Darkness

It's always dark in here. I used to be scared of the dark. I had a nightlight when I was small to keep the shadows away. Daddy would call it a nightlove, not a night light. He said that the light was his love for me, keeping me safe until morning came.

I wish he was here now. I need something to keep me safe from more than just the dark.

I'm not even scared of the dark anymore. Being here has fixed me of that, even as it's broken me in a million other ways. Who could have known that it wouldn't be light that would chase the fear away, but endless darkness? There's only so much space for terror inside a person, and I have so much else to be scared of, that the fear of the dark has been squeezed out of me.

After all, darkness is nothing but an absence of light. This dark room is just a space with the light off. Or maybe no light source at all, I'm not sure. Either way, it can't hit me, or hurt me, or do... anything else to me. A dark heart, however, is missing a lot more than just light. It's lacking in love and compassion and kindness. A dark heart is an absence of humanity. And when humanity isn't there... well that's how people like me end up in places like this.