by Christina Noll

Created on: March 26, 2009

The steel chains, I grappled with once, held me so tightly.

A self-induced bondage cutting deep through my translucent flesh.

An exceptional endurance for this agony, almost inviting.

A needy, yet unfathomable desire to suffer.

A yearning for freedom overpowered by a constant thirst for pain.

The choking chains guarded a frigid heart, frozen into place.

A lost melancholy shadow drifted among the jovial trees trying to break free from the chains.

Yet, grasping the steel unable to let go.

The overcoat I wore cascaded effortlessly along the cryptic forest floor.

It was unable to block out the chill of the night air or conceal the shimmering steel.

The trees consumed me in a sea of pure desolate darkness.

The sap oozing from the trees burned the flesh it seeped onto.

The menacing sky, normally teaming with staring stars, hung empty and hollow.

A new moon cast no shadow.

Unable to see, my eyes could not focus within that solitary existence.

I stumbled over broken branches and plummeted to an unforgiving ground.

Black and blue began to color ivory skin and crimson droplets seeped through fragile pores.

The chains remained unwavering, firmly in place.

There alone among the toweringly ominous evergreens I began to ponder.

"Is there no end to this blackest of nights?"

"Will these chains ever break?"

"Will I ever permit this bondage to cease?"

"Will light ever penetrate the depths of this bleak forest?"

"Will I stay frozen in time or will I melt into a pool of pungent despair?"

A soft whisper drifted past my trembling lips becoming swept away into the lonely night.

That was all that was needed.

The sun inevitably rose and I too rose with it.

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