Madhouse

by Miguel Estrada

Lucas wasn’t afraid of the night. It was the darkness that made all of the hairs on his body stand on end.

Why did adults always want to have control over everything?

Lucas tried to pray, as his mother had told him to do whenever he was afraid, but he knew that it would not do any good. Praying would not revive the child or return him to his family. God had no mercy on him, so why would He have it for Lucas?

Watching him, so closely, he realized how fragile the human body was. One moment you are a conscious person, alive and well, and the next, nothing more than a sack of bones and blood.