The sun was hours away when I glided through your window.

When I see through time, the only truth in my grasp is that each fiber, strand, and sinew of your being belongs to Me.

When I heard His voice, when He told me to run for you, it wasn’t a call to answer. Just a reality to accept.

For you to wish Me away is a sin running deeper than the first.

There isn’t a day I touch that makes this fact any more alive than it could be. Now I am only recognizable if you look hard enough. No matter, though. Bending the body into unfamiliar shapes was but a choked gasp in the greater respiratory system brought on by He.

The way I sway in the low light of dismay when I can’t find you immediately is just a basic symptom. He tells me this schism is what will bring us together.

The distance makes aortas swell with satisfaction and burst with relief.

Another tooth loosens and I push it from my gum line effortlessly. Twangs of soft, flexible metals fill my mouth. Instinct tells me to gulp it down, but He likes it more when I wear it down my chin and neck. His vision is one of damage and irregularity. To still be human, but incorrect.

Sick spills from the corners of my lips and pitter patters on the hardwood. I slide toward the staircase, the way my pupils are sliding to the back of my head.

Stay true He advises with His hand gently pushing me further into the night.

I lurch through the dark and careen through doors and, at long last, I find you. You are still. Chest rising and falling gently. Your white sheet sings a message of surrender amidst a chorus of war crimes.

I am the superior firepower. Crushing. Devastating. You are the peace I will bring. For every will to break. For every life to take.

He pushes us together, bending our frames into wicked articulations.

To become one He preaches is the only way out.

The light dims, vision blurs, voice slurs. I hear your pain. I feel your thoughts. I know His path: Honest. Fair. Bestial.

I become we.

This is us.

This is permanence.

J. A. Gullickson writes for other people during the day and for himself at night. His work has appeared in places like Do Not Submit and Scab. He lives in Virginia.

Instagram: @turnsadarkershade

X: @thefatalimpact