Two Sides of the Door

A dramatic silhouette of a person standing against a vibrant red light backdrop by BEETTHOW (Pexels)"You must choose," the fate keeper says. "What is known or what is unknown." By the time I blink she has already disappeared, leaving me standing in the doorframe. I know what is behind me. Cold darkness that clenches my heart and drains the very life from me, but it's safe. It's comforting. It's a place I've known. Security is worth a lot, maybe even the corrosion of your soul. Security lets us sit in the pot while the water slowly turns up to boiling, and its only as our skin blisters that we cry out and ask why things have come to this? I knew that this place would boil me alive, but in the dark I always wondered—*hoped—*that maybe if I endured just a little bit longer they would finally turn down the dial. Maybe they will turn down the dial. I know every crevice of the dark. I know where the thorns split the tile and what paths are safe to walk. I can crawl to the pockets of air…