A door opens, and the blind, slippery creature materializes. It slithers rapidly up the inside of my chest, rib by rib, clicking over my bones and digging into the muscle for balance. In one swift leap it latches onto my furiously beating heart.

Calm down, it hisses. Calm down.

A claw is lifted and raked across the side of my heart, creating the slick kind of invisible wound that doesn’t hurt until you start to see the blood flow.

A slender, slick arm reaches down, through the veins and the bright blood flowing in all guided directions. Down into the light that has burned so bright for so long that is has become something solid and tactile.

Callous claws close around the glowing orb and pluck it away. The heart skips a beat, just one, and then continues on directing the blood aimlessly like the machine that it was designed to be. The creature scrambles back down into haunted depths, in it’s clutches the light flickers.

A chill settles over this new darkness. Something I will forever fight to re-light, without any idea how.

-Luciana, 29