All the Missing Girls

by Megan Miranda

People were like Russian nesting dolls—versions stacked inside the latest edition. But they all still lived inside, unchanged, just out of sight.

It’s typically men who commit murder in the heat of passion.

Women are more deliberate. Adding to silent lists of slights, tallying the offenses, building a case, retreating inward.

Forever. It’s the kind of thing you say when forever has only been a handful of years. When it’s not decades before you become those Russian nesting dolls.

But that’s childhood. Before you realize that every step is a choice. That something must be given up for something to be gained.