Killer Instinct

They jumped from the bushes, demanding my wallet and valuables. I began to laugh, a deep, maniacal laugh. Unbeknownst to these would-be predators, they had picked the wrong kid, on the wrong night. That night, as I ran through the pitch dark, I ran mad, I ran angry, and I ran, ran, ran, frustrated and wanted to hit something and throw a tantrum. So what better way to diffuse that energy than to run run run fight win run!?

Backing up a bit... there is a huge radio field near my childhood home, and I slipped deep into thought as I ran the edge path, winding along the circumference, dissapearing into dark thickets of tree and bush at several places. The night was dark, and there are no lights on the field. The thickets are pure inky blackness.

Initially I worried. I thought, those thickets would be the perfect place to jump somebody. Both my brother and I have been beaten up by gangs during our explorations, so it was not an entirely irrational fear. My reaction has always been simply to absorb the blows, give the robbers what they want, and wait for them to peacably depart. However, the last time I was beaten, in the long healing aftermath (going to work with a black eye and answering the inevitable: "how'd you get that" with "i got in a fight" is a fast way to get a rep, but that's a whole 'nother story), I vividly remember coming to the realisation: the next time I'm in a fight, I'm gonna be the one doing the beating.

And so I plunged into the midnight darkness of the thicket, determined to confront my fears and demons. And I visualized what happened next. Two men jumped out, and demanded my money and iPod. Where old Greg would have put his hands up and forked over the goods, wild Greg goes visciously and immediately on the attack, channeling all his anger and energy into punches, screaming at the top of his lungs and pummeling the largest like a bezerker. He falls, and I then topple the accomplice. They are on the ground, and I lay into them with full on soccer kicks, cracking their ribs as they crumple in terror, the roles reversed: attacker has become defender, predator has become prey.

Just visualizing this shot massive amounts of adrenalin through my system; my pace quickened and my awareness heightened.

The sea change has begun.