Into the Dark

by Dana Isaly

“Because if you’re going to love me, I need you to love me with every single fiber of your being,” My head swivels and looks back on her. “I want someone’s full and unyielding attention. I want someone to look at me and only me. That way I know that person will never leave me.”

“That’s not love, Lyra. That’s an obsession. Love is forgiving and always evolving. There’s room to grow and change where there’s love. But with obsession, it can only go one way. Obsession will consume you in a way that you can’t come back from.” “Then I want obsession.”

“I just need to find someone that will obsess over me the way I obsess over them.”

Is obsession healthier than love?”

“That’s all I have to offer.”

I would crawl inside of him if I could. I would drape his skin around me like a blanket, bathe in his sweat, and wear his scent like perfume. I am utterly and wholly his.

“I can’t give you love, Lyra. But I can give you myself. You can have all of me. As far as I’m concerned, I don’t belong to myself anymore. I belong to you.”

What a way to go—being in the arms of the only person that could make me feel.