Psychopaths Among Us

by Melia

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The man sat down on the bench next to David and unfolded his newspaper with a bit of a flourish. Too much flourish if you asked David. Which nobody did.

David scooted a bit further away, well, as far away as he could given that the bench was only so long. He didn’t want to be this close to the psychopath. They made him uncomfortable and slightly itchy.

All his life he had felt this reaction when he met certain people and it was only recently that it was discovered that the psychopaths were actually a different kind of human. An offshoot on the evolutionary path. It seemed David, an average everyday human, had an ability to detect them. A rare talent that David would rather not have.

The man glanced at him and smiled. David shrank back. The smile seemed practiced and automatic. Like something you do because you’re told to, not because you feel friendly. The man’s eyes were empty and void of feeling and as he continued to stare and smile, David began to feel the itch… and the fear.

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Comments

Average Reader Rating: 5.0 stars out of 5

  1. Psychopaths Among Us

    heartbeats echocho's Buddy Icon heartbeats echocho

    Posted 8 months ago

    4.0 out of 5 stars

    This gave me the jitters, I love it. Dave’s sitting next to a psychopath!
    LoA

  2. Psychopaths Among Us

    White Hat's Buddy Icon White Hat

    Posted 8 months ago

    3.0 out of 5 stars

    I wish it was something less having to do with stigmatizing a certain sort of mental illness and, say, something supernatural…

  3. Psychopaths Among Us

    Melia's Buddy Icon Melia

    Posted 8 months ago

    4.0 out of 5 stars

    I read an article about psychopaths the other day (this one: http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=936) and this sentence in it struck a chord with me and I’ve been percolating on it ever since:

    Some psychologists go so far as to label the psychopath “a different kind of human” altogether.

    So yeah, That’s how this ficlet came about.

  4. Psychopaths Among Us

    Melia's Buddy Icon Melia

    Posted 8 months ago

    4.0 out of 5 stars

    Er, to address White Hat, it wasn’t my intent to stigmatize a mental illness. I was just thinking about what it would be like if psychopaths really were a different kind of human and they coexisted with “regular” humans. Obviously in the ficlet format, there isn’t enough room to expand on the thought in one entry but in my head, there are good and bad psychopaths. This guy in the story could be a bad one and maybe David’s talent is telling the good from the bad. Who knows.

  5. Psychopaths Among Us

    White Hat's Buddy Icon White Hat

    Posted 8 months ago

    3.0 out of 5 stars

    Makes sense.

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