Rionionin

It is a perpetual paradox that humans are the most inhumane of all creatures. No horse would kill another, simply for having a different shade of fur. No dog would travel round the world, to pick a fight for a reason it did not know. No cat would prance through the forest, as if it were the only thing alive. No ape would start a social war, over another wanting as a mate something it would not have chosen for itself. No. Humans do. Humans are the only ones, sentient and stupid. Humans are the only ones capable of being inhuman.

Scissors. They were the first as I recall, the first to split the skin with a slight sting, emotional pain followed as swiftly as possible with that of the physical sort so as to be a distraction. There were a lot of cutters at school. Most of them were in band class, though I have no idea why. I walked into the band room one day, to have a boy, I don't remember his name, brag to me about the new Exacto knife he had just bought, under the pretense of doing an art project. They all bragged about it; scratches and scars were trophies, hidden trophies though they were, yet the bragging was always quiet, secretive, and only ever to one another. O