The villain always sits back up

You beat it. It climbed, it peaked, it dropped, and you didn't move. Then the quiet came and your shoulders came down. A few minutes later it's back, and this one lands harder. Your guard dropped before the craving was done. Nobody warns you about the second one. Now you've been warned.

In every horror movie, the villain goes down, everyone exhales, and it sits back up behind them. The lull is part of the craving. Urges can come in sets, with a break that feels exactly like an ending. Give in now and the cigarette gets to rewrite your first win as a delay. Treat both rounds as one fight.

Give your hands a boring job right now. Clear the table. Wipe the counter. Then one more surface, just because. When the quiet comes, keep going longer than feels necessary. Not until you feel fine. Until you feel a little bored. Boredom is the honest sign the set is over.

Ask God for the extra five minutes, not just the first five. Stay with me past the quiet. Hold on, and the record reads clean. You wanted it twice and went nowhere. And when the boredom finally shows up, you'll know what it means. It ran out of fuel. You didn't.