My life is fading before my eyes. I am sick, but no spell I cast will cure me. Who gave me this curse? Why would they make me feel like I’m dying every second of every day? 

Well... I’m supposed to be dying... but I can never leave this horrid world... 

I’m just so tired... The pain is unbearable... The aching, burning, and everlasting hunger...  

That’s when I saw him... walking down the street... and he saw me... His eyes glistened with something I couldn’t name... and all the sudden... I felt so vulnerable... Like I was opening my chest and exposing my heart to him the very first day we met. 

And that’s when the pain consumed me, and I fell over... Only to wake in his household, his embrace, and he cured me... He knew what was going on like he could read me... Everything I went through. Everything that I felt. It was as if he could feel the same... And... he wanted to... 

I will never understand this world... Because no one ever loved me before... Not even my mother... 

Cover art by Kharchenko_irina7