**No **

****

They say I let you slip,

like mist through broken bone,

but they don’t know what’s buried

in the walls beneath my home.

You wore a smile like winter glass,

fragile, false, and cold—

I traced your breath in candlelight,

then carved your name in mold.

You danced with me through shadowed halls,

your laugh a curse, a hymn—

You left a lock of hair behind,

I braided it with sin.

You thought you ran.

You thought you won.

But darling, nightmares never end—

they only wait until you sleep

to crawl back in again.

The blade I kissed still hums your song,

the floorboard sighs your weight.

I whisper in the nursery,

and the cradle rocks with hate.

You haunt me, yes.

But I haunt you too—

In every mirror, every dream,

in strangers who look too much like me.

They say you got away.

But you don’t feel free, do you?

You still check the locks.

Still sleep with lights on.

Still wonder…

what if I’m already inside?