A year after I last saw you
You came for me in my dreams.
You were stalking me down the corridors of my home
You held no weapon
You weren’t even chasing me
And yet I was petrified
Your scent was enough to turn my blood cold.
I hid under beds
In closets
Behind bathrooms doors
And your broken silhouette.
The grinding of your crooked spine
Followed me around my home
The sharp angles of your shadow
Stabbed at my eyes
The sound of your steps behind me
The clip-clopping of hooves
Ricocheted down the halls and around my tender head.
The light of the nightmare illuminated your soft, pale skin
The hair on your legs,
Your head
As light and fluffy as dandelions.
You laughed when you caught me,
Fuzzy chin tilted up to the ceiling
Nails digging into my hips
You above me again
And again
Freezing me in your grasp.
That small smile
Filled with small teeth
Sickly white against your bright red face
Glaring into the putty of my skull.
You pulled a wicked cleaver from your pocket
And in an instant
You brought it down on my feet.
The pain was excruciating
Sharp and fierce
(a throbbing sickness in my belly
that felt all too familiar)
The sheer force of my own hot blood
Spurting from my ankles
Held me to the floor
Pinned in place like an ant trapped in syrup.
As I tried to drag the unbearable weight of my body away
I cursed the heaviness of my skin
My bones
My breasts.
You laughed and laughed and laughed
And I understood then
That you had come back for more
That a part of me would forever belong to a part of you
And now that you had stolen my feet
I couldn’t escape you anymore.
I couldn’t run.
