Confession: Beauty Fades in the Light

Not everything survives exposure.
Some loves, like shadows, only exist where the light can't reach.

Beauty fades in the light.
Some things are only beautiful in darkness,
where flaws can't be seen,
where truth can't be exposed,
where reality can't intrude.

We were beautiful in the dark.
In the shadows,
in the quiet,
in the spaces where light couldn't reach.

But then the sun came up,
and I saw you clearly,
and you saw me clearly,
and we saw what we really were.

We weren't beautiful.
We were broken.
We were flawed.
We were real.

And reality is ugly.
It's harsh.
It's unforgiving.

So we ran back to the darkness,
where we could pretend,
where we could hide,
where we could be beautiful again.

But you can't live in darkness forever.
Eventually, the light finds you.
Eventually, truth catches up.
Eventually, beauty fades.

And when it does,
there's nothing left but the truth—
that we were never beautiful,
that we were only beautiful in the dark,
that beauty was just an illusion.

Some loves are meant for darkness.
They can't survive the light.
They wither in exposure.
They fade in brightness.

We were one of those loves—
beautiful in shadows,
ugly in sunlight,
real only in darkness.

So here's my confession:
Beauty fades in the light,
and we were beautiful in the dark,
but we couldn't stay there forever.

Eventually, the light came,
and we saw each other clearly,
and we realized we weren't beautiful at all—
we were just good at hiding in the dark.

Beauty fades in the light,
and so did we.