RedWolf4

"Do you remember what they used to tell us?" Rain pattered on the roof as they lay on the floor, a steady drip echoing in the hallway from on of the cracks in the roof. "They told us we could be whatever we wanted to be, so long as we put our mind to it." The smoke burned in my lungs as I sucked it in from the pilfered cigar. I coughed, remembering something about not pulling it right in like that, that you were only meant to draw it into the mouth. "They all told us that, and it stuck, and day in and day out we did our chores and our homework and our little jobs, and we dreamed. We dreamed about being special, about shining bright and ma

The rain beats down, It's cold, and I shiver, But not because of that, but because of you, You press against my back, your breath teasing my skin, And you hold me close. But I know what you are, and the bile rises, all over again, And I feel that subtle terror again, feeling you soak into my shirt, Feeling that skin pale and cool, the muscle turn slack, And still you hold me close. Let go. Please, just let go.

I take a draw, smoke harsh in my lungs for a moment. Dinner sits on the bench, but it's not mine, and it's going cold. I forget, sometimes. There you stand, staring, always staring, and I can never meet your gaze. In walks a friend, grinning and laughing, and I turn to smile at him. "It's yours," I lie, pushing the plate towards him, "But you were just late as always." We talk, we laugh, there's banter. We get in his car, and I look in the mirror. There you sit behind me, staring, always staring, just like I remember from so long ago.... I wish you'd just leave.

I fell once.  From a cliff-face overlooking the ocean. Afraid at first, I reached the apex, the beginning of my downwards journey. A sudden weightlessness overcame me, heavy though I was, and I felt the fear vanish in the face of the calm wonder that suffused me. Time slowed, as if I had begged of it the favor to linger in this subtle beauty, to savor the brush of the sea air on my skin, the wash of its waves upon the shore, a light that should have been blinding instead piercingly clear. For that one perfect moment, I hung, lighter than air, almost nothing, a speck against the great tableau I inhabited for an instant. Until it ended, as