No One Gets Out Alive

by Adam L.G. Nevill

She wanted to be a man; she wanted to punch his face. But she was a girl denied even rudeness because he was unstable.

I know things are good but I can’t … unclench. My mind is like a closed hand. I can’t open myself.’ She waved her hand in the air and growled to swallow the lump that had blocked her throat. ‘Clothes, a car, all of the beautiful shit in this house, everything I ever dreamed of having, I have it now. But I can’t appreciate it. I can’t. I try. I was doing OK this week. But I’m blocked. Again. It seems irrelevant, superficial, this…’ Amber looked around the room. ‘These things can’t touch me, inside. Not this part of me that is talking to you now. That’s the same. It’s what was underneath that.’