• I don’t know where I am, or where I’m going. I keep walking anyway. That seems to be my life story. I’m in a hallway that never seems to end. Everything is dark. While dust fills the air. On the left there is a light. It comes from a crack in a doorway.
    There’s no reason to open it. Just like there is no reason to ignore it. I feel nothing tonight. So not a single thought flickers through my mind as to what lies on the other side.
    I just open the door. As though someone else controls me. Someone wants me to see what’s inside the room, behind the door. The light inside the room is dim. All that matters is I can see what I was meant to see.
    A man hangs by a rope in the middle of the room. His face is pale, his eyes are closed. Yet it feels like his eyes are watching me. I run from the room. Heroes aren’t supposed to die like that. But he wasn’t a hero. So does that mean he deserves to die like that?
    I run. Still going nowhere. But going nowhere fast this time. Trying to out run the pains of being somewhere. I collapse at the bottom of an old staircase. Layers of dust cover each stair. I don’t care though. I wrap my arms around my legs. I try to hide. Forget what I saw. It wasn’t him. He wasn’t dead. He didn’t deserve to die like that. No matter what he said or did. He didn’t deserve it.
    A laugh comes from somewhere in front of me. I look up. Through the dark and dust. My eyes meet hers. Her eyes meet mine. Her eyes are mine. My eyes are hers. There are dark circles around her eyes. I wonder if mine will look just like hers one day. Maybe they already do.
    Her lips are curled into a smile. “Are you happy now?” She knows I’m not happy. She won’t let me be happy. She never leaves me alone. I fight her and everything else until I feel nothing at all.
    I close my eyes. Not wanting to fight. Not wanting to breathe. Most of all not wanting to see her. She left me, and yet she still comes to see me.
    The man hanging in the room appears when I close my eyes. I open them, gasping for air. My eyes frantically searching for an escape.
    The woman with the same eyes as mine is coming towards me. She has a knife that drips with blood. The one she always has. Her arms drip with the same blood.
    I want out. I want to be free of all of this. But there’s never an escape. Sometimes I think I’m walking towards freedom and then I end up in the same place. Each time with even more pain to carry.
    I shake my head. Holding myself tightly. I don’t have the strength to run. I usually don’t. Only when I desperately try to fake my strength.
    A light shines into the dark area. Someone steps through a doorway. And right past her. I wonder if I’m the only one who sees her. My tear filled eyes look to see who is here.
    I lead myself to believe its just another thing to cause pain. I tremble as I wonder how much more I can take. There can’t be much time left. I must be running out of strength to keep my breath going.
    Arms wrap around me and help me to my feet. I look into the eyes of the one who is holding me. His eyes are not dark like hers. Nor are they lifeless like the man upstairs. They cause me no pain like other's eyes I see.
    His embrace makes everything disappear. All the pain fades away. Her eyes are no longer on me. The man’s image isn’t burning in my mind. I smile as I take a deep breathe.
    For now I have escaped the pain that never stops following me. I have strength to live. Strength that isn’t a charade.