I find myself thinking of it as a malevolent force that constantly waits to ambush me. Like a hulking darkness that hides in the forest just outside my wee house, I can feel its presence.
It can approach so quietly, almost gently, over the course of a few hours, that I am not aware that it has infiltrated. But it has, through cracks and familiar places, until all of a sudden I realize that its taint has smudged everything inside my tiny house. There is nowhere that I can go that it will not have smeared. Nowhere but sleep.
Doesn't the vampire have to ask if it can come in? Not this beast.
Living with chronic pain means that the days that it does not hold dominion are precious. Some of those days I push myself to accomplish more than I should. I think that perhaps I can banish the beast deeper into the wilds of the forest with my control over my small house, stretching my power even to the grounds outside.
I know it will return. Sometimes it comes as a fierce storm and I have to surrender my house to it utterly. Other times it arrives in the cruel guise of an old friend.
Keeping my enemies even closer, I guess.
