Hiding Secrets

Step One: Name It

Do not call it what it is. Names have power. Names have edges.

Call it something else.

Say it softly until you believe it.

Until it stops sounding dangerous.

Say it often enough that it becomes truth.

Step Two: Find Somewhere Dark Enough

You need shadows.

Secrets belong in dark places, away from open windows.

Choose a place behind your ribs, just left of the heart, where warmth once lived and now keeps its distance.

It should be close enough to feel but far enough to deny.

Step Three: Fold It Small

At first, it will resist.

It panics. It wants to come out. It wants to breathe.

Fold carefully.

The sound he made becomes the hum of the fridge at night.

The fear becomes a tightness you blame on the cold.

The moment becomes a blur you stop revisiting because clarity feels dangerous.

Step Four: Wrap It in Reason

Tell yourself you had no choice.

Tell yourself anyone would have done the same thing.

Repeat this until the words are all you know, until you almost believe.

Justification is fragile, but it quiets the hurt.

Step Five: Bury It in Routine

Morning coffee.

Walks by the beach.

Smiling.

Routine is excellent soil; it packs down truth until it forgets how to breathe.

Days pass.

You learn how to pass with them.

Step Six: Listen for Movement

This secret will not stay still.

It will shift and move while you lie awake in your bed.

It scrapes softly when someone looks at you in concern.

You will hear it then... the faint knock from inside yourself asking to be let out.

Listen for the movement. But do not give in.

Step Seven: Learn Its Smell

The smell will announce itself eventually.

You will notice it in mirrors that feel accusatory and in how your body stiffens at touch.

You will feel it in the warmth that no longer comes without fear attached.

This is normal.

This is your payment.

Step Eight: Guard the Ground

Do not linger.

Do not dig.

Do not rehearse confessions in the shower.

Guilt will create cracks.

Dwelling on it will soften the dirt.

Secrets want to be in the light. Do not let it.

Step Nine: Practice Normal

Laugh where laughter is expected.

Answer questions without delay.

Normal is a costume you must wear.

Wear it long enough, and people stop looking closely.

And, sometimes, you will too.

Step Ten: Accept the Cracks

The ground will inevitably crack.

Just a little.

A word said too sharply.

A pause held too long.

You will feel it crack beneath you and pretend it hasn’t.

This is normal.

Step Eleven: Understand This Will Not Work

No matter how deep you bury a secret, it remembers the shape of your hands.

It remembers why.

It claws upward, patient and certain, because some things are not meant to disappear.

Some things are meant to be carried and named.

Some things need to come out of the darkness.

Final Note:

If you feel the ground trembling, it is not because you failed.

It is because truth is heavier than silence, and it always knows the way back to the surface.