The Land Where Sinners Atone

by V.F. Mason

I should have asked for his name, but I didn’t. Instead, I finished my ice creams and wrote his mom’s name, winking at the sky and hoping it will stay here forever so he can look at it and remember. On that day, I came home bouncing, slipping through the back door and sleeping tightly. And the next day, I decided to be a doctor who can do the impossible, so I won’t see boys sad like him anymore. Or at least try.

Trust. Everything comes down to it, doesn’t it? If you love someone, you trust them. If the loved one says he or she didn’t do it… shouldn’t you at least give them the benefit of the doubt?

Enjoy life to the fullest, but also be careful. Don’t sacrifice yourself at the altar of others, because the funny thing about sacrifices? No one remembers you made them when they turn their back on you.

But the most disgusting thought that makes me break out in a sweat and sends goose bumps all over me? Is that I don’t mind having the Kings by my side, because they rule the freaking world with just one word. And I feel like to survive in this battle with a serial killer, I need at least a little percent of their power. Because I have none. Isn’t that sad?

I just want to forget about everything and experience something besides the pain slashing my body in two—to feel the touch of a strong man’s hands on me, reminding me that I might have been frozen in time for four years… but I’m not dead. Is it such a sin to just once do something bad in this life if it has the power to soothe the internal wounds, however brief this medicine might be?

No one ever thinks they will be weak against the force of nature; people have the tendency to believe they would be stronger in certain circumstances, and I know for a fact it’s bullshit. We know nothing about ourselves until we end up in the situation we try to judge.

The man who destroyed my life, yet I came apart in his arms and begged for more? You are nothing but a bitch in heat.

The biggest lies we tell… are spoken to ourselves.

But when you have something to lose, you don’t always have the luxury of being brave.