In Portland’s underbelly,

where neon lights flicker like half-forgotten dreams,

they gather—

hunched shoulders and hollow eyes,

those who seek the shadows,

not out of fear,

but out of a need to feel something more

than the emptiness inside that daylight exposes.

The streets are veins,

pulsing with the life of the night,

in alleyways slick with rain,

where syringes glint under streetlights,

they shuffle with uncertain steps,

finding their refuge,

their sanctuary in the void.

Fentanyl hits quick,

a sharp, icy embrace

that blurs the world,

a numbing balm for wounds too deep to name.

And in that haze,

the abyss isn’t something to run from

but something to hold onto,

something that swallows the hurt whole.

The night is a watchful predator,

and it’s the void that truly sees them—

the addicts, with sunken cheeks and trembling hands,

cradling them in a comfort

daylight would never understand.

For them, the darkness isn’t a monster,

it’s a lover,

a whisper that tells them they’re not alone,

even as they fade further into its depths.

What happens to those who seek the dark?

They find it,

and in it, they find a mirror,

a reflection of the parts of themselves

they’ve buried deep,

the pain, the guilt, the memories that burn too bright

in the harsh light of day.

In the void,

they are weightless,

drifting between the echoes of what was

and the silence of what could have been,

a space where time slows,

and reality bends,

where the world outside can’t reach them.

But the abyss isn’t kind,

it gives,

but it also takes,

and each time they seek it,

a piece of them stays behind,

trapped in the shadows,

fading into the background noise

of a city that never sleeps.

And so they chase it,

again and again,

seeking the comfort of the shade,

the numbness it brings,

until the lines blur,

and the slow dissolve of the void isn’t a place they go,

but a part of who they are.

What happens to those who seek the shadows?

They become it,

their eyes adjusting to the dimness,

their hearts beating to the rhythm

of a city that only comes alive

when the sun goes down.

They learn to live in the spaces

where the light doesn’t reach,

to thrive in the quiet,

to find solace in the stillness,

but in that gloom,

they also lose themselves,

piece by piece,

until all that’s left

is a remnant of who they used to be,

chasing shadows in a city

that will never love them back.