...I hear them...

In desperation I reach outwards, curl inwards, and stop breathing. I think to myself, perhaps, if I stay still...

...they won't notice me.

Perhaps... if I don't move, don't breathe, don't think, they'll just continue on without me. I’m not that important, anyways. They don't _really_ care. What am I worth? I’m useless, ugly, twisted...

...but then I feel it again.

That freezing, numbing, spine-tingling feeling. And I know that they've arrived. My lungs expand, sucking the oxygen back into my lungs, and I feel the crushing weight settle in on my spine and my knees.

They’ve come for me.

my back arches in pain, and suddenly they are on me once again, stabbing, biting, clawing, ripping, tearing... arms outstretched towards the corners of the room, I scrabble at the wood floor with my fingertips desperately, eyes going wide as I fight to keep the darkness gathering in my peripheral vision from closing in entirely.

I descend, screaming and struggling against them as they rip and tear and laugh as I bleed, gleefully watching me writhing in pain as they pull out my heart and make me swallow it... again. Somehow, I live through it, as I’ve always done before, as I always will.

All at once, it seems, even though I know it's much later, everything shivers... my eyes clear for a moment, only to become clouded once again, but somehow, this obscurity only makes me less afraid. In this moment, all the fear boils down into one, white hot point, and explodes. I lose myself in the fury, hundreds of times larger and stronger than any of them around me, and rip them to pieces... I rule them, and I love it...

I lose myself...

Sooner or later, however, as it always happens, the rage dies away... and I am left again, small, weak, worthless, exhausted, easy prey in their eyes. Fearfully, timidly, they start, again. I can't move... and they continue, with obvious and apparent relish. And against my will, I fade away...

Hours later, I revive, and I am alone. I uncurl, my eyes open, the weight is gone, and the sun is shining...

I stretch myself, I stand, and I smile... but I am cold.