Juniper & Thorn

by Ava Reid

Most days I could not even stand to sate my own hunger. The fullness of my belly was unbearable, but with two fingers jabbed down my throat I could make it all vanish, turning back my indulgence like a scratched record, undoing it and making myself clean and empty and new again.

But there’s hardly anything in life worth doing that doesn’t make somebody angry.

I would smile blithely if someone tried to saw off my leg. But no one had ever told me that I was allowed to scream.