Guilty. ExCon. Felon. Prisoner. Criminal. Words that now represent me. Words that keep any decent person away from me. I never gave much thought to words before now. Slut. Hussy. Whore. Homewrecker. Jezebel. Words that now reflect me. Words that will stay indefinitely. The evidence of those words grow inside of me. Those Words make the entire town assume they are vindicated to use them. I am wrong. They are right.

Defeated. Coward. Gutless. Weak. Perceptions define the man that I have become on the inside. The world may not see me this way, but this is who I am. Sullied. Contaminated. Worthless. Masked. The way I perceive myself affects every aspect of my life. The world may see a perfectly clean person, but on the inside, I am nothing but dirty and scarred. The world sees us one way. We see ourselves another. Perceptions are what we’ve given ourselves. Perceptions of what we think we deserve. \*INCLUDES THE SHORT STORY: SAVIOR

Addict. Drunk. Selfish. Gifted. Titles define me. Titles bring people to me. Good, bad, and ugly. I’ve never thought much about titles. They have always been part of me. Frigid. Introvert. Loner. Bookworm. Titles were given to me. Titles that have staying power. They have always been there, in the back of my mind, screaming at me—making me miserable. Titles describe us to the outside world. I am invisible. They think they know me.

Murderer. Knockout. Buried. Tormented. The image the world sees is not the man that I have become. Images of me, of what I have done to another man, fill my mind. Nightmares fill my life, day or night, it doesn’t matter. All I see is death. Enabler. Trash. Hidden. Scandalous. The image the town sees of me is not who I have become. What I do late at night, to make ends meet, consumes me. I have no future. No prospects. No money. I’ve always tried to hide the fact that I’m nothing. Images we try to uphold are lies that we present to the outside world. Masks are all that we show, even to our closest friends. Nobody knows what lies beneath the surface. Nobody will ever know. INCLUDES SHORT STORY: PROTECTOR