June 2025 Random Editor's Pick

"EMBRACING DARKNESS"

When I was a kid,

I dreamed of angels

with wings of light

and raised by heaven.

I feared vampires

for stories painted them

as children of the cursed night.

They called her evil,

a monster in shadow,

a creature of thirst and doom.

And I believed them.

I ran from the night,

convinced that light alone led to

love, acceptance, happiness...

But the light though warm was always lacking.

Something inside me stirred,

a quiet ache,

a soft voice rising from deep within.

A whisper I tried to silence

but could no longer ignore.

Then I met her

not in a dream

but in stillness.

A hush that wrapped around me like truth.

No mirror could hold her image

yet her beauty was the clearest proof of her

flawless innocence.

She didn't thirst for blood

but for love,

for acceptance,

for someone who wouldn't run.

There was a time

when I was almost consumed,

weighed down and breaking

so I surrendered myself

and fell into darkness.

And just as I was about to crash,

she caught me

with open arms.

I embraced her

because when I had no one,

she was there.

She didn't devour me.

She completed me.

In her arms,

I saw through the lies.

The vampire was never a villain.

She was the truth in the dark,

the beauty unseen,

the part of me I had long denied.

Now I know,

darkness isn't the enemy.

It's not to be feared

but to be understood,

to be loved,

to be embraced.

© JEFFREY CEJERO

Philippines