Sinister Ego : Dangerous Minds

1. Puzzles

"There is a beast...maybe it's only us."

-William Golding, Lord of the Flies.

*****

No matter the amount of ignorance, this world is fueled by intelligence.

The clever, the analytical, the critical, the cunning.

The clever and cunning make homes of the heads of the weak minded. They bury themselves inside, they take over, and use the weaker to their advantage. They're powerful people. The analytical and the critical gift us the architectural marvels that feed the greatest empires, the advances in science that save lives everyday. Again, these are very powerful people.

The creative. The ones who shower us with art and literature. The ones who keep us entertained, from rotting away from boredom.

Ever since the beginning of time, it is on these people that we have depended.

They're what drives our race. What's gotten us where we are.

To where we're going to be.

They're why no force has ever stopped us.

Powerful, but weak, weak, too weak.

*

I like to do puzzles.

Hard, complicated puzzles. Ones that make me sit and think for hours. Ones that make me block out everything, forget all the stressful situations life likes to throw at me. I like puzzles that turn the gears of my mind, like I'm a factory, and the solved problems are the finished product. Even the simple ones that can momentarily distract me. Not only do I enjoy them, and not only do they add strength to my mind, but they're a way to cope. A way to deal with pain.

The soft crinkling of paper filled my ears as I opened the Soduku book I had in my hand. Already, I could feel some of the stress draining away. I flipped directly to the back of the book, where all the "insane monster level" puzzles were, and immediately began filling the boxes in. Numbers came flying into my brain, producing accurate answers at a super sonic speed, easing my seventeen-year-old mind. The cheep ballpoint pen dashed across the page at an almost mechanical rate. Within a minute, I had already completed a puzzle.

Within ten minutes, five were done. I smiled to myself. I felt lighter now, like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Sure, these weren't the most satisfying puzzles for me to solve, and I had no doubt the stress would return, but they would have to do for now. I stood up and rummaged through the bin, picking up several brain teasers books.

I was glad they were here to help.

It had been a rough week. I'd been stressed before, too, but now it was really hitting me. What with school and juggling my part time job after it, I'd had a hard time finding time to just relax. And when I did find time, I'd get sidetracked and forget, getting sucked up into some kind of stupid situation. At 4:15 in the morning, I had finally snapped. Woken up feeling dehydrated, weak, and more stressed than ever. I was lucky to be able to have something like this to help me cope.

But that isn't how Rory functions. Rory isn't Ricky. He doesn't have any puzzles.

He doesn't have anything that I'm interested in, really. Nothing. His house is overrun with superhero comic books, kinky pornos, South Park DVDS that have been played so many times they no longer work. His house is also where I'm forced to stay while there's too much tension to be at my own. Some of those things belong to him, others to his dad. It's why I found myself here at the 24 hour bargain shop at four o'clock in the morning.