One in Four

by Lucinda Berry

It’d been so easy. Who knew it was that easy to kill another person while still keeping them alive? It’s the worst death.

How many people are walking around in the world with their lights turned off? The switch inside them faded to black? People just like her. Still wearing huge smiles on their faces. Filling rooms with their infectious laughs and bubbly personalities. Still pretty. Still sparkling. Still saying all the same lines. But gone.

She just wanted to feel something again. That’s what happens when you disassociate from your body.

As a female, would you rather be alone in the forest with a man or a bear? Half the cis white men revolted when the majority of women chose bear. But as a girl, keeping yourself safe was drilled into your head from practically the moment you were born—that there’s a world of bad men just waiting to take advantage of you.