Free The Battle Within by LaShawn Vasser

darkness, just her outstretched arms reaching for him and her blonde hair blowing in the wind. Franklin ran. He kept running and running but could never reach her. The faster he ran, the further away she became. Another, shriek, followed this time by an image of her head being smashed up against a wall.
    Franklin woke up in the middle of the night in a panic, wide-eyed and covered in sweat. His heart was racing, and he could barely catch his breath. It took a moment, to realize where he was and that he’d been dreaming. But, it felt so real. It always seemed real.
    The dreams had been happening more and more frequently, and not only at night. But so far, he’d managed to keep their occurrences to himself.
    However, he hadn’t dreamt about his mother in a while. It was probably no coincidence that the timing of it seemed to correlate directly with Troy coming to town.
    Franklin pulled his sleeveless t-shirt up and over his head before throwing it across the room. It was soaked. He rolled his body out of bed walking on shaky legs into the bathroom. After turning on the light, he ambled over to the sink, turned on the cold water, and splashed it all over his overheated face and body.
    He gazed at his reflection in the large wall sized mirror as the water dripped from his face onto the hard planes of his chest. How could he be so physically strong, but yet so mentally weak? He hated feeling this way…helpless… defeated .
    His practiced tight controlled snapped. Emotions buried deep came roaring to the surface. Franklin yelled at the top of his lungs, “ Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck !” He shouted it over and over again. Then, with the force of everything within him, he punched the reflection staring back at him. The glass shattered landing all over the sink, the bathroom floor…everywhere.
    A moment later, Troy ran into his bedroom wearing just a pair of boxers, yelling out to him, “Franklin! Franklin!” When he entered the bathroom, he didn’t know what to make of what was in front of him.
    Franklin stood as motionless as a statue with his hands still balled up into fists. Blood was dripping from the hand that apparently smashed the mirror.
    Troy carefully walked around the shattered glass. The vacant look in Franklin’s eyes caused him to transform quickly from concerned brother to doctor. Once he was close enough to touch Franklin, he didn’t make any sudden moves. Troy called out his name in an even, flat, and calm tone, “Franklin.”
    No response. Did Franklin even hear him? Troy tried again, this time a little louder and firmer, “Franklin.”
    Slowly, as if being pulled out of a trance, Franklin turned his head at the sound of his name. He blinked a few times. His eyes showing signs of life. Then, he looked down at his bleeding hand and around the room. He must have blanked out for a moment.
    “Franklin, let me take a look at your hand.”
    It wasn’t until he’d heard Troy mention his hand that a sharp almost blinding pain shot up his arm.
    Troy’s mind was racing as he inspected it. What the hell was going on? This wasn’t Franklin. He’d never seen him lose it like this. While he’d noticed something was a little off with him since yesterday, this…this left him more than a little worried.
    He snatched a towel from the rack, “You could probably use a couple of stitches and definitely an x-ray to make sure nothing is broken.” He pressed the towel over the area that was bleeding. “Hold this down.”
    Franklin winced in pain, “I’m fine.”
    “Clearly…you are not fine.” Troy continued to look around. His eyes zeroed in on the now exposed contents of Franklin’s medicine cabinet. “What in the hell are all these pills?”
    In an attempt to distract Troy, Franklin snatched his hand away, “I obviously can’t drive myself to get stitches and x-rays. Are you going to take me or not?”
    He stared at Franklin for a second, then quickly glanced at the medicine cabinet.
    Franklin wasn’t ready to