will you protect us?

The other day, you were doing your daily, morning walk when they came up from behind and knocked you to your knees.

Today, you were heading to your car after a trip to ShopRite, and couldn’t even get your keys out of your pocket before they smashed your head into the trunk.

Tomorrow, you will be bringing the trash in when they’ll run and punch you so hard, you bounce right off the asphalt.

Next week, you won’t be able to stop tasting your blood from the tongue you bit when they swung your body to the groun-

STOP.

I can’t stop. My mind won’t let me.

I blink, hard. Trying to escape these horror movies, but no matter where I look, they’re there.

They meet me in the dark to tear my dreams apart. They’re the constant soundtrack in my mind, scraping at my ears until the blood clogs them shut.

I don’t want to think these things so much that they become real, that they make their way into this world.

But they’re here. They’re here and I can’t do anything to stop them.

So I see you, your faces, but I don’t want to see you there, alone. I don’t want to see you lifeless. I don’t want to see these things at all.

I need to protect you.
I need to protect you.
I need to protect you.

How can I protect you?