no longer able to fight, my eyelids came together with a thud. the very essense of sleep coursed through my veins as i felt my soul drifting through my chest. afraid to succumb to the darkness surrounding me, i released a final, shaking breath to counter the dull, jarring ache of my knees crashing to the floor. i knelt before the darkness not of my own accord, but in a final, desperate plea not to be consumed by it.

in vain.

i felt the darkness around me, inside of me, seeping through the very essense of what i thought defined me, and yet-

consumed? no.

embraced..? maybe.

it held me, the darkness; it held me in a way i couldn’t hold myself, it held me like a curious child might allow a butterfly to perch on its finger, and yet simultaneously like i was a dying animal, scared, being put down but loved nonetheless, loved right until the end.

maybe this was the end.