Anastasia

by Sophie Lark

She might as well have said she was the goddess Isis. Writers were the source of everything he loved best.

she wanted me to dress and behave as a lady, while I believed that I could have been captain of my own pirate ship if only she’d stop interfering.

“I work and study all day long!” I cried. “I speak Albion, German, French, Rusyan, I know algebra and geometry, I can calculate the path of the planets, I know the history of every European nation, the rise and fall of the noble houses, the principal wars and achievements. And besides that, I do needlepoint for charity!”

Damien ignored my sisters and everyone else. His eyes were fixed on me alone. I felt them burning on my skin everywhere I turned.

I’d rather be indecent than incompetent.

“You’re my little firework, Stassie. You go out with a bang, but you light up the sky.” “Fireworks don’t go out with a bang, Papa. They start with one.”

“Whatever else is taken from you, never lose hope. Even if you see how dark the world can be, choose to believe it could be better.”

It was as if my eyes moved themselves, as if they already knew where she stood. I saw her, and my heart stopped.

Nobody wanted us to dance together. Nobody but me.

“I’m not a monster. I’m a man who was touched by the monstrous.”

We met in the middle of the field, in an ocean of purple with papery white butterflies fluttering all around us. She ran to me, her whole face illuminated with a wild happiness that caught me like a whirlwind, so I swept her up in my arms and swung her around.