Webs of Deceit

A few years ago I realized that I had surrounded myself with people who weren't really my friends, people who just filled my life with negative energy (and yes I'm aware I do this to people at work, they should totally just fire me) and sucked all the goodness out of it. They were social parasites, draining away all my energy. And one day, I decided to do something about it. I decided that I had had enough and that I couldn't handle it anymore, so I started cutting people out. With some people I just disappeared, with others, it was a much slower process, a drifting away, so that little by little, I extracted myself from their venomous webs leaving behind the sensation that it was life that pulls us apart, that it was in any way my intention. There's a good reason why I did this. It's because I didn't trust them. I had seen them deceive so many of their so-called friends in pursuit of their own goals. I've seen them lie and cheat. I seem them betray all their trust, betray the years of friendship to get ahead, to steal what isn't theirs. I knew that if I was too obvious, they would not let me go. They would spin their web tighter and tighter around my neck and rob me of any chance of happiness, because they were unhappy, because they were incomplete.

I realize that my paranoia might have a lot to do with it, but how can you trust someone who has betrayed their closest friends? How could you forget that and not wonder that one day it could be you? I am terrified that one day, they will realize that I have left them for precisely this reason and they will come after me with all their force and all their might. They will come at me like a tornado, tearing down everything that have built and leaving my life in shambles.

Will they? Will they really stoop so low even though I have never done them any harm? Is keeping your enemies close really a good idea, or just bad logic?