Hozier said 'Don't chain your demons but keep em on a leash' or something similar. As if sometimes you need to pull them out, open up the doors to the dark spaces and walk in the shadowy places, just for a while. Because it's either that or you bury them. And if you bury them then the rot sets in. And the thing with demons is, they're a part of you. They're the deepest, darkest, strangest, part of you. Burying them is of no use. But you can't turn them out to run riot either,-you'd be dead within a day. You can't live like that, in that head space. Doctors in white coats would cart you away or you'd wind up in the gutter stinking of piss or worse...on a mortuary shelf.

 Because demons have voracious appetites. Demons eat for days, demons gorge all night. And if you continue to feed your monsters they'll eat up everything good in your life. But if you plan on facing your demons you've got to come down to their level, or else they don't play ball. You've got to visit their lair. And you'll have to sneak up on them and the element of surprise is crucial. Quickly slip the leash (or noose?) around their neck and give it a sharp tug. Firm, but not brutal. They'll rage and roar but you must persist, put your back into it and expect bruises. Kicking and screaming they'll come. And then you must take them out. Walk your demons one by one. Walk to all those places that you're not supposed to walk to. Go to those bars where the drinks are watered down and the people are awful. Walk those old paths, the ones that you used to think were normal. One might have been called Memory Lane Dormant, but you've forgotten. 

Then you take them home, sit them down, and draw them a map. A map of all the shitty places you've been to and show them how you still came back: Memory Lane, Shit Creek Without a Paddle, The Wrong Side of the Tracks, The Road Less Travelled, The Last Chance Saloon and No Man's Land, to name but a few. And they'll recoil from you in terror, realising you're made of stronger stuff. And their attacks will become less frequent. You'll start to sleep with the lights out and they'll start to sleep with one eye open. And slowly but surely they'll stop pulling on the leash. And they'll shrink and lose mass until you don't even notice them at your feet. Because you'll have put yourself back together again, reborn and free. And your demons will realise the party's over. And bone, claws and teeth will crumble to ashes before you on the breeze. Ashes to particles, particles to molecules, and then...nothing. Only peace.

© Claire Frances 2018

© 2016 Claire Frances Lloyd