A short respite.

keep your Head up King.

The first audible to come out is something between a gasping for air, which comes hale and full of chunky mucus but with an equal sensation of pain and relief nonetheless. A second attempt at a full chest of air, which came short and more painful still. As you inhale, you feel a writhing pain like if a pair of hands were squeezing your heart to burst and placing a dagger in your tail bone in the other. Convulsion and respiration become one and the same, you are sweating in blackness. At some point later, you are able to inhale without needing to scream after each breath; your vision drifts slowly back into your senses as each respirations gets longer. While attempting to crawl, you begin to bang on your legs for strength and none is found but consciousness begins to return and the fleeting beacon of hope is sensed elsewhere far away. You look up at the moon, and realize it is the only light you have. Lying down in the midnight gloom in the middle of the desert, you find peace for a second. Gratitude is claimed and illuminates your surroundings because although that beacon won’t be coming any closer tonight, you know exactly where you are and what danger lingers around. You know this but you have no fear. After all, you know exactly how you ended up here in the first place. The pain is nauseating. So much so, you wail and laugh to the moon while on all fours. There is never an answer back. You sit there and cry joy and pain because every step of this lonely journey is replaying in your mind and at each crossroad you chose which would give the most distance. This is when your strength returns to you..