There were a few times - very few - when he held me in the darkness after I woke up from a nightmare. But when he did, it wasn't as if the fear would leave me. It never made the darkness go away either. My demons were still out there. The nightmares were still walking.


When he held me, I did not feel safe, but I felt better. "It's all right," he'd whisper in my ear. "I'm here with you. I love you,"  and then he'd go on to say: "not in the true sense".


Before that statement, just for a moment or two the darkness didn't seem so bad.