Freshwater

by Akwaeke Emezi

I have lived many lives inside this body.

the main problem was that we were a distinct we instead of being fully and just her.

I was powerful and I was mad, he could not touch me no matter how hard he pushed into her body, he could definitely never touch her. I was here. I was everything. I was everywhere.

I loved her because she gave me a name.

The world in my head has been far more real than the one outside

I didn’t want to be alone, so I chose them. In many ways, you see, I am not even real.

So when she started looking up her “symptoms,” it felt like a betrayal—like she thought we were abnormal.

And for the record, she was the one who tried to kill me first.

One simple promise—you will never have to feel them move in you.

“Exactly.” I patted her hand. “We’re the buffer between you and madness, we’re not the madness.”

We had spent entirely too long with a foot in this world; the hold had to give, the foot had to return.

To make the vessel look a little more like us—that was the extent of our intent.

There are many advantages to a broken mind.

sometimes you have to break it some more before you can start putting it back together.

Understand this if you understand nothing: it is a powerful thing to be seen.