TURNING POINT**

Terrified, she left at him with all her might. Brandishing only a fragment of the stick she had before, she lashed out with decisive vengeance. She felt in her a kind of super human will, something beyond her control. Wild eyed, she tore at him with her bare hands. What once had been vague memories all ran together. This was the turning point. The breaking of the cycle. It would not be carried on to another generation. Her thoughts melding together, flashes of the past burning through her mind as she left. Al in the fraction of a second, she had gathered every last bit of her life, and her energy to strike this final blow. It was as though time had stopped. Nothing in the universe existed but him, her, her weapon, and her will to survive. She was mid air now, and for the brief moment, that which made her human, the essence which separates us from our animal cousins got lost. She in the fraction of a second had reverted thousands of years back, drawing strength from the oldest human will. The originality of self was forgotten. Nearing her target she drew back the weapon. All of her fear now forgotten, she struck with bewildering strength, speed, accuracy, and power, which her attacker would never have expected. In the instant before the blow connected, his face told the story of his fear. Only moments before he had been in control, he had destroyed her weapon, (or so he thought) and was moving to strike his final blow. But in that instant he knew the fear that she felt only a second before. As the blow connected her thoughts were no longer of this man who had dragged her kicking and screaming into a darkened alleyway, but of her father, who had beaten her and her mother when she was young. She caught him, just below the jaw on the right side, driving over four inches of the wooden stake in. He tried to scream, but his vocal cords had been severed. Blood spewed in a seemingly unending stream. She didn’t see him, but her father, her third boyfriend, and the too friendly gym teacher. On the surface, this was just self defense, but deeper down this was a resolution, a turning point.