✃ ( exhaustion. exertion. stubbornness. pride. all ingredients 
                               to the recipe for one slumbering matoi; battered & bruised
                               from events that lined the day and highlighted the night.
                               short breaths escaped lips as inner demons began waging
                               war inside the deepest reaches of unconscious mind.

            she was losing the battle. brows creased as lips began to
            tremble —— digits clutching at cloth throw over bloodied
            frame as suitor figured she’d only been asleep. stuck in
            slumber brought on by mere loss in battle; not trapped
            within nightmarish prison of one’s own mind.

                                a shiver shot down spine as vagrant tossed and turned.
                                but as digit pressed down upon clammy skin; tracing
                                along patterns scattered along upper and lower back;
                                body began to calm down once more. breaths regained
                                slow, steadied pace instead of erratic and panicking. )

                                          ’ ——- h-hngh… don’t leave… ‘