i wanted to be loved,
but not like this.
not like a lighthouse watching ships
that never dock.

My shadow’s learned to speak again,
it talks when I’m asleep,
and when I wake, it stands alone,
beside my bed to weep.

I buried names beneath the floor,
but still they speak to me,
and every night, the walls lean in
to ask who I might be.

The clocks all stopped at 3:03,
but no one else could tell,
I asked the hour where it went,
it whispered, “Somewhere else.”

An angel came, but not with wings-
with wire teeth and silver strings.
She kissed my brow and said, “It’s fine,
you’ve died before. You’ll die just right this time.”

I heard the choir beneath the lake,
a thousand voices, wide awake.
They call me sister, call me kin,
and pull me softly back within.

I met myself in the second-floor hall,
where no mirror hangs, and no walls fall.
She took my hand and whispered low,
“We’ve done this once. You just don’t know.”

i lit candles for all the versions of you i buried beneath my tongue,
whispered their names into my tea,
drank it away

i was never meant to be whole,
just held together long enough to be beautiful in your hands,
just long enough for you to call me something worth breaking

the moon’s been quieter
since you stopped looking up.
i think it misses being wished on.

(an r/nosleep style story)

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