You smile, but no one sees that it's broken. You laugh, but no one hears the darkness within. You walk and talk and sleep and eat as always, but no one knows you're all hollowed inside out.

You try to fight the darkness inside you, but you can't. You hear everyone say that happiness is a choice, and you try to drown yourself in activities, try to throw yourself into things that give you the briefest moments of satisfaction, but the hollowness is still there, refusing to go away.

You sometimes wonder why you feel this way. You have plenty of things in life that you should be grateful for. You're alive alive alive and awake to enjoy the world. Yet everything seems dull. You desperately want to taste, to feel, to smell, but something holds you back. That something drains you, chips away at your soul bit by bit, and you fight back but you can't.

You want to tell someone. You crave help, need it--as though it were more precious than the air you breathe. But who can you tell? Will they understand? Will they sneer down at you and tell you that it's silly, that you shouldn't be feeling this way? So you doubt and doubt and doubt and never ask for help. No one hears the demons screaming inside you; no one sees the deep dark abyss that has seeped into your heart. They only see you, smiling, laughing, walking, talking, sleeping, eating.

This isn't the first time it has happened. The darkness comes and goes. Sometimes when it fades and the light comes back, you feel like everything will be okay again. You feel like you will never have to face the monster inside you. But it's always there, lingering in the shadows, waiting for an opportune moment to emerge and pounce on you and devour you whole. You cry a silent cry for help, but of course no one hears it and you're left to confront it alone. So you wait for the day when the light stops coming back. You wait for the day when darkness truly claims you. You wait and wait and wait and wait and

You smile, but no one sees that it's broken.