Why didn't you say anything?
You never asked.
It felt like the sting of a thousand paper cuts all over her skin. This intense burning sensation with the accompanying voices that made her ears bleed. "Whatever you do, it's not right", "Everything you say is a lie", "You have no purpose to me", "You don't do enough, I won't let you" "Stop feeling, actually stop being" "All your pain does is manipulate us."
She could do it all, they expect her to do it all, but they won't let her. Her monologues all mean nothing if not demonstrate weakness. Her feelings are all insincere and selfish, indulgent. And she swore one of these days she would leave, but every time she would try, it all magically got better. She felt purposeful, a part of it all, and then as soon as she felt loved, it all came crashing back down again.
She was about to give up, she let it all out, screamed it to the wind, somehow knowing only it would care. And then the voices came again, this time an impossibly, incessantly, soothing stampede of alleged allies;
Why didn't you say anything?
You never asked.
