I wandered—
through a world stripped bare,
where light was stolen,
and shadows stretched longer than time itself.
A cold breath on my neck,
whispers crawling like frostbite
beneath skin I barely recognize—
a shell haunted by the ghost of a soul
once ablaze with gods' fury,
now brittle as ash in my trembling hands.
I heard a voice—
not clothed in death's usual guise,
but a colorless orb, pulsing void,
its silence screaming louder than screams.
"You're pathetic," it said,
"Bound to darkness you think you control.
A faded god forgotten by your own shadow."
I fell.
Kneeling beneath a weight heavier than stars,
a crown lost in ruins,
mourning a power I abandoned,
begging for the mercy of a death
that would not come.
And yet—
through the endless night,
through the hollow ache,
a flicker—a fragile light—
blue oceans in her eyes,
tears that shone brighter than any star I'd killed.
She came—
soft as a whispered promise,
warm as a candle's defiant glow in a shattered room.
Her voice asked, "Are you okay?"
And for a moment, I believed I might be.
I tasted hope—
in the steam rising from a simple meal,
in a smile that cracked open a frozen heart,
in a laughter that chased away the ghosts
of pain I thought permanent.
But shadows returned—
a cruel reminder pressed beneath my ribs:
Salvation was never mine to keep—
only a cruel taste,
a fleeting mercy given to remind me
how deeply I must suffer
for every love lost,
every light swallowed by the abyss.
Now I carry this curse—
a monster cloaked in hope's fragile mask,
a soul pounding in a cage of regret,
knowing all the warmth in the world
cannot thaw the cold inside.
I walk alone—
down cracked stairways into darker depths,
through broken homes and broken dreams,
haunted by the echoes of who I was,
and the silence of what I will never be.
For I was once a force beyond gods—
a tempest tearing through realms,
a destroyer crowned by the fire of stars.
But now—
I am only this:
a man
lost in a world that forgot him,
aching for a death
that won't release me,
and a love
that never was meant to be.