overdose.

It takes just one moment. That's how I seem to recall, at least. The warning; heart in my throat; frozen.

And it all came crashing down in just five words.

It's funny how an entire empire can be taken to the floor by just a few letters - meaningless squiggles on a page, but nonsense which holds the power to tear the soul from your body nonetheless. Because in that brief second of dilated pupils, pain, fears, guilts, tears - they all became one and the same. There's no longer a heartbeat to quicken.

Your legs are jelly and suddenly, every moment is coming back to you: shaking hands, gasping breath; because your throat is closing, closing, constricted, contracting.

And you want to throw up, to praise a higher power, to hurt, to comfort; yet all this time, no words, no words. Just pain; pain and guilt.

I'd bleed it all - everything - all out for you. Salt-stained face whiter than bone and torn nails redder than a robin's breast.

This. This is torture.