A Lesson in Vengeance

by Victoria Lee

The girl became a crow, the crow became bones, bones became dust. I wonder now if such curses are bestowed only upon the wicked. —Ellis Haley, Night Bird

Dr. Ortega once described psychotic depression as being like a gun: my genetics loaded the chamber with bullets, my mother passed the weapon into my hand, but Alex’s death pulled the trigger.

When I was a child, I found it so hard to imagine ever turning sixteen. Sixteen.

In this, as in all things, I am alone.