How to Be Eaten

by Maria Adelmann

“Why would you want to be constantly reminded?” asks Gretel. “Is there some option where I can forget?” Ruby says.

“Just because you agree to something doesn’t mean you aren’t being taken advantage of,” says Raina.

To want is to be bewitched, I’ve long thought. If it’s beautiful or sweet, it will ruin you.

There are so many ways to be torn in half.

This is the end, I think. Maybe everything is over. Maybe time has stopped. Maybe nothing happens next. Maybe the entire plot has already occurred. What of any consequence could happen now? But, of course, time always ticks forward, no matter the perceived rate; it can’t be stopped; next always happens; it’s happening now; it’s the only thing you can count on.

You can’t change the past, but it’s infinitely reframeable. You can tell the same story over and over a hundred different ways, and every version is a little right and every version is a little wrong.