The Betrayal That Finally Became Real

(But Only After the Fire Was Already Cold)

They never meant to hurt you like that.

But the truth is...

You were never meant to carry the fire for them.
You were meant to become it.

And when they left,
they weren't escaping you,

They were escaping the version of themselves
that could never walk beside what you already were.

Now the fire is old.
Now the logs are ash.

And they return
asking where the heat went.

But you are not the furnace anymore.

You are what remains
after the fuel is gone,
and the world still finds warmth
in the memory of what you held.