What You Made Me

I have been denied the role of Princess or Queen,

Given instead to the darkness.

Molded by twisted mirrors, hushed whispers, and poisoned betrayals.

You think you took my power away,

But I have come to learn you have given me the greatest gift of all;

Unlike the Princesses - I have choices,

Unlike the Queens - I do what I please,

My smiles may be rare but they are never fake,

My tears burn hot with pure emotion,

My cries fill the air with unadulterated truths,

I wear my scars like you wear your jewels.

I stand proud and strong at the battlefront,

While you shout orders - weak and hiding… and afraid.

I do not fear.

I know the worst that can happen because I’ve already lived it.

So thank you -

for thinking you could destroy me.

For thinking that you were better than me. For abandoning me time and time again. For the deceptions, the betrayals, and the repeated bashing in of my beating heart.

You thought your efforts would kill me. That your words were digging my grave and your actions would bury me.

You thought you could use fear against me, starve me, and leave me to rot.

Oh, how mistaken you were.

All you did only provided me with the strength to push myself up. The courage to continue. The defiance that forced blood back into my frozen core.

Instead of death — you brought me back to life. You threw me down not realizing I was a seed to be planted. You stood over me unaware that the darkness was not suffocating me, but rather comforting me and nurturing me to grow.

To transform.

To be reborn.

To become the thing that haunts your every hour.

You fear me, and rightly so -

For I have become everything that you could never be.

I burst forth, proud of the dirt still under my nails, the ash in my hair, and reveling at the power in my veins.

I am perfectly imperfect.

I am authentically me.

Unyielding. Unapologetic. Unafraid.

I am the Villain you helped me become.