Voyage of the Damned

by Frances White

For everyone who has ever entered a room and felt they did not belong.

My father always says: ‘You can’t run from your responsibilities,’ but he lacks imagination. Besides, I’m not running. I’m sidestepping. Crossing the road so me and my responsibilities don’t make eye contact and aren’t forced into awkward small talk both of us know isn’t going anywhere.

Dragons live in this dreamlike world where unity isn’t a word said in legends, but reality. Dragons are really fucking naive.

The ‘music’ sounds like how a firework would taste, fired directly into your mouth.

I just need to be quiet and unremarkable for two hours. Easy peasy.

I was wrong. I don’t vomit. I vomit and shit. Always nice to exceed your expectations.

I know those eyes. I see them in the gloom of a storm. I see them in the blackness of the deepest parts of the ocean. I see them in the dark places of my mind, where only silence and surrender live. I know Ravi’s eyes better than my own.

His smiles were so rare, it felt like witnessing an eclipse.

you don’t need a Blessing to be a miracle.’

That’s a good way to categorize the world—to eat or to love. Although sometimes things can be both. I smirk.

I realized then there was one person who cared if I lived. One sweet boy who would cry if I died. And by the Goddess I would do anything to stop that. I never wanted to see him cry again. So, from then on, I avoided water. I’m not afraid of it because I’m afraid of drowning. I’m afraid that if I go beneath the surface, I won’t want to come back up. And I do not break promises.

they keep their memories and stories safe within music, where empires cannot touch them.

Why is it that I want women to beat me up and men to gently embrace me?

‘You don’t need a Blessing to be a miracle.’

Warm feeling gone.