Together We Rot

by Skyla Arndt

I rip my hand away and bury my heart in my pocket. I carry it every step to Dad’s room and anticipate the moment it will become too heavy to hold. Once I tell Dad the truth, it will burst and the dam I’ve built will break for good.

Other people know to draw back when they touch a flame. I only know how to walk through the coals.

“When you’re sad, the plants around you wilt and fade, but the moment you’re calm, they burst back to life. Take a look at the room around you.”

I feel like my heart is no longer within my ribs but growing from the outside. It’s

Either die by my father’s hand or live long enough to lose myself.

Change is coming. Disaster is imminent. If both paths of fate lead to bitter ends, allow me to choose my demise.

The words fly out from me, free at last after spending so long imprisoned in my mind.

Love this Quote

If you don’t like someone, try to see them from someone else’s view. There’s good in everyone, if you look hard enough.

A transformation, that’s what Cherry said. Maybe she was right and Death isn’t death after all. Maybe death is my old life burning so that my new life can be born from the ashes. The beast inside me was never really a beast. It was only a boy tainted by centuries of bloodshed and darkness. “Know I love