We believe villains are more than just two dimensional evil-doers. They're complex characters who rarely get to share their stories. The concept may seem silly, but empathy is a skill. If we can practice it here, we just might have a shot at understanding the 'villains' in our everyday lives.
My house is haunted.
There’s an ogre that hunts these halls,
Trying to find its next meal.
And Ogres eat children, it’s trying to find me.
I hide in cupboards and crevices,
Cowering in corners to escape it’s club.
Knowing eventually it will drink itself to sleep,
And I can escape.
At least until the ghost comes out.
She passes through me as she moves from room to room.
She moans and wails and her chains rattle,
And I press my hands to my ears to silence the sound,
But it echoes in my mind and I sob myself to sleep.
And then I dream,
And when I dream, I retreat into a world of my own creation.
Because when nightmares haunt your waking life,
Dreams become an escape into normalcy
I learn to construct a place where ogres smell like aftershave instead of whiskey,
And in my world ogres don’t eat children, they raise them.
I strip the shackles from the ghost so she no longer needs to moan,
Instead she whispers in my ear,
Soothes me to sleep and wakes me softly in the morning.
The ogre becomes the figure of a father and the ghost becomes a mom.
Eventually I have to wake,
And the things I’ve created that looked like a mom and a dad
Turn back into the monsters that they are.
They continue to haunt my house,
And I count the seconds until I get to dream again.