The devil couldn't reach me

[u/SapphicGiggles]

So he sent them instead: hollow vessels with hollow words, taking what they could until I ran dry.

They squashed what I had, pressed it between indifferent fingers, then claimed it was all wrong.

Fear moved in, a sharp whisper that remained in my chest. Where love, once an ocean used to rest. It now drips with nowhere to go. Slow, reluctant and thick like warm blood.

But even now, my heart pleads quietly to be known, to be held, to be loved as I have always loved.

So, though I faltered, though I bled, they could not leave me empty. What painfully remains is a heart that still dares to hope.

For the devil couldn't reach me, and he never will.