They Never Learn

by Layne Fargo

Even in his final moments, I doubt he learned his lesson. But I didn’t kill him to teach him a lesson; I killed him to carve him out of this world like a tumor. And I’d do it again.

Reading was my most reliable escape in childhood, the one way I could get away from my father while still trapped in the same space with him.

It still is the most reliable escape even in adulthood.