She lies awake and just stares.

Sometimes she stares into darkness

with only the faint light from outside

filtering through a sheer black curtain.

Is that cliche? A black curtain?

She's certain.

Did she hear that? A noise?

Oh, well, She still can't sleep.

Every inch of her knows

that rest needs to come.

So let the memories flood.

Let the deluge of years of mistakes

wash away the curse that keeps her awake.

Counter-productive? Of course!

How else do tortured souls

become what they are?

Tortured souls and soul torturers.

The panic. The worry. Is she scared?

She is scared.

Her thoughts need to be changed -

Rearranged.

She speaks to break the silence.

Compliance.

"What do I feel?

Why can't I feel

when I am supposed to?

What's the answer?

Any answer will do?"

She is alone.

From where will she get an answer?

There is a voice.

A familiar voice.

But not quite a voice.

A rhythm.

Not just a rhythm.

She can feel the thrum

like something not just keeping her alive.

It is beating to break through - to escape.

Does her heart have something to say? Yes, it does.

From all the pain her heart has had to endure, it has to be free.

"Nevermore!" screams the Raven heart.

"But more than merely this," it says.

"My grievances have overflowed.

There is more woe than blood that runs through me."

"But heart," she says,

"I need your belief in me. I need your power.

Please don't leave. I have never wronged you on purpose.

I am purposed because you give me purpose."

Alas, the heart would not be swayed.

Nor would it ever be.

For in that moment, her heart decided to reveal

that in fact it was... a he.

"How can it be that my heart is a he?

What sense does it make to have that which makes me

the woman I am...

to be a man?"

"How could it be any other way? Think a moment my hosting boasting

woman of a body.

Am I right all the time? Or do I sometimes cross the line?

Can you count on me to never steer you wrong?

Or do I keep you up all night long?

I am the reason you cannot decide what to do

or who to be.

I cause confusion in the most simple things."

What a traitor! What a charlatan!

Can it be that is what has been keeping her going all these years?

"Why do you choose now to reveal your true colors?"

"Because I am tired of you choosing others.

Other men who do not know you like I do.

I must admit I am quite jealous.

And I do not appreciate what those other men try to tell us.

We don't need them. So I drive them away.

So from now on it will be just me and you every day."

"My heart, I cannot devote my life to you alone.
I need to have someone I can see and touch."

"You can touch me, I live inside you.

How much closer to another person can you be

When all you will ever need is me?"

What does she do? Can she let him down easily?

She needs to tell him that this plan is damned.

She decides that life without this heart may be better

Than life with only him to help brave the tempestuous weather.

"I'm sorry, my dear heart, but there is something I must say..."

What she does now, she does without delay.

She takes that heart in the palm of her hand

And does not hesitate to take her stand.

"If life with only you is what you offer can I offer an alternative?"

"You can try to convince me, but how else will you live?"

"I will live without love. I don't need it in me anyway.

I'd rather be a heartless shame then live with a traitor every day."

And with that she tells her heart to close his eyes.

He complies.

In one quick motion and without so much as a shout,

She grips the heart and tears him out.

A few more beats in his dying moments.

"One last statement of lament," he utters in a whispered breath.

"I am the only man who would've loved you until your death."