Tick

Race
Race
Race
The clock runs away from you and you can only barely spot the Red Queen in the distance: too much left to do and never enough time to do it. The season yells its cheer at you from static speakers, there's a hollowness in people's eyes that do not line up with the smiling billboards. But I sat on the living room floor of a sleeping apartment in the mild afternoon, taking slow breaths and allowing the light back inside my rib cage. I let it grow there until it needed out again, spreading out along the walls, seeping through the cracks in the doors, and beaming across the entire island. When I opened my eyes, the Red Queen sat quietly by my side, the countryside still swirling around us but we left it be. Good things are to come, only good things, I spent a lifetime building this fire and now here it is, ready.

Now here I am.
Ready.