Individuality

Many view personality traits as concepts rather than visible, tangible objects. I think differently. When I entered secondary school, I was startled at first to see the people around me morph into abominations of form and color that would easily startle anyone else that could see them. However, after exploring the social environment of the school a bit more, I learned that certain physical traits were manifestations of mental characteristics. For example, someone who is frugal could have pikes of lustrous gold and silver protruding from their back. Someone who is narcissistic may have their own face represented on multiple areas of their body. Everyone had multiple noticeable features, and the combinations of certain characterisitcs could lead to some nearly inconceivable sights. I was happy with my gift, and it was decently amusing, most of the time anyway.

Today we had a new substitute chemistry teacher to fill in for our old one. He wasn’t exactly a top-of-the-line type of guy, he had a bit of a twitch and he was clearly in a state of constant distress. However, what stunned me the most was the fact that he looked like an actual human being, no fiery hair or dorsal fins or anything of the like. I was ecstatic to finally see an actual person until I caught a glimpse of his singular trait. A faint, shadowy limb protruded from his left shoulder, pulsating with fumes of smoke and hellfire. In its “hand” was a standard digital clock. Bright red digits shined brilliantly on the dark background.

It was counting down.