Like a flickering flame my life does waver. Once bright and shining with such flavor. Now dulled and fragile, cupped with careful hands. Whatever happened to me?

Oh, that's right, you. And you, and you. Not physically, no, you didn't have to resort to such things. Just you...

Maybe a face, a quirk of the lips, a twitch of the eye, a slip of the tongue.

That's all it'll ever take with you. Like no other you deftly hit me where it's worst. Unconsciously you grip that knife. And shove it in my face.

Do you really want? Do you really want me? Do you really want me, dead or alive? To live a lie?
Tell me, would you kill for a life? Kill to prove you're right? I can plead and beg, but it's nothing I'll ever know. Burn, burn, and die. It's my fate with you. Too close to the fire I stood next to you.


But now look at who we are. Once so strong now so feeble, I won't turn to you though.

Even now as my body grows cold, my soul shriveled. I grip my flame with clumsy hands as the last of the warmth tickles my face.

A relieved sigh escapes from within. Even though pain still traces my body. I find myself calm, happy, for the first time, in a long time.

Now I know. Maybe I always have, but for the first time, uncertainty is okay, not a foreign enemy. No more pain inflicted by a curios thought. Anger won't accompany my tears like furious guards. The mask I wear has cracked and splintered, a relic from the past. I won't go back.

Not again, not for you, not for anything.