Week 15 is Week 7: Structure; Profile; Lecture

Deceitfully Charming

It’s getting harder and harder to see anything but anger in Eric Brown. His mental illness is taking more control of him by the day. His outbursts are fast, furious, and frequent. His new girlfriend, Melissa, keeps her eyes to the floor. The stony look to his face, the fast yet, almost lurching, steps. The cold, dead eyes. Those eyes…

About a month ago Melissa's aunt was in Wal-mart. She saw them, but he rushed Melissa off before she could get close. Aunty did see the black eye though.

 Eric storms into the house pissed off that the cops had been called again. As he enters the room the dog, a Sheppard mix, cowers and urinates on the floor in fear. 

"What the Fuck!" He screams at the dog as he punches him in the head over and over. When he is done the dog is on the floor with blood coming out of his mouth.

“There! You fucking mutt! Piss on the floor again.” Melissa’s six year old

daughter closes her eyes and covers her ears.

One year earlier… Brandy manages to reach the door but he only pushes her back down to the floor. She struggles to catch her breath, the pain ripping into her side again.

“Please stop! Please! I think I need to go to the hospital…” Brandy passes out as his boot drives into her already fractured ribs. Only a moment later her eyes snap open when she hears the drill. In too much pain to move she watches as he screws the door to his house shut, then does the same to the windows.

Eric kept her like that for two days. When he finally opened the door so she could go to the hospital she did. “I slipped on the stairs” she said to the ER Doctor. Brandy didn’t go to the police when she was done, she went straight home.

Three years earlier… Eric strolls into the restaurant; head held high, posture is perfect. He takes a seat at the bar and smiles at the cook. Sonya blushes, he is cute. He comes back every day, claiming it’s only to see her. He is always complimenting her, never anything but perfectly sweet.  Many people look at Eric and immediately find there is something wrong. Something is off a little bit there. Sonya doesn’t see it; all she sees is a handsome man who is genuinely interested in her for her. Honestly, she was usually too busy to notice that he had a few beers and a shot every time he came in… on his lunch break.

 Every second feels like hours. Her heart is practically jumping out of her chest. “Hurry!” Sonya silently screams to herself as she places the back of the rocking chair under the door handle so he can’t get in. Bang! Bang! Bang! The old rocking chair rattles as he pounds on the door.
 "Open this fucking door! I'm going to blow your fucking head off! You fucking cunt! Open the fucking door! I’ll come through this fucking door! Open the door!"

Sonya cradles her infant son, singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider, as she backs up to the wall and sinks to the floor. The banging and screaming stops… then shuffling,

“You’re fuckin done.” A moment after he said the words she heard him go down the stairs, pause at the bottom, then into the living room. She heard the springs in the old couch groan when he sat down. She couldn’t leave, he wouldn’t let her. Sonya sat the rest of the night never taking her eyes off the door, praying Eric wouldn’t come back upstairs.

He dislikes being alone, he needs someone with him. It’s not hard for him to find a girl. His looks do a lot.  Eric is what they call “Easy on the eyes”, but he is hard on the heart… and sanity. When he spots someone that interests him he turns on the charm. Sweetness pours out of him like a fountain. But it’s not real. What he really is doesn’t show right away. Eric does have the ability to maintain a certain level of decency while in public, but that ability is fading more and more and he is becoming desperate. Desperate to gain control of anyone he can. He uses the same skill with them all. The stories are the same, the abuse is the same, and his hatred is the same. He cuts you off from everyone you love and slowly tears you apart. In the beginning though, Eric is always Deceitfully Charming.