Need
By Sattrega

As he sat down on the edge of the bed, from the corner of his eye he could see the moonlight sparkling in the glass of water on the bedside cabinet as it glimmered in through the window.
Running a hand through his already ruffled hair he stared straight ahead, his low breathing the only sound to be heard in the silent room.

He bowed his head and sighed heavily as once again the dreadful feeling of loneliness crept up and completely enveloped him like an invisible veil, as it did every night.
Another day had passed, another day where he had gone through the same tiresome and odious routine, another day that was to end with him isolated and insular.

He glanced around the room at his possessions – things that he had wanted at one time or another – material items that he had purchased to make himself happy for only a brief, fleeting moment - things that were, in truth, utterly meaningless to him.
All these “wants” surrounded him, everywhere he looked. Wants that were supposed to help bring him some sort of contentment but had always failed. And for all those wants he would gladly have sacrificed the lot for one single “need”, a need that was the only thing missing from his life, but a need that would change his existence forever – the need to be loved.

Everywhere around him he saw it…love. His family, his friends, his co-workers. They all knew and felt the strongest of emotions. They had their wives, their husbands, boyfriends, girlfriends, children and families, but here he was, alone, no one to love him, no one to be there for him when he most needed them to be, no one to tell him how special he was, to tell him everything was going to be alright.
He longed to be held, to be touched, to be embraced…to be loved, but deep within his soul he knew that it was never meant to be. That somewhere, someplace it had already been pre-destined, pre-determined by fate, by God or by Father Time itself that he was to remain alone, that he would never feel the joy of love.

He drew his legs up onto the bed and placed the duvet over them. Laying his head down onto the pillow he pulled up the covers under his chin and held on to them tightly as if they were somehow comforting.
As he closed his eyes, the first few droplets slowly trickled out of his tear ducts and gently glided down his cheeks.

Sleep was his only escape, his only way to remove himself from this desolate reality. And with sleep came dreams. Every night it was the same – in his dreams he was never alone, in his dreams he knew love, felt love and was loved.
In his dreams he knew what it was like to feel pure joy and pure happiness but always, even as he dreamed, part of his subconscious mind would be there to remind him that this wasn’t real, that despite his feelings of total euphoria he would soon return back to the bleak loneliness that he had briefly been taken away from.
And it would be at that precise moment that he would then hope, that he would then wish, that he would then pray – that he would never awaken from his slumber and that he could remain in this dream world of perfect bliss for all eternity, in a place where the one thing he needed was there for him in abundance…..love.