A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping

by Sangu Mandanna

“Years of small things and big things just added up, and one day, it was like I couldn’t really feel anything except the big, dark space where everything I was missing was supposed to be. I couldn’t deal with it on my own, so eventually, I asked for help.”

Like his lonely and her lonely fit perfectly into the empty spaces at the other’s side, saying nothing, asking nothing, just keeping each other company.

wild. Sera tried not to think about those months when things felt like they were at their worst, before medication, before she’d asked for help. She hated that version of her. Hated the fights she’d have with Jasmine, the speed with which she’d lose her temper, the long days of not being able to get out of bed, the dark and terrifying things she’d think about doing. Hated, more than anything, the way it felt like she simply had no control over anything, not even herself.

And what she saw, for the first time, was not ugliness at all but pain so enormous and consuming that it had felt like dying.

I’m sorry, she said silently to her past self. I’m sorry I hated you. I’m sorry I wasn’t kinder.