Peel me away layer by layer, and strip me of my shields. You've let me repulse you and draw from you all the tears. As you rip into my flesh, you tell me I'm stronger than I think. With our eyes watering, I simply say that maybe I've just always been that way. As my skin falls away, your tears fall even harder; you keep ripping, telling me you can't even get enough of me. You take as much of me as I can give, until there's nothing. The tears were still falling.

All that hid the tiny me was laid bare and foreign at my feet.

I didn't see anything after everything I held so dearly was stripped away. Even through your drying eyes, you saw something good in my core. A small sprout, of hope or despair, who knows. It just needed to grow.

But like anything else, that takes time, and how much of it is unknown.