Exposed

They are all staring at me with hungry gazes.  They peer into my soul and I'm scared to death by what they might see.  I cannot hide from their eyes-staring, piercing, burning holes in my flesh. The nightmarish figures fill the room, paralyzing me with their horrifying presence.  My heart is racing.  I know they hear it.  They sneer as they listen to blood rushing through arteries and shooting through veins.  They hear the frantic pounding and see the pulse at my throat.  The demons, with their sharp, poisonous fangs wait eagerly, impatiently, to rush at me and rip open my throat and eat out my heart.  Fear wells up from deep inside me and catches in my throat, making it hard to swallow.  They sense my fear and feed off of it.  Any moment now I will collapse and they will be on me, tearing away at my vulnerable flesh and feasting on my pain.  My eyes flash around, looking for escape-for pity-but I find none.  I will be tortured, then eaten alive.  Nothing can stop it.  Not yet though, they are waiting for something.  I don't know what.  They stare at me expectantly, blood lust and sickening excitement radiating from their twisted forms.  They wait for me.  If I move I must face them and I will surely be destroyed, my body deformed and broken beyond all recognition.  A scream is lodged in my throat, threatening to burst out of my flesh and spill my blood upon the gleaming floor.  I can't move.  I can't breathe.  I can't cry out.  I can't....


I give myself a mental shake and smile at my classmates.  Some are obviously bored but others look at me with vague interest.  They are waiting for me to begin my presentation so that they can be closer to leaving class.  A few who will present after me aren't even paying attention.  They're too wrapped up in their own nervousness.  I take a deep breath, try not to listen to the pounding of my skittish heart, and begin to speak...