Ｔｈｅ Ｐａｒａｌｌａｘ【𝐀 𝐏𝐨𝐞𝐦 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬】

【𝐋𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭】

           I hold the warm light in my hands.
It seeps between my fingers and wraps down my arms, injecting itself into me, into my veins.
I see the glow of its being writhe throughout my body, sinking lower into my stomach where it lies.

          I look up.
The shadowy moonlit sky looks back.
The light within me fights what I want to be. It claws at me, wanting to be free again.
It bites at my soft, pale flesh from the inside and burns me away.

          It desires to be with its kind, as I do the same. "Why must you be so impatient?" I ask the sentience within me."Soon we will both be with our destined kind far away."The light simply flickers back, my veins and scars lighting up with each pulse.
I watch as it tries to respond, only to be drowned out by the flesh and blood that encases itself.

          I resist the urge to pick at my thin flesh, to tear at myself to let this being free.I wish to relieve myself of this burden, to let this light go. From the back of my mind, I hear its voice.
"We are one in the same now," it began in a soft, soothing voice.
My breath was caught in the icy air; my flickering lights slowly coming to a dull hum.

          "The burden that you see that is me, is the burden that you see in yourself." It whispers to me. Sinking to my knees, the cold stone beneath my feet becoming my resting place, I listen."But you couldn't possibly be that." I respond, slowly looking back up to the sky, the dull light of the moon pooling around me; a hazy blue slowly outweighing the warmth inside me.
"I've subsided your voice for years, friend. You aren't what I fear."

           "But I am always with you." It reminded me, slowly sinking further inside of me."I'm no longer the epitome of fear in your eyes. I am strength."
My eyes lower to the ground, watching my warm flesh glow underneath the moon.

          "I am what drives you. I am what keeps you here. I am the chains that weigh you down to this unkind world. I am what gives you the motivation to simply escape and live unapologetically. I am you, and you are me."