A Flicker in the Dark

by Stacy Willingham

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that, in the process, he does not become a monster. If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.

But it’s one thing to recount memories with detachment, relaying them as simple facts that happened and nothing more. It’s another thing completely to relive them in his presence.

When people get hurt physically, you can see it in the bruises and the scars, but when they’re hurt emotionally, mentally, it runs deeper than that. You can see every sleepless night in the reflection of their eyes; you can see every tear stained into their cheeks, every bout of anger etched into the creases in their foreheads.