If Found, Return to Hell

by Em X. Liu

dear lord when will this be over when will I be free of this hell is this job what I actually want to do no one told me what it would be like when will I get to help people like I thought I was signing up for instead of being yelled at all day is this what the rest of my life is going to look like I don’t want that I

Never take a deal from something supernatural. When you feel you have something to gain, that’s when you really have everything to lose.

and maybe life is just a toss-up between the agonies of routine and the agonies of happenstance.

Charmingly, she gives you the finger. “I’m sending this,” you warn. Snap the photo for good measure. “Is this the impression you want to be giving to a baby? A literal child?” Nathaniel leans in, peering up at you with a lopsided grin. “Frankly, I’m not even sure if this child exists, so. Fuck that kid.”

Your parents ran a laundromat, not a restaurant, but dirt is dirt. It cakes the same.

There’s a price to pay for those who defy Heaven or Hell or management.

The living and the dead are all plagued by the same thing these days. Bureaucracy, and the banality of stupid men.

That’s the thing about having been stuck in place for so long. You stop being able to see the possibilities you can carve out for yourself.