Those We Left Behind, and Other Sacrifices

by Brandon Applegate

When people ask me what I write about, I tell them “I write about what scares me.” But I’m not afraid of body parts coming up through shower drains, carnivorous fairies, or shape-shifting Martians. In these stories, I’m afraid of the choices that lead to them—turning a blind eye to a child’s pain, giving in to anger and bitterness, making the wrong decision in a crisis, failing to see what needs to be done. Those are the things that keep me awake long into the night, staring into the blackness, the primal parts of my brain warning me of predators that slink in the corners, and telling me stories about things that crawl in the ancient dark. And that’s where these stories come from. Some of this is real. Some of this is make-believe. I’m not going to tell you which is which right now because that breaks the spell. If I’ve done my job here, it’s all real.

I have a good feeling