He keeps walking along as the light fades, not even noticing the beautiful glades. Passing love and joy and peace, ignoring the words of those people he sees.
Lost love, no hope, no future it would seem. His eyes no longer gleam with the light and warmth of the living.
The sun sets, the light dims, and still he walks, passing by laughter, friendship, and hope. “Stay away!” Scream his eyes. “Don’t come near, me you must fear. I want to
be left alone on this path, my walk. My life.
But if you look deeper you can see the Soul of the Sleeper.
Full of dreams and hopes and talents that he is slowly burying. The depth of his sadness is reflected in his eyes, anguish he cannot disguise. No one knows what
his life is like and he is not one to tell.
Bold and brazen to hide a broken heart. Cold and hard as stone so nothing hurts. The cutting numbs the pain inside. He uses anger to push away the fact that he is so far from life.
Dark clothes, grim look. Wrists covered in scars. Beautiful and broken.
His guise is successful; most leave him alone; they rarely dare get close enough to see into his soul. He doesn’t care that he’s alone.
If anyone approaches him they’re warned off by a glare.
He doesn’t want to be hurt again, he doesn’t want to care, or maybe it’s not that way and he’s ‘just in that stage’ stuck in a cage.
At this rate it will be too late. His soul won’t be saved, the day will have waned.
Unless

Unless someone shows him the light that is there, the Someone who cares. Unless someone looks into his eyes and sees the sadness behind; unless they don’t back down or look away
no matter what he says.
When and if he lashes out and that someone doesn’t shout, he will wonder. Wonder why they are still there. He will cut, he will glare, he will walk away down the stairs.
But if every day it is the same and that someone stays around, saying little but always there-maybe, just maybe the brazenness will leave, the cold will give way to warmth, the hardness will be chipped away to reveal the heart that was always there.
And maybe he will see and say, “Hey, what do you know…someone loves me.”
And he will look around and finally he will laugh, love, hope, be a friend, and stay in the Light.