Prologue | An Empty Rib Cage

The writing takes away from it, so I would learn.

As countless vain scribbles-projections of directionless emotion-met page after page, I found my fingers reduced to quivering nubs, bleeding my story on paper that would forever be deaf to my thoughts as you were blind to my presence. So here I was.

I hated you.

And no amount of self righteous penitence could have reconciled the anger that made dwelling places out of my raucous organs, it's no wonder...

I could no longer stomach you.

Still I returned, time and time again.

For I sought comfort in the familiarity of a certain nothingness I could only find within you. Comfort in those eyes that now only saw past me and comfort in those hands now clasped around my neck like a perfectly taut noose masquerading as jewelry.

It was as if you were made to snuff me out and I welcomed every second of that wilting flame.

I was never afraid of what you were capable of.

Yet the only things that held me back from giving to you fully were the same parts that remained locked away.

Buried.

So it happened, the harrowing brays, the gnashing, and the excavation that left my ribs cavernous.

Soundless.

Or as they would call it, Love.