… and revealed the Abyss.

Dark, cold, and solitary, the Abyss like a siren called.
Peace, solitude, an end to hurt beckoned.
The falling that he so feared in youth now felt like joy.

Joy?
Now?
When all is bleak and quiet and peaceful and void?

Yet, there it was.
A cute little bear, with a red beating heart, hugging him.
A visage on ice, hot blooded above the frozen land.

A voice that cut through the silence saying “you matter” with no anger or demands or conditions.

And he knew:
why he had hurt, himself and others;
why the abyss had used the silence to approach and beckon through the lifeless void; and

why the abyss had receded, it’s siren’s call now just a yearn-filled scream of icy notes;

He shattered the silence with the only words he knew that could fit,
With all the love and tears and self he could muster he said them,
Hoping they would be heard,
Hoping they would be understood, “Thank you”

This is beautiful. I wept. And you do matter, honey.