By QDchattel


The spirit torments me...

When I try to sleep, the pain of her hauntings will not let me. When I sleep, she pains my dreams. I no longer even try. I bathe in electroshock insomnia.

Then she appears.

"Your will be done," I submit -- almost plead. "What must I do? Why do you..." —

— ".... why do I torment you?," she asks. "I am not the one who troubles you," the spirit answers evenly.

The spirit knows — of course.

"But I did nothing," I say. "I discouraged them. I scorned them. And still they pursued me. They offered themselves to me, and I rejected them. They came to ruin..." — I pause. "But do you blame the candle for the moth? What did I do?

" "The candle is the candle. You were you," the spirit replies. "That was enough."

"And what must I do now?"

"You will know," the spirit says -- and disappears.

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