Years pushing the darkness back into the shape of a shadow even when she was slicing my back open to get back into me. Years of lies after years of embracing unspeakable happenings. How could I have known it was okay not to be okay? I missed my chance to fall apart and heal properly. Then all I wanted was to forget his hands taking my breath and my voice and my love and his cruelty taking... Everything else I had ever wanted. And I wanted to forget the way I had let myself fall into an ocean of her love only to drown in it and beg for more to fill my lungs. So I forced it all out of my mind because, Lord, I have finally faced it: as soon as my mind finds a way out, I take it. I take it and I run with it. I run wild trying to heal my barely beating heart and I hide, pathetic and alone in corners of the world that no one would think to look for me. I do not linger in pain and wait. I take what I can like a ******* thief in the night and hastily sew my heart together and calm my mind and lungs until I can carry on. It worked for years. And years. I... thank you for a moment of peace to think while you shelter me from the world of pain and reality of love and loss. My eternally unsettled mind will continue and my heart will as always, try to keep beating.