A short response to the prompt "Write about what triggers anger in you or someone you know. Describe in detail."
'So, without further gilding the lily and with no more ado, I give to you,' the story!
In most respects, it isn't difficult to make Bruce angry; however, he does try much harder than most to control his temper. A rude person, a door being slammed and startling him, an unruly dog chasing him; these things may not make a normal person go insane with anger, but they could make Bruce snap. He has little to no control, and this is often his downfall.
When Bruce gets angry, he's barely himself anymore. He becomes this monster, this thing, and he can't be trusted, he can't be controlled. It's almost like he's not even himself anymore. The thing about this monster is that it's almost like Bruce's other half; like the side we know - calm, even-tempered, smart, loving Bruce - is all the serenity that he possesses, and all the rage and anger that is inside of him gets transferred to this monster. It is as though they are two separate entities entirely.
To use an earlier example, say that Bruce was dealing with a rude person. Some woman was passing him in the street, and she wasn't watching where she was walking; she accidentally bumped into Bruce, spilling her coffee all over him. She barely stops, except to make sure none of her hot drink spilled on her, and continues on her way, still talking on the phone. When Bruce, struggling to contain his temper, yells back to her that she had, in fact, spilled her beverage all over him, she merely turns around for a moment and tells him that maybe he should not have been in her way.
This was a terrible move on the part of the woman.
Bruce can't control himself when he starts to become angry. He wears a small heart monitor, strapped to his wrist, to let him know when his heart rate gets elevated. The monitor began beeping erratically, and Bruce clutched his head between his hands, scrambling down a side alley, disregarding any people he darted between. It was there, out of the prying eyes of the general population, where Bruce became the monster.
People often think Poor Bruce. He's so calm and collected, and then he's this thing. Bruce tries to stop thinking of it that way. It's true that he's not a fan of "the other guy", but he learned to take things as they come. If there's nothing he can do to stop it - not yet, anyways - then he may as well learn to accept it. Don't get him wrong, he is working on a cure; it may just take a while to complete correctly and finally take, that's all.
It could be said that the thing that makes Bruce angriest of all is the very thing that "helps" him deal with the anger - the monster. He is constantly in an underlying state of rage just at the mere fact that the monster exists inside of him. When the monster is gone, perhaps Bruce's constant anger will disappear, too. It's not like anyone would notice, though; he does his absolute best to keep his cool around anybody that comes near enough to him to be affected should the monster decide to make an appearance. But Bruce - fiercely tranquil, maddeningly mild, achingly peaceful Bruce - is always angry.
Perhaps it's not truly a monster. Perhaps it's merely caused by something uncontrollable that had happened to him, and now the thing comes out as a defense mechanism when Bruce needs it the most. Bruce is not weak by any means, but he is gentle, and the monster may not like that Bruce can't always defend himself. Maybe the monster and Bruce are one, not two.
However, does any of that really matter? The monster destroys, he ruins what he touches, and he never means to. But, then again, even as humans... don't we all?
