“Promise me you won’t laugh at me.” Joy begged, her cheeks beet red and her eyes glued to the floor.

Hana stood leaning on the kitchen counter, staring at her little sister. She was mid bite, thoroughly enjoying her ramen. she chewed and stared at her sister with her brows furrowed.

“what happened?” she asked after swallowing.

“I can’t tell you until you promise not to laugh.” she hissed, gazi...

there was no noise, no light that shone in her eyes to wake her. she couldn’t hear the birds chirping their usual song outside her bedroom window. now that she thought about it, she wasn’t in her bed. she was on a cold, hard floor. it felt like cement. then she was sitting up, panicked. but she didn’t get too far before she heard the sound of metal clanking together and a coldness around her neck....

It was the little things. The way her face shape just didn’t look quite right in the mirror. or how she found herself feeling quite blank most days. she wasn’t depressed, she just felt like she physically couldn’t generate any personal thoughts or opinions, and the ones she could didn’t feel like her own. there was something about her mother’s face. it looked like her, but there was something very...

“Why don’t you starts at the beginning, Jia?” The woman suggested, using her pointer finger to push her glasses up the bridge of her nose, glancing up a the small girl from her notepad.

They sat in the small room, four beige walls that lacked any sort of decor closing them in. Jia sat, her deep brown hair curtaining her face from both sides as she leaned over her legs slightly, picking her nails...

it came to a stop

the beating of my heart

the fear took control

i told you i was scared

so i push you out

i sabotage

my only shot at real love

and now you’re wounded

because my mind wouldn’t stop screaming

and you were frail so i stopped the attack

and i stitched you up

with a hundred red lipped kisses

and i cried too

my heart only wants you

but sometimes i think it’s too much

i think you’d b...

White walls, dark room

You’re free, I’m bruised

You took my heart

To wherever you’ve gone

Too fast, too late

Regrets, Sunday

I wish i’d tried to say goodbye

sun-kissed, soft skin

the smell of earth after rain

but you won’t come back

outside, we wait

pallbearers, not ready

refused to look

you can’t be gone

lowered into the ground

no one makes a sound

the preacher said

“rejoice!”

i gla...

Elizabeth was 6 when it first happened. She always thought her father was silly. Making up stories about a scary monster that took her mother away from him, and would take his precious children too. She thought that it was just a scary story her father made up in an attempt to spook her and her brother. That was, until the first attack. She had been sitting up in her bed, her Tinker-bell nightligh...

Jossalyn knew what she had seen. She didn’t want to believe it. She kept trying to come up with some sort of explanation. Some other reason than the one that she knew to be true. Part of her wanted to play dumb. Act like she had never seen it. Like it never happened. Like she didn’t happen to pass by the kitchen door the second the head chef sprinkled some strange white powder from a medicine bott...

It was a Thursday afternoon when I first noticed it. When you put your hand on my thigh like you had a thousand times but something about this time just felt different. My heart fluttered and my brain turned to mush and the words i wanted to say died on my tongue. When you experimentally held my hand for a few seconds and my face exploded in flames, and burned still after you let go, flustered. It...

i wait by my phone

it’s 4 in the morning

but you said you’d call

i waited by the door

daddy-daughter dance

i know you’re not coming

i put in the work

spend sleepless nights studying

working fingers to the bone

just to maybe hear you say you’re proud

kissed it better for the hundredth time

took your hurt and made it mine

but it doesn’t matter

because you never called

you didn’t show up

you...