Present
Nox
Under the lights of my private gym, the small beads of perspiration glistened on my skin. Faster and faster I pushed as sweat coated my body, saturating my shirt and shorts. Harder, quicker, one more mile...the internal commands kept me moving, kept my feet in rhythm as I continued my workout. Sometimes I wondered who I punished the most—me or the treadmill. I knew the treadmill wasn't a person, yet sometimes I thought of it that way.
I'd assign it a name and beat it into submission: each slap of my foot was a mark, each pounding mile was the pushing of my designated person's limits. Allowing my mind to imagine while experiencing the physical exertion was socially more acceptable than the actual acts I envisioned. The law frowned upon b*****e and corporal punishment. As CFO
