Nicole's POV

It was a Saturday evening when I spoke with the therapist. He told me I had to try to recall all moments in my past that made a big impact on me. He said it would be the first step to resolve my anger issues, by trying to find the possible cause of it. Haha, funny how he called it 'anger issues'. Because that rage inside of me... is really something else.

But where did it come from? As a toddler I was quite the sweet but silent one. I never really bothered anyone and always was minding my own business. As a kid I barely had friends. I remember being socially awkward or generally too shy to make contact. But I did know some people who I sometimes could talk with. But my parents preferred me hanging out with the more 'intelligent kids'. Most of the time they were basically children who had rich parents that could afford any extra education programs. But I didn't like those kids. They thought that they were better than anyone else and sometimes even bullied others. So that's the reason I've been quite friendless as a kid. Until the day I met Richard.

We became best friends and our friendship grew into love. My parents disapproved of him, but I didn't care. Even if we had to keep it a secret, our love was unbreakable. Aside from the tons of after-school clubs I attended and the very high expectations from my parents, my spirit was still positive. Thanks to Richard. But then it came... in my teenage years.

I remember the first day of high school, where Richard immediately got bullied. I didn't want to stand out from the crowd on the very first day, but I couldn't handle seeing Richard being treated like that. So I defended him, which caused me being the very next bullying target. I tried to ignore it, until it made me agitated. I became assertive and managed to finally defend myself from those bullies. But things got bad... and even worse. I started to experience a tremendous amount of emotional stress which led me to sometimes completely give up on schoolwork. That angered my parents and made my stress even worse. On top of that, they found out about my ongoing relationship with Richard and spent that whole evening yelling at me... About all the things I did wrong... about how they did everything for me and that I was ungrateful...

It made me snap. It was all too much and I couldn't take it anymore. My inner cat triggered me to attack my parents, but instead I ran upstairs and smashed everything in my bedroom. I cried. I shouted. I dug my claws into everything that was in my way. I was shocked when I saw the damage I made. I remember even staring at my long, curved and sharp claws in disbelief. It never happened before. My claws came out for the very first time. My parents came running to my room and saw all the destroyed property. They were furious at me and I cried again. A lot. I spent the next week in my room without talking to them. And whenever I came home from school, I would prepare dinner for myself and go straight up to my room.

It was shortly after I turned eighteen when I left my parents. An argument got way out of hand and I straight up packed my stuff and left without thinking twice. I needed rest. I needed another start. And that's when I started living with Richard. I didn't even regret walking out from my parents, because I had him. He taught to look at life from a different point of view and gave me the best advice. He was the one that kept that raging beast inside of me calm. It were the happiest years of my life and here I am now. Three kids, Richard slacking off all day and my many duties brought back the stress I felt years ago. But it was totally fine, I could handle it. Until the incident...

That one moment which changed my life and changed me... it was the time when I chased my family through the supermarket after I had caught Richard trying to shoplift.

But it was also because of all the agitation I had to deal with that day. My kids throwing tantrums, them not obeying me and their constant tries to get candy from the store. I was overcome with rage that I never felt before. And if my back wasn't misaligned by that botched massage back then, I could've actually caught them. Who knows what could've happened then. I was so furious that I completely lost control. And since that day my rage issues became worse. This rage... was something else.