i know you're not real, but your voice is so vividly clear that i swear it's like a tiny person has made their home in my head.

and those moments where it feels like a shadow is gently tickling my bare back at night, i know these are not visions. i know i am sane.

when i can smell the scent of pine, and fresh mint, i know it's you. i'm not hallucinating! i'm not crazy! you're there! you are!

but i slowly began to realize those haunting calls, and subtle touches, and the faint scent of mint and pine, are not dreams. they aren't visions, or fantasies. but instead nightmares.

they are the memories you've whittled into my brain, slowly but surely ruining my sense of reality.