they don’t know. they don’t know. I tell myself over and over and over. it’s impossible, purely impossible, for one to know my thoughts. they cannot see me, they cannot know, so why is it I hesitate. this feeling of paranoia, so strong it drives me to insanity, bedevils me even now. I will myself to persuade my mind that truly they do not know, cannot know, will not know. I tremble in the moment, the ones that debilitate me, leave me questioning my own reality. it feels that they’re inside my head, beckoning me...taunting me. but I tell myself no, no, no way in hell can they know. for surely it is not possible, for them to see me. so why do these anxieties plague me, over things I know they cannot know.