[ WP ] After seven days of extreme sleep deprivation , it happens . You are free of insomnia ... or rather , insomnia has set you free .

It has been 7 days, 168 hours, 10,080 minutes, and he has left me alone forever. 
 
 We met when I was in my early teens but were not fully acquainted till years later. As I got older I found I had more on my mind and night was when it bubbled to the surface of my anxiety ridden brain.Questions about mortality, about who I was, If I was good or bad. Questions about my wants and desires. Questions about things in my life that were sources of stress. On and on the questions went all night, until they were answered sleep would evade me. 
 
 I guess you could say I welcomed him with open arms. I hated the questions that came late at night and facing them alone had begun to wear on me. I struggled to keep them at bay; drugs, alcohol, hypnosis, meditation. Nothing worked. 
 
 One night he simply appeared. At the foot of my bed there he sat. Black hair dropped lazily into his black eyes, a crooked smile curved the side of his thin lips. His pale skin lightly glistened in the light filtering in from my window. As if he could read my thoughts he began to discuss with me the worries that kept me awake at nights. In the beginning he helped me to see my worries from different angles, to look at them in ways I had n't thought of. Yes I ended up losing more sleep but it felt so good to not be alone anymore. To have someone who understood my fears and cared about them. 
 
 We became friends he and I. Id get ready for bed and sit up with lights turned off, comforter tucked to my chin and wait for him to arrive. The familiar pressure at the foot of my bed was all I needed to know he was with me again, and we talk. Talk and talk and talk till the sun came up. I didnt even realize or really care Id gone another night without sleep. Some evenings id have to wait to long for him to appear and sleep would come. He was always so mad when Sleep came to me before he could. For some reason he refused to discuss with me he hated her. Always had he said. 
 
 My family would make note during the day about the bags under my eyes or the lack of appetite I had. I didnt care, there was someone who listened to me, and finally I was happy. 
 
 Somewhere around my 23rd birthday it began to change, to get worse, Instead of answering and comforting he began to question and berate me. Where a smile used to grace his lips a grimace now played. His glossy black hair now laid matted against his forehead and his skin no longer glistened but dripped. 
 
 It wasnt until one night that he had me in tears shaking and begging him to leave that I knew He had to go. That night I knew id become one of the women Id always swore I wouldnt. I had allowed a man to enter into my life and abuse me and I continued to let him. How was I supposed to stop him? How could I leave someone who was there when no one else was. He knew my fears and my desires. He knew me and I thought on some level he must have loved me the way I loved him. 
 
 Finally a night came that sleep took me first.A women clad in purples and blues with white hair cascading down her back came to me, she greeted me with open arms and her warmth took over me. For the first time in what felt like years I slept the night thru. When I woke all I could remember was; 7 days, 168 hours, 10,080 minutes is all you need to be rid of him. I held it in my heart like a song, again and again I said it until it became all that filled my mind. 
 
 The first night was n't hard he told me he was sorry, apologized for his behavior and asked me to forgive him. I told him I did. 6 more days. The second night he swore he would never leave me, told me how lucky he was to have me in his life. I smiled and told him how lucky I was to have him in mine. The third night he was ecstatic Id stayed up to see him three nights in a row. We talked like we were young. The fourth night he began to get itchy and fidgety his eyes sunk deeper and deeper into his head. The fifth night he started to become cruel one more time. The sixth night he reminded me of all my fears. I didnt know If I could do this for two more nights. I had to. I had to escape. The seventh night, the seventh night he screamed at me and told me of all the wrong Id done in the world, every person Id ever hurt and how they would never forgive me. He begged me to sleep to not banish him from my life forever. I did not listen. On the morning of the seventh night I was exhausted, I hadnt eaten in three days and the hollows around my eyes were as deep and dark as the nights id been abusing. But I knew in my heart and in the deepest reaches of my soul, I knew I had beaten him. Insomnia would be out of my life forever. 
 
 Sorry for any typos this is my first try at this.
