You

You crept up behind me,

blade held high in hand.

I felt your breath on the nape of my neck,

silent but heavily labored;

I could sense all your emotions,

emanating from within you,

folding me in a cold dark curtain-

Hatred.

Hunger.

Fury.

I felt your preying eyes upon me;

I burned in the intensity of your stare.

I heard the swish of your dagger,

as you sliced it, whipping through wind.

I saw the silver glint of your blade

as it pierced into my chest,

and I heard a strangled, inhuman cry

as I fell backwards,

crumpling as the blade sunk into me.

But I was dead before my heart stopped beating,

before my body had hit the ground.

Because when I met your stare,

cruel and unrelenting,

a scene flashed within them,

reflected in your eyes,

and I saw us, so long ago-

we chased each other with premature legs

in the cool damp lawns of summer,

laughing, shouting, smiling.

Years passed since then, but we stayed the same-

always together, always there,

laughing, shouting, smiling.

I relived our childhood in your eyes,

our memories,

our treasures,

our friendship,

but I’m pulled back to the present,

to your eyes

no longer warm and friendly,

but instead harsh and cold.

And I realized in that moment

that your betrayal, your treachery,

was far more lethal a weapon

than your blade could ever be.

And although my body

lies mangled,

misshapen,

stained with blackened blood,

I know

that the true murder took place

not to my body,

but in me.