The beginning is a story I know well. ‘And Helianthus told Valentine: “take your son, your only beloved son, Soraya, and go to a grove I have chosen for you. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a nest I will provide for you” ’ Our altar. ‘Valentine rose early with the Sun, to then wake Soraya. They set […]
I watch my parents head to the grove every morning from my hammock, far up into the flowers. I brush a dew soaked strand of hair away from my face as I watch them climb down the stems that make our home. I see all the adults in our community file into the grove. They will return later, with peaceful […]
I come of age not when I turn eighteen, but when I get to step into the grove for the first time. The rest of my covenant, girls I have grown with and known for my whole life, gasps when the curtains of ivy are pulled away, to be tucked behind arms of thorns. A singular strand of light runs […]
I don’t think there is anything beyond the forest. Not that I have ever wondered about it, or that I’m curious. It is simply a fact. We live among the flowers; we always have and that is it. ‘Who can tell us about the origin of the forest?’ I am also told that the sun shines above us, beyond the […]
By the glory of the flowers, I love to see the grove, Here in their sacred presence, we live right below, This is our beloved home, I’ll make our people proud, When I’m older and stand by the altar- Is the moment for my devotion to be vowed.
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 […]