I will go-ness with you to the there!

Happy New Year, those of you lurking at WG.

"There are monsters there," you say. They are mean and cruel, and will eat you up, spit you out and laugh while they chew. You tell me you tried to go there earlier, and that was when I found you, running, crying, your ankle bleeding from where they clawed and bit..

You sit down on the rock beside me. I lend you a clean rag, and the water from my canteen to wash the blood away. "Stop crying, " I say. "It's shallow, it will heal. " I light a cigarette, waiting for you to stop your crying before I ask. "What do you want to do?"

"I need to go back. There is something there I need."

I wait as you take a deep breath, your voice quivering with the effort to be brave.

" I need it to live, to be who I am. To be what I can be."

I wait silently, smoking, waiting for you to finish.

"I need to go back." You close your eyes, looking as if you are about to cry, but you don't. " I need to go back."

"But?"

"I'm afraid. Aren't you?"

I smile, and put the cigarette out, and bury the stub under a stone. I close the canteen, strapping it back on my belt and stand, picking up the knapsack to carry on my back.

I walk toward the edge of the dark where you came from, and you run, catching up with me. "Can I come with you?"

I nod, so you go on, hope lighting up your face. " You will walk with me? You will hold my hand?"

I nod, holding out my hand for you to take. You grasp it happily, then ask the question I had known you would, but had hoped you would not. "Will you kill the monsters for me? Please? Will you?"

"I am sorry," I say sadly. "I cannot. " You look so sad, so crestfallen with disappointment, thatI smile, and give your hand a little squeeze. " But I will tell you a secret, if you like."

"A secret? What is it?"

" You shouldn't be afraid of the monsters, for they are more afraid of you. And I cannot kill them. I am sorry, " I sigh sadly. "Because once, I was one of those monsters too."