The sun doesn't set anymore... it just drops. Like a dead weight. And the dark doesn't fall, no... it infects. It crawls up the trachea, sits on the chest, Taking bets on how long till my sanity wrecks. And I’m scared. I’ll admit it! My hands are just shaking like leaves in a hurricane, brain going manic. I taste the copper. I feel the panic. Let the shadows spill out of the cracks in the street, Let the sadists and monsters just revel and eat. Let the nightmare bleed into the waking, the weeping, the— Stop. Just breathe. Look at the ring. Look at the bone underneath the skin. I am fractured. I am so unbelievably tired. My nervous system is completely miswired. But I am still here. I am grinding my molars to dust... but I’m standing. So bring on the pitch-black! Bring on the void! I am damaged, I'm terrified, nearly destroyed! But this light in my fist isn’t grace... it's not peace... It's the absolute refusal to cease! This light isn't a gift. It’s a weapon. It’s the scream in the silence when the ugly things step in! I will weaponize trauma! I will swallow the fear! I will burn like a flare till the atmosphere clears! Let the abyss open wide! Let it strip me to bone! The dark can have everything else! But it cannot have me.
