My soul is on fire, I can feel the heat of the flames.
There is smoke engulfing my mind and filling my lunges,
And I find there is no escape.
The burning intensifies as my mind erupts,
The pain so immensely powerful that I collapse....
in an effort to smother the burning death.

I silently scream as my vision becomes blurred,
Writhing as I slash and beat at the blaze – leaving permanent marks.
I find my heart has become the source of the suffocating flames,
so I fight....
I fight to tear my heart out to stop the burning.

Gasping, I begin to realize this is a battle I was destined to lose.
Defeated, I pull my knees to my chest....
and let the tears and blood put out the flames.
My soul is now but a few burning embers,
Fading and dying fast.

Opening my eyes, I see the damage surrounding me,
I take in the broken glass and splintered wood.
I feel the remnants of a charred soul and burned-out heart.
This is me. This is what I have become.
And so I weep as the last of the embers fade into darkness,
and the remaining wisps of smoke thin out and disappear....

As if...
they never...
e x i s t e d . . . .