I felt his rage before I met him.
Belly deep fear, flashes of blood and bones, jaw clenching nightmares.
I ignored and resisted,
Until the guilt got to me.
He came to me. He sought me out. He needs something.
I close my eyes, breathe out, barely enter my trance,
And he is attacking me.
Meat paw fists, big swinging arcs, pounding my body, face, anywhere he can reach.
I let him.
Thinking, I shouldn’t have laid on the bed, I left myself defenseless.
It’s his pain, not yours.
That thought centers me.
Allows my fear to be, then drift away.
We are nose-to-nose, the entity and I.
I can’t see anything but the wild hair, the howling face, the darkness pouring out of him.
Evil, beastly, damaged, unworthy, broken, hurt, crushed, hopeless.
Words he heard his whole life,
Stay with his energy now.
I tell him he can attack all he wants.
Show him the blows pass right through me, entities can’t harm me, he can’t harm me.
Blinding fury, intensifies, escalates, he needs to drown out the vicious words he hears.
I can help, I say.
I siphon a bit of the rage from him, feed it to the tree outside.
The tree doesn’t mind, we have an understanding.
It’s enough to give him relief.
He sits, dejected on the side of the bed.
Ashamed, believing himself worthless.
I ask him what he wants.
He says he doesn’t deserve anything.
I ask him what he never had.
He never dared speak the words while he was alive.
Kept them deep deep deep buried inside, images of treasured desires.
Love, comfort, warm smiles, a hand to hold, home.
His heart clenches with pain, shoulders hunch over more.
Trust, I say. Trust in your goodness.
I take him to a forest.
A cabin washed with yellow, storybook details, happy forest creatures watching nearby.
A woman opens the door.
Yellow sundress, blond wavy hair, surrounded by a halo of sunlight.
She glows.
Her smile, her eyes, she is so happy to see him, to have him home at last.
The last of the rage leaves him as she embraces him.
He’s found his place.
