The Imp of the Perverse by Edgar Allan Poe

The narrator begins with an essay-like discussion of a dark human impulse: the uncontrollable urge to do what we know we should not. He then confesses to a murder committed years earlier, which he successfully concealed—until the “imp” drives him to publicly confess without reason. The tale turns inward, exploring guilt, compulsion, and the psychology of self-destruction. It’s a chilling look at how logic can be undone by irrational forces within us.