You should know—my mind is haunted. Not by ghosts, but by demons with familiar faces. They whisper promises, tear open old wounds, twist memories until I don’t know what’s real. They ambush me when I try to rest, fill the silence with noise, and torment me even in daylight. My painstaking efforts to secure every ounce of rationality within reach proves ineffective. I feel like I’m running barefoot through fire, too tired to scream, too stubborn to fall, convinced I deserve every bit of agony. Sometimes I question why I fight. Why not give in?
Then, as if you can feel my torment, you appear in my dreams, a wave of calm washes over me as you stand guard, holding me in your arms providing asylum, hallowed groud they cannot step foot near. An encounter I despise abandoning as the sun tears me away. I feel your presence before I smell your scent. You, with your steady eyes and predator’s grace. You walk into the shadows of my mind and the demons scatter—they tremble at the the sight of you. Not because you chase them, but because they know they have no power, not when you're near. You make no effort to banish them. You don’t attempt to fix me. You reassure me that it isnt necessary, that I'm not broken or the poison I believe can infect and ruin anyone I allow too close. You just stay. And that—that is everything.
With you, I feel safe in a way I never have or ever will with anyone else. The ease that comes from knowing someone would burn the world to ashes only to protect you. You are a beast with teeth bared at everything that’s ever hurt me. And yet with me, your hands are gentle, your voice low, your closeness the only thing that’s ever quieted the noise. Your bite is ecstasy, your low growl so close, only for me to hear, puts my body in a frenzy, I beg you to mark me as your own, a brutal and coveted privilege that is essential to my peace. You are my savage and sanctuary intertwined.
You are an anchor of tranquility when the chaos becomes too much, spilling out threatening to corrode the miniscule unspoiled piece of my soul left deep within. You stare down my demons, forcing them to look away. You've made space for the chaos inside me without trying to tame it, never flinching, a merciless heathen with an instinctual craving to devour my flesh and safeguard the fury that unifies my feral nature and fractured psyche.
I will always have demons. But you remind them just how vulnerable they are.
I am haunted. But in your arms, I am at peace and can finally rest. I love you, more than you may ever realize. I will always love you, and never get the chance. That is suffering in itself but a price I am willing to pay for even a moment of rest.