A/N Well this is another English assignment I did this year on the book the Inner Circle. Tell you what i manged to give another teacher nightmares, which is always good. insert evil laughter here

Time…time was always of the essence. Time…no-one ever had enough. And I knew my time was running out…Along with my grip on reality…

-Flashback-

I look back at that day nine years ago, when the jacarandas were in bloom, the day she left me and the boy. I remember the agony and sadness which was left in the gaping hole in my heart. She had abandoned us. She had abandoned me…

Those feelings built up over the years but were never voiced…Never left my mind, soul and heart…

-End Flashback-

I typed away on the computer at work; I had given up being a traveling salesman. Not much money to be made there. Not enough to support my living anyway. I now worked as an assistant managing meetings and such, collecting lunch orders from the staff, you know the grunt work.

I looked over and checked the time on my desk clock while running my hand through my thinning hair. 5pm it read, it was time for me to clock out. I saved my work and walked past all the cubicles of my colleagues and waited with a few others for the elevator.

When the lift arrived I walked in with the numerous other people and pressed the ground floor button. I looked out the window watching the traffic pass by as I stood in silence, for I rarely ever spoke to people here, unless it was necessary; it didn't look to me as if they wanted to talk to me anyhow. Everyone too busy with their own lives to care properly about another human being, after all that was human nature: get as far as you can in life and use anyone and anybody to achieve.

Getting off at the ground floor, I took my leave of the building and made my way to my destination. I slouched as I walked pass the blooming jacarandas as they reminded me of a past I'd rather forget. There was no point going to the car park as my car was in the shop and the bar was within walking distance anyway.

Katrina's Black Wings, the same bar I visited every night. The same bar I got drunk at everyday. The same place I drank away my sorrows which plagued my heart and mind. I walked over and sat in my usual seat and waited to be served. Katrina then spotted me, "Back again I see Stan. The usual I presume?" I just grunted a reply and nodded my head; I wasn't in the mood to talk. I never was these days.

I lost count of the number of drinks I had had. After all when she left me I became the weak hearted man I was today. Everything was starting to become a blur and everything started to be blocked out. All that remained was myself floating inside a black abyss of nothingness.

I started to reminisce about how things used to be before she left. The happiness which resided within those memories brought agony and rage back to my mind. With every memory, the more I thought: what would have happened if she had never left. What would have happened if she was never alive.

Then I returned to the black abyss of my mind. What I saw made me realize my insanity as my grip on the strings of reality had snapped. I saw a red devilish looking creature conversing with what appeared to be a black angel, talking about who knew what. They then started to whisper things to me. Telling me it was all her fault. Telling me that all this misery was because her. Telling me that she deserved to die.

I believed everything that I was told, after all I had finally lost what remained of my sanity and everything they said made sense. In order to end the suffering and eternal rage I must destroy the source. I must destroy her.

I didn't know when I exited the bar it must have been while the creatures were whispering to me controlling me from within a trance. When looked around I realized that I had arrived at the source. At the where she resided now. I noticed the front door ajar, and took that as an invitation. I had made my way into the kitchen and had taken a butchers knife from the draw.

I made my way through the house looking for my target, the source of my misery. The hunter stalking the prey as it was stated by the creatures. I found her on the patio, staring out at nothing.

I crept up behind her and stood behind her for a moment before slashing down across her back. She didn't even have time to scream as she fell from her chair and onto the floor. Repeatedly I stabbed, sliced and mutilated her in my drunken rage. Blood sprayed from her wounds every time I struck. Her face was frozen in horror; her mouth was open in a silent scream.

I reveled in her pain. I hadn't even noticed the malicious grin plastered across my face. I didn't even notice the pool of blood surrounding her body. I didn't even notice inside the black abyss of my mind that the creatures were dancing and cheering egging me on.

Before I struck for the final time she managed to say three words, "I'm sorry Stan…"