Drift

Twisted sheets

Seek to strangle

To hold me fast

To keep me bound

To tie me down

Helpless...

Unmoving.

Body tense

A spring ready to snap

Fighting through

The burning

The fire in my limbs,

Afraid my hindered voice

Will betray me,

And those that seek me

Will discover me

Within the hiding place

Buried deep

In my own mind.

Try as I might,

To shrink myself

To nothingness

I'm still here-

Still breathing,

Still crying,

Still afraid

of what I might see

Without sight.

The images in my head

More terrifying

Than the reality

From which I hide.

And there it is,

The fingers questing

Feeling,

Groping

Above the bedsheets,

The thin membrane

Whose sole purpose

Is to keep me safe,

Keep me hidden

From those searching fingers.

The apparition descends,

I feel it's heated

Stinking breath-

A mixture of brimstone

And decomposition-

I cough and gag

As the unearthly stink

Penetrates my mouth,

Slithers into my nose

And takes residence

In my burning lungs.

I choke on darkness,

Then drift upward

A mere wisp of breath

Sucked into the being

That torments my dreams

And see things

From a different view-

That ethereal spirit

Is simply a reflection...

...of me.