conversation between hero and victim

where does the pain go? you ask, all that hurt you carried.

I haven’t slept soundly in days;

it hurts and hurts and hurts, burrows into the marrows of my bones.

it goes, I answer, it never stops moving.

you remember the long nights, where the fire burned cold.

all that fear, and the tears that salted the earth behind us;

hope had no place there, at the end of the world.

only duty carried us forward.

do you dream, still, of something better?

I want to laugh. I haven’t laughed in a long time.

dreams are for people not weapons. you should know better.

you are still and small where you were once so bright.

you are worn down now, where you were once a child.

the dark scares me, you admit.

i fear the light, I whisper, it reveals too much.

what was once a sign of safety now shows no mercy.

in the dark, monsters can hide.

in the dark, monsters can lie to themselves.

a kind world lets monsters be monsters;

a cruel world makes monsters understand monstrosity.

how did you survive it?

i didn’t really have a choice.

but who saves you? who saves me? who saves us?

these are all the same question, and so they have the same answer:

No one.