The days are short, the nights long.
Cooped up at home next to the heater, gazing forlornly at the empty space in front of you, all alone and quiet while the heat drives away the last bits of cold. Sleep begins to come over you, and almost like a spell cast by an invisible, benign presence, you're in the land of the warmest spring; a rolling, blooming meadow of green, with ice-capped mountains in the distance. Mother Nature in all her glory.
Peace. But not for long.
The eerie blues taint the amber glow of life. Like a blue filter in the lens of a film camera. Everything suddenly becomes dull, lifeless and grey. Colours are almost unnoticeable, desaturated or ignored to the point of almost non-existence.
You descend into darkness and coldness. Like a void that only the turning tide of spring can lift you out of. A gravity so deep you cannot pull yourself out of it; one that gets deeper as the months go on and the void of nothingness grows ever deeper.
It's getting colder every day. Metaphorically speaking, too. A cold shoulder; a cold stare; an icy comment uttered in breathless haste, vapour barely escaping the near frozen, chattering mouth.
Your demons appear before you. Mocking you, taunting you, belittling you. You fight them, but to no avail. Never in your life have you been surrounded by company, yet felt so alone in the world. The people around you become faceless and alien. The inexplicable, piercing gazes of empty faces that inexorably penetrate your mind and stir up your deepest fears, long repressed in your subconscious that now bubble to the surface, about to explode cathartically with destructive force. The walls of your mind begin to collapse as the mounting tide of fears and demons crash against them angrily with hell-bent determination of setting themselves free.
A silent cry of help echoes in your mind. Nobody can or will hear you. Or even bother for that matter.
The strange things winter does to you.
But in the darkness, the light shines ever more brightly.
