Prologue I have a heart for every soul I have ever morphed into. Family members are all alike, at least this family is. They are all the same version of the same person. And I am them. I exist only to show them their worst selves, their truest selves, whether they want to see it or not. To pick at […]
Prologue Present ‘Anger can eat you up, from deep inside you, if you are not careful.’ ‘It will consume you until there is nothing left.’ ‘It will eat you alive.’ I know. *** I have a bracelet made of salt around my right wrist. From it, a lucky charm in the shape of a dark eye hangs, light as water. […]
I don’t like sharing. Every time I do, there’s someone ready to spoil it. To eat the last slice of a cake I made that I was saving for myself, to steal the scarf I had spent the past two months carefully knitting, to twist what had happened and tell me “they didn’t mean it, it means nothing.” So I […]
Present My mother was never one to protect her children from anything they might scar, or scare, them. Life is tough, the sooner you get used to it, the better. While most children watched cartoons and read fairy tales, I grew up with her black and white horror tapes. Darkness, spirits, and cults became my playmates. I remember watching her […]
Who will be the next…ladies and gents say it with me…Temporary Monarch? Prologue. Temporary Monarchs: the most followed gameshow of all time. Every family tunes in once a year to watch it, but not mine, not this time. It was yesterday when my brother threw my bedroom door open and hurled one of my stuffed animals at me. ‘Look up.’ […]
There was someone in my life once who gave me a bouquet of sunflowers, and I took care of them day and night. They were their favourite flowers, so much that they had a dried one stitched onto their hand, its petals weaved into their veins and the stem tied around their wrist, their own version of a lucky charm, […]
There’s an annual gameshow where I’m from: temporary monarchs, where the winners get to rule our nation for one year. Once their time is up, they can sign up to play and try winning again. Dear mirror and reflection, why am I telling you this? You live here, I’m sure you know how it works. You’ve lived here forever, and […]