The darkness has always been around her.

Sometimes it rested on her shoulder, whispering in her ear, saying things nobody else could her. It wrapped its cold hands around her head, trapping her.

Sometimes it made its way down her arms, dripping off her fingers. It ran like rivers, inky goo slithering its way off her trembling hands.

Sometimes it would follow along, just behind her. Wherever she walked, it followed, always, always whispering its toxic words.

When she lay her head on her pillow, it was there, grinning. The night was its domain, no being had any power over it.

She would push on, through the murmerings of it, through its nightly screaming.

Because she knew, one day, she would find a light.

A light to chase it away.

A light to banish it forever.

But that day had not come, and it knew she was weakened.

It knew that she couldn't take much more. So it wrapped its silken fingers around her heart as it spun its never-ending stream of lies.

Lies spoken so skillfully that she began to believe them.

"My dear, I'm the only one that loves you. How could they, when you're so ugly?

How could they love you, when all you do is bring them down?

How could they love a monster like you?"

She felt its words sink into her very soul, she felt the seeds take root.

It swept through her, consuming her.

Nothing could stop it now.

It had broken her at last. The words poisoned her, choked out every last bit of light...

But where her light went out, another began to glow...

Another light, from someone else.

Someone new.

He reached out to her, he picked up the shattered remains of her heart and put it back together.

Slowly, slowly, she looked up.

Light.

What a wonderful thing to see after so many years alone in the dark.

He smiled at her, he gently took her broken form into his arms and cradled her.

Softly he wiped her tears away. And in his light she basked, feeling it slide off her shoulders.

She was free, free at last...

~~~

A/N: I'm sure what this is, but it felt right to post