How does Red feel? Like another night of dark dreams, fighting through shadows that resemble fists. There are times when I grow tired of this and think, but only for a moment, that it would be so easy to open my veins and finally be free of them. Then, the thought is gone and with eyes shut tight, I try to remember which is the dream and which is the waking moment and sometimes I remember. And sometimes I do not. How does...

I spent the day turning each doll, each stuffed animal, on the shelf to face the wall. There’d been too many questions lately,questions I haven’t felt capable of answering. Each time I’ve looked up, they were still there, teetering like snow upon their lips, ready to cascade down in avalanchian proportions at any moment. So I turned them around, faced them towards the wall. One by one. It amazes me how many there are in o...

She spent all evening carefully sorting out the pieces. Border pieces went in one pile, sky blue in another, darker pieces in a third. Afterwards, content with her progress, she crawled into bed, clutching Rabbit, her one remainder of childhood, to her chest, and drifted off into an uneasy sleep. In the other room, the jigsaw shifted, pieces inching slowly from one pile to the next, intermingling, sometimes forming new pi...

I had her name traced above my heart Cupped my belly, feeling the spark Within, I felt the beat of life, the echo of her cry Her breath a butterfly Brushing the cobwebs from the grave with her wing Oh you precious thing And she, oh she had his name tattooed on her wrist Delicate letters, a secret script A reminder of what is precious, and what is not And hearing that, I smiled and thought Of all the songs he used to sing...

I giggled, staring across the water, the tips of mybrilliantly painted orange toes staring back at me, wiggling like little piggies. “Hi!” I waved at them, sliding further in to the almost too hot water with a sigh, my gaze moving up the eggshell tile to the plastered ceiling, willing myself to relax with only a cursory check to make sure that I was alone. Outside, a cat cried, wondering why, oh why was the door closed an...

One in sixEvery two minutes (not that I keep track)Counting out the time, alarm set on my cell phone to remind me thatFor one hundred and nineteen secondsI am safeThat I can breathe easy knowing that someone else took the bullet for me this timeGuilt and relief digging their claws into my brainThreeTwoOneIs it my turn to keep another sister safe from harm?To be romanced behind a dumpster, aftershave courtesy Jack Daniel a...

It had been a perfect day. Raindrops had been misting out of the April sky for hours, long enough for the squeaky scrape of windscreen wipers to become just another part of the aural landscape. In his rearview mirror, Topeka had become nothing more then a gray smudge on the horizon, another in a long line of cities through which he’d passed on his way west as he barreled along the highway, windows down to let in the miser...

I A layer of dust lay thick in a faintly glowing square. Her finger moved languidly over its surface leaving behind a scar of nebulous light in its wake, releasing a lusterless beacon into the cell-like room. The pale beam stabbed the floor, causing her to flinch at the sudden intrusion of daylight that brought temptation as well as a sense of disquiet.Already she could feel the lure and the pull of the world outside as i...

As it turned out, I was right. Suicide wasn’t a thing you heard about much, at least not in our quiet little town. It was something that happened far away, something distant and unfathomable. And yet, that morning it had struck home with terrible precision, taking Lucy’s mother with a finality that left everyone stunned and gasping for breath. I had a hard time understanding what happened. I think we all did. One day Mrs....

My life was curiously empty before meeting Lucy, that summer’s day so long ago. It was my birthday, of which I was only allowed one a year, and unique because of that, as well as it being the one day upon which my un-birthday did not fall. Summer was in full bloom, golden sweet and flower scented, and the sky had chosen to be a particularly vibrant shade of blue that day. It was a day upon which to wander about a heather...

I awoke suddenly, a weight upon my back, pressing me down, my face pushed so deeply into my pillow that I had to fight for every breath. A vice like grip upon the back of my neck held me still. I tried to scream, but the sound was muffled, so instead I fought, hoping to free myself from my unknown assailant. He was too strong, but the desperation of terror kept me going longer than I would have thought possible, up until...

Much had changed this time in Alice’s nightmare world. We both recognized the setting, and yet both of us were aware that something wasn’t quite right. Oh, the changes were subtle and had we not walked this path so many times before, we might not have noticed them, but they were there. The color of the sky was a little off, for one, and the sounds seemed muted. Ominous shadows still lurked at the corners of our comprehens...

Cold stark black and white and absent of any grayThe edges are no longer blurred and I am as cold as deathWhat I wouldn’t do to feel warm again, to feel safe?My dreams are full of images, too fast to catch hold ofPainful flashes of unfocused memory, police lights on the blackest of nights In my chest a frightened bird, trapped, trying to tear me from my sleepless sleepA clenched hand is reflected in the angry mirror of th...

After that night, things were different between us for a while. Of course, her parent’s weren’t content with my promise that it wouldn’t happen again and my trip to the emergency room turned into a three day stay for observation, complete with IV drip that contained a handful of medications meant to keep me calm and help me sleep. The bottom line is I drifted in and out of reality for several days and, when I was finally...

It was all so familiar. She was dressed as before as was I. Shadows flitted about the countryside and through the woods, and the breeze was chill upon our cheeks. We trod the path, ignoring the signs warning of danger. It was as if we’d forgotten what had happened the last time, what would happen if we continued on. In the back of my head I knew we should turn back, but I was powerless to voice that thought.Once again, we...