This is for all those who bare the scars of the battles we have fought. For the ones that take a blade to their own skin in the hopes that they will finally feel Something..anything. For the ones who do it to express the vast amount of inner pain that has no outlet and for the ones who do it so that the ones they love won’t hurt instead. I know how it all feels because I’ve lived it. I stand here with you and say we’re not alone. I’ve screamed at the top of my lungs and had no one hear me. I’ve begged for the pain to end and someone to save me but no one came. I went to the edge of the River Styx and begged the ferryman to take me across before my time and he refused me.

There was a time in my life, in our lives when we wondered how much more we could endure, when will we break? The answer was more than we could have ever imagined, more than anyone would have imaged for us. We have had our hearts torn asunder, our backs stabbed, our bodies tortured, words spewed at us that seared straight to our souls and made us doubt our very beings. We’ve been beaten over and over until we wished our souls weren’t as strong, we’ve filled the River Acheron with our blood and tears.

There are no warriors stronger than us. Our scars are our war paint that we bare in pride. Look upon us and fear us. Hear the war drums that herald our approach and hide yourselves away, pray to your Gods that you don’t live the life that we did. Through it all I would not change that which I have endured, I have been forged in the hottest of steel, I was cast in rivers of the volcanoes, and I am stronger for it.

I am a survivor, as are we all. We have endured, we have Survived and I am Proud of us. We are Strength and Power and Light and Hope. We live and breathe each day to its fullest because we know that each day may be our last. We have had days that we thought would be our last. We have seen past this veil into the next and been turned away because it wasn’t our time. So now Time is Ours. Ours to do with as we please, to live and love to the fullest that we can because We Are Survivors. Stand up and be proud. Proud that today we live. Proud that our battle wounds, self inflicted or not are our war paint that we wear to show the world that we are the original Warriors. Each day is a fight that we never back down from.

I am the Wolf that stalks the forests deep and roams the wilderness with my Pack. I am the child that hides in the closet. I am the Lioness that hunts to provide for my Pride. I am the broken hearted weeping without end. I am Duvessa, the child of the Dark Goddess Lillith, her Warrior and Priestess. I am the dark that swallows all light. I am the thing in the night that the villagers hide from within their cottages and prayed to their Gods for the morning light. I am the loneliness that eats away at you until there is nothing left. I am the Daughter of the Water God whose Triton rules the Seas and gave life to thousands, daughter of a Goddess that always rides besides Victory. I am the Mother to any who need me and to the ones I love. I am a Protectress by right by might and strength. I am the Tempest that rips apart the land only to see a new beginning form from it. I am Me.

Now tell me….who are You?