The story doesn’t

Sometimes, like last night, trauma resurfaces in dreams.

The monsters are disguised as other people, but they always end up hurting and abandoning.

Faces change.
The story doesn’t.

Different voices.
Different places.
The same ache.

The mind revisits old wounds not because it wants to suffer,
but because some part of us is still trying to understand what happened.

Morning comes.
The dream fades.

But the truth remains:
I survived every monster I ever met.

-Mandy Ricks