dawn.

You open your left eye slowly and wait for three seconds to get used to the dawn light. Then you open your right eye too. One blink. Two. You rub your eyes and look out of your window. There are streaks of light filtering through the blinds. The sun is coming out to greet you. It’s your favourite part of the day – watching the sun rise. 

You chuckle to yourself and murmur, “I’m alive”. 

You close your eyes to take it all in. All the times you thought that you wouldn’t make it. The days you couldn’t get out of bed because you just could not. The nights you spent crying, wishing on the stars to save you from yourself. The times you wished you could stab at your own heart, willing it to stop beating for the ones they said you should never love. Then you remember The Cleansing. When you freed yourself from the cage that they built in your head and kept you locked in for years.You fought so persistently to save yourself, to choose you over and over till you belonged to yourself again. 

You open your eyes and turn to your right side. Two beautiful brown eyes stare back at you. They light up in a smile and you smile back. It’s your forever partner. She cradles your face in her hands and gently kisses your forehead. 

“Good morning, wife”, she whispers.

“Good morning, wife”, you whisper back.

Yesterday you married the love of your life and it was exactly as you had always dreamed.