Anastasia

by Sophie Lark

I thought of my best and brightest moments and used them to power me. That’s the best motivation, it always is—we’ll do anything for the people we love. Nothing pushes us harder. Anger fades. Love only grows.

I pulled her to my chest and pressed her against my heart. “I’m never letting you out of my sight.”

She should have been my wife. I wished I’d had a child with her, grown old with her.

Whatever they’d thought in life, they must be happy for us now. If the dead feel anything, it’s the joy of the living. We must glow like lanterns to them, through the screen that separates us all.

Childhood is a land you leave once and never return.