Not all scars are visible. Some are laced in gold.

I’ve seen bad. Not the movie kind. Not the twisted villain with a scar and an evil laugh.

I’ve seen the kind that wears a friendly smile, that hugs you before it hurts you. The kind that sits beside you and still sharpens the knife.

And no, I’m not a bad person. But I know what it feels like to run. To hide. To flinch at the sound of footsteps that might mean danger. To calculate exits in rooms that were supposed to feel safe. I know what it's like to be the hunted. 

And the funny thing? The people who hurt me didn’t look like monsters. They looked... normal. Polished. Put together. They held conversations, posted photos, showed up on time.

They knew something powerful... it’s all about perception. They didn’t need to be good. They just needed to look good.

And once you learn that trick, that if you control how you’re seen, you control the narrative, you’re holding the strings.

That’s not morality. That’s strategy. That’s power.

But here’s what no one tells you: When you face darkness up close, you don’t walk away untouched.

Even if you survive, you don’t stay the same. You harden. You sharpen your instincts. You learn to read between lines, behind smiles, beneath surface-level empathy.

And sometimes, just sometimes, to survive, you become a little bad yourself.

Not evil. Not cruel. Just… different.

You stop apologizing for protecting your peace. You start setting fire to bridges that lead to pain. You learn to swing back if someone swings first. You start choosing yourself. 

Loudly. Unapologetically.

And to some? That looks bad. Too assertive. Too cold. Too selfish. But to you? That’s survival. That’s power reclaimed. 

I’m not a bad person. But I’m no longer soft in the ways that made me easy to break. I’m no longer sweet for people who only showed up when it was convenient. I’ve been hurt, but I healed with thorns.

And maybe that makes me hard to read now. Maybe that makes me “too much” for the ones who only loved me when I was shrinking.

But I’ll take misunderstood over manipulated, any day;-)