The Abyss

She took me away. She shouldn’t be allowed to do that, but she did, and now I don’t know where I am.

It’s dark here. I didn’t realize how dark it could be. Have I truly only known light my whole life? Or does it just seem that way in the absence of it, my predicament made enormous by the lack of comparison? Either way, I can’t see anything. I feel pressure, though, coming from all sides, smothering me in this darkness. I have never been so alone.

I can feel a tear in my side, and the faint feeling of my insides peeking out. It doesn’t hurt; but perhaps I’ve gone into shock and can no longer feel pain. I worry about whatever is inside me mixing with the messy floor beneath me. What if I get infected? I’ve never had an infection before. I’ve never had to fear in so many new and horrible ways.

I hear a noise above me, slithering in through the darkness. I crane my neck, ears aching towards the sound, but am provided with nothing more than the faint mumbling of misunderstood words. My hearing has never been that great, but I always understood him.

Him. Oh, that everyone could have a “him” like I do. The ground doesn’t feel so cold when I think of my him. I think of his warmth, so different than this coldness. I remember his brown eyes, so full of love and light, looking at me like I was the only important thing in the world. His blond hair, like spun golden thread, was the most precious thing to me. Our love was instant, a connection that comes only once in a lifetime, if that. I was never afraid of the dark when he held me through it, the two of us against everything and everyone else.

But I am afraid now. Now, in this dark, muffled place, I feel real fear. What did I do wrong? Did I say something, do something atrocious, to be brought to a place like this? I suddenly feel the pain from the tear in my side, rearing up like a tidal wave to take me under. If I don’t find a way out soon, find my way back to him, I may be lost forever.

Why would she do this to me? I wanted nothing to do with her, had nothing to say to her. Somehow I knew she didn’t like me; she had tried to take me from him so many times that I dreaded the sound of her walk through these halls. Wherever we went, she would be there, watching me like it was only a matter of days. She even tried to rip me from him a few times. I wish he would leave her and take us far away from her grasp so we could be together. I wish-

Footsteps sound out in the darkness. I freeze, pushing myself further into the ground beneath me as though I can weather whatever storm is coming my way. I know those footsteps, and I know what follows.

Blinding, paralyzing light fills my vision until it is all I can see.

The voices are no longer muffled. She is here.

”See? Your little friend is just fine.” I feel a hand, grasping onto my arm before I can recoil. “Ugh, it’s still covered in slobber.”

Before I can yell, I feel warmth around my waist, and my arm is released. It’s him! He has me again! I squeak with joy as he carries me in his mouth away from her, away from the darkness and the pain, to our special corner. I curl up under his head, tucked in tight as I exhale a shaky, keening breath. I am home again. I barely hear her voice from where she speaks a room over. She doesn’t matter anymore.

“Don’t give me those puppy dog eyes! You always go crazy with your squeaky toy right when I join a work meeting. I had to hide it from you.”