My mission to find Lynn was all that was holding insanity back. Now my girl was out of sight again, possibly for good. How could it turn out this badly? From start to finish, nothing was right. Our painful history ran though my mind, razor-ribbons slowly slicing us up and pulling us apart, until I was nothing but dust.

Facing this truth was agonizing. Old pain- thin biting strips of mirror and shadow, sharp stabs of past fights, lit along my body’s highways mixing with hot blood, pushing my mind towards fury. I couldn’t stand it.

With a snapping sound my mind’s walls burst, collapsing outward in a push of raw frustration.

Hollaring without words, I struck a brick wall scraping off skin in curls. Drops of oozing blood, shining crimson, ran along my fist’s contours . I shook my right hand vigorously as air stung it, but nothing hurts as much as choosing to confront ghosts of past wrongs. My faults haunt my mind and fill it with dark thorns that dig into and wrap around my soul.

Why am I so cold and numb?