My outside appearance shows nothing of me. 

I am not what you see, 

for I am not even human. 

I am a soul 

trapped inside this body, 

screaming for help.

I'm constantly being attacked 

by monsters 

that the rest of you in this place 

don't deal with, 

they aren't from the physical realm. 

They live in another realm, 

where I was born. 

But somehow, 

somehow, 

I was chosen 

to be placed within a body 

and wander around in this desolate place.

With no one to relate to. 

With no one to trust. 

Sometimes 

the attacks 

from the monsters are stronger than others, 

and when they come,

with all their might,

there's no way for me to fight them off. 

So I give in. 

And I allow them to absorb themselves within my being's body, 

within my space to breathe, 

and they suffocate me. 

They turn me cold 

and make me sleep. 

I never have any recollection of what they've done. 

But, when I wake up,

and take control again,

I see my pod has new cuts on their skin, 

deep 

and straight. 

My capsule has dark smudges running down 

from their eyes, 

onto their cheeks, and 

they're shaking. 

They think they've gone insane. 

But I plug into their memory 

and re-wire it 

so they calm down 

and forget. 

How can they though when 

the marks 

are still there? 

It's the reddest hue, 

and it can't be ignored. 

It yells from their skin, 

I can hear the remanence 

of the shadow seekers

searing into my core, 

to try and convert me into one of Them. 

They are darkness. 

And I am not. 

I will never be, I can never be. 

I am not strong 

or brave, 

but 

I am stubborn

and refuse to succumb to their wishes. 

Each mark 

that bleeds 

from the body

makes Them hungry for the blood, 

They want to slurp it all up 

and drink it straight from the veins, 

until the body is nothing, 

nothing, but a lifeless corpse. 

If that happens though, 

I'll be trapped in here 

forever. 

The humans will only look at the external

and see it as dead, 

so I'll be buried alive. 

For that reason,

I need to stop the blood from flowing. 

I need to stop tempting Them for it. 

I enter the captor's mind 

and take over everything. 

I'm in control. 

I quickly find a sewing needle 

and try to stitch it together. 

One good thing for me, I don't feel the bodies pain. 

My pain is much more 

unbearable 

because it isn't physical. 

It cuts much deeper 

than anything any human could face. 

As I keep bringing the needle through 

to close up the gushing cuts 

I realize, that maybe, this isn't working, 

that it might be creating more injury instead. 

I abort the mission 

and go to find another solution: 

gauze. 

I find some in a first aid kit and

wrap it around the arm tightly. 

There - all temptation is under control. 

But,

I still hear their longing for the blood, 

I can't let them drink it. 

It only makes them stronger. 

And they're strong enough as it is. 

Most days I'm too tired to do much, 

I don't know what will give me energy. 

For Them, it's blood. 

And They are darkness. 

But I have light, which is the opposite of dark...

so, what is the opposite of blood? 

Will that give me energy? 

How can I defeat Them? 

"How can I escape?"