I’ve been tortured and beaten, violated and poisoned, abandoned and stripped of who I am for as long as I can remember, and I’ve had to survive it all alone. But now, as I struggle to find the surface of this suffering, I feel them. Hands caress my limbs. Fingers rake through my hair. Lips skim the shell of my ear as calm assurances pepper my skin. Their strength laps against me like rippling water as they try to pull me from the pain.
