Stories tagged “trauma”
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Leaving Home
I turn the page of the diary. The beginnings of the next entry are there, but otherwise it all is obliterated by blood. The cameras show a riot breaking out following a murder by Warehouse B. In the chaos, someone blew a hole in the hatch. The air ran ...
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Clean
With a drenched loofah cupped in her left hand, Bella scrubbed pink lines all over her body. Nearly scrapping the hair right off her arms with repetitive sways of the wrist, she makes pink valleys go red. “Soap and water just won’t do it...
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(S)he
Hands above the head Hands out front Out to the sides “He’s so stupid…” I mused. If Chelsea heard me, she didn’t show it. Her eyes remained glued to the oversized comic strip character in front of us. It had been totally s...
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After
Finishing the glass, the sharp liquid scorched its way down her throat. It had been a long time since she’d had a drink, and the room spun in response as Alicia’s slender fingers worked to extinguish each light in turn as she stumbled towar...
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In Between Minds: A Dangerous Place
“That wasn’t a test, was it?” I asked. “Not part of the training?” Grandmother cleared her throat but answered with her mind instead. Yes and no. That memory came from inside you. It is yours. The exercises helped uncover ...
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In Between Minds: A More Direct Lesson
Natalya was nothing like the Grandmother I had grown to know and like over the last few months. There was a kind of feral-ness to her. Eyes that had often appraised me, or been the cap of a smile, now darted back and forth as if there was something hid...
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The War Hero
I look back upon my life and question it’s purpose. I spend my nights haunted by visions of death and the losing of all worldly innocence at the singular pull of a trigger. The soft sensation of intestines yielding to the point of my bayonet bind...