✦ IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DARK WOOD ✦ (A Conversation with Dante)

Half a life... Gone. No trumpet. No warning. One morning... the road simply wasn't there. Branches writing names in shadow. Every path becoming one. Compass spinning without mercy. Moon refusing every sun. Every answer once collected turns to dust beneath my feet. Every victory remembered tastes suspiciously like defeat. Who drew this forest? Who locked the sky? Who taught the heart to call this living? I walked into the dark wood thinking I was lost. Then silence called my name. Every monster wore my face. Every demon knew my language. Every step was leading home. Wolves of hunger. Lions roaring. Leopards dressed in polished skin. Every beast I tried escaping had already lived within. Fear wears armor. Pride wears velvet. Desire smells like summer rain. Every kingdom built without truth becomes another chain. You keep asking where Hell begins. Wrong question. Hell begins... the first morning you no longer recognize the man inside your own reflection. Walk. I walked into the dark wood thinking I was cursed. But every wound became a doorway. Every shadow learned my name. Every fire burned away someone I was never meant to be. The forest never trapped me. It introduced me to the road.