I rushed down flights of stairs, searching for the safest place to hide her.

Knowing she would not understand, I locked her inside a small cell.

“I’ll be back as soon as it’s safe,” I promised.

I hurried back up the stairs and returned to the role expected of me, adrenaline coursing through my body, my true self left behind.

A fog descended. I forgot how to play, how to smile.

Confused, I tried desperately to fill the emptiness from the outside.

I am certain she cried out for me. But I was so lost and overwhelmed by pain that I forgot she existed at all.

Life without my inner voice became perilous.

The harder I tried to survive, the further I sank. Afraid the next avalanche would bury me, I stopped trying to escape.

Then, in the darkness, a voice whispered,

Maybe there is a way for us to live a life we belong in.

Maybe there is still a way.

Her gentle words found me.

And they stayed.

I rushed down flights of stairs, searching for the safest place to hide her.

Knowing she would not understand, I locked her inside a small cell.

“I’ll be back as soon as it’s safe,” I promised.

I hurried back up the stairs and returned to the role expected of me, adrenaline coursing through my body, my true self left behind.

A fog descended. I forgot how to play, how to smile.

Confused, I tried desperately to fill the emptiness from the outside.

I am certain she cried out for me. But I was so lost and overwhelmed by pain that I forgot she existed at all.

Life without my inner voice became perilous.

The harder I tried to survive, the further I sank. Afraid the next avalanche would bury me, I stopped trying to escape.

Then, in the darkness, a voice whispered,

Maybe there is a way for us to live a life we belong in.

Maybe there is still a way.

Her gentle words found me.

And they stayed.