I’m free, yet hold myself hostage

It's like I'm in the middle of a horribly hot fire. And it's burning me bad, the pain is awful.

And I'm standing in this fire writhing in pain. Wishing with everything I had that it would stop. And it's pathetic. It's pathetic cause there's two bridges leading right out of this damn fire.

But one has poor support and might not be able to hold me. I could fall and it could hurt. I don't know how far the drop would be, I don't know what's underneath it. I'm too scared to take that bridge.

There's the other bridge but waiting on the that bridge is a pack of hungry ferocious dogs. So I'm too scared to take this bridge as well, because they might attack me. I don't know if I would be able to fight them off. I don't know if I would be able to make it past them. So I don't take that bridge either.

I think, if only I could know those dogs wouldn't be able to kill me, if I knew I'd be able to make it past, even at a drastic cost, I'd find the will to cross that bridge. But I just don't know.

If only I could be guaranteed that the other bridge would support me. If I knew I could run across it fast enough, I'd be able to do it. But I'm not sure if I could, so I don't try.

I'm too scared to try and escape, in case there's something out there worse than this. What if I try and fail?

I take comfort in the fact that this pain is consistent and predictable. So here I stand, consumed with pain and misery.