing like an epileptic, but this wasn’t your average seizure. This one would permanently change him forever.

     Steve woke up to the sound of his shift managers voice, “Steve… can you hear me? Are you alright? How many fingers am I holding up?”

     Steve just looked up at him and replied, “How many am I?” while holding up a solitary middle finger.

His manager gasped in shock, not believing those words just came out of Steve’s mouth. “My god Steve, what has gotten into you?”

Steve had no idea why he was acting this way, but for some reason he liked it. The last thing he remembered was talking to the I-pod kid about his hatred for asshole people, and now for some unexplainable reason, Steve could not get mean thoughts and impulses out of his mind. Overwhelming, and yet strangely satisfying, all he wanted to do was cuss out his manager. He wanted to tell him to go fuck himself, and walk out of this piece of shit minimum wage job. With newly transformed demented eyes and an equally disturbing crooked grin, all he could think was to say “Take this job and hang it in your ass you old fuckin’ prick”, and that’s just what Steve did.