Basic instinct

Where do you go when your heart leads but your head is too scared to follow?

It's survival instinct. Fight or flight. There is quicksand between the two. There is no middle ground, no safe zone. The harder you struggle, the further you become mired. Survival handbooks state that the way to get out alive is to stop struggling, stop fighting it. Stay calm. Don't move. Someone will come to your rescue.

But what if nobody is there? What if, after an eternity of sitting quietly, waiting for salvation, you realize that nobody is coming? Shouted pleas dull to hoarse whispers. Whispers become whimpers and fade to stunned silence. Night falls. The darkness swallows your frightened noises but offers no solace. Nobody is listening.

'Forever' does not exist. It is a fiction, a fairytale. 'Forever' is the space between one heartbeat and the next; it is fleeting, transient. It is a tempting myth, red and round and alluring like a ripe apple - we crave it as a means to assauge our human hungers, but beneath the perfumed skin lies galling, poisonous flesh. The taut, shiny exterior belies the rotting core. 'Forever' is a bitter fruit best left unplucked.