STEP

This is gonna hurt.

            You feel that? The hollowness, spreading from beneath your stomach, like cool air coursing between your muscles and bones; that delicious, bitter-sweet tide climbing the back of your throat, building to explode in your brain; nerve-endings firing from follicles to sweaty fingertips. That’s the fear.

            No, don’t try to choke it down. Don’t try to ignore it. Taste it. Savour it. Close your eyes and let it wash, over and through you. Feed on it. Take a few deep breaths and grow, yourself, around it. Feel it make you bigger. Open your eyes.

            Take the step.