She’s a ghost….barely recognizable……in the mirror. She runs her fingers through her tangled hair, they hang like weeds. Her blue eyes have dulled to grey that carry the brand of weakness. The shadows won’t leave her with a skeleton like she sometimes hopes. She quickly inhales as she feels his grasp on her trembling fragility and her inward pleas of  don’t break me.

He brought death today to try and kiss her lips, but missed.  What he doesn’t realize, she no longer fears that fate, she welcomes it. He pulls her under his water of anger, rage and screams while she just removes herself from consciousness. She has already drowned many times, she shivers and is cold but still breathes.

Her murmuring angel keeps her from falling too deep into the death that is always lurking. He strikes again and she reaches to the heat at her head and gasps. Red streams down her face, through her fingers and splatters on the floor. Time pauses as she looks at her blood as it flows and pulls into words that only she sees. She feels him move so she relaxes her body in hopes this is the end but in steps her angel. His attention turns to a voice outside the door.

She collapses to her knees, ….she can hear herself breathing….for a moment she couldn’t. She prays for that moment back.