i'm numb, like fingers bitten by cold.
i cling to you as you cling to me.
can you feel me crawling over your
shoulders? the heady stench of my
breathing? do you feel the nothing?
i pick you apart, as birds pick at
rotting meat, the saccharine sweet
of breaking skin. i'm like warmth
and ice and prickling. i'm so cold.
you crouch, afraid, in lightless morns,
clothes in pieces, hair all torn as you
watch the things you once held onto
shudder and die. you watch grains of
time go past, hours into minutes into
seconds into years, years going by
without any end and vivid beginnings.
you crouch, afraid, in the isolation of
your very mind: that dark, full space
that tightens its fingers around you
like a child clinging to its parent. i
belong in the quiet, i cannot survive
while you are alive. you try to pull
away, but no matter, because you know
you'll stay. who else will always be
there, if you yourself are not? you are
weak and vulnerable and afraid, and
no one else will keep you safe. i will
keep you safe. i will whisper to you
when you lie awake, give you answers
to questions you silently ask. you are
mine to keep, mine to break. i am the
cheerful voice that permeates the
back of your head, deep in your skull,
deep in your atoms, you wretched
being of the night. you poor little thing,
so scared, so hideous, so alone. you
don't need to be alone, for i am here.
come crouch here with me, in this
shivering shell of light. i'll make you
stay here. don't you leave, for i promise
you'll be alright, you'll be alright, you'll
always be alright, fine, good, happy,
and i'll leech onto the light. hate does
not burn alone, darling. it needs
kindling, and i shall provide. don't
you worry - i'm by your side. i promise.

the question is, do you promise, too?