You've Lost a Lot of Blood

by Eric LaRocca

Each precious thing I’ve ever shown him is a holy relic from the night we both perished—the night when I combed him from my hair and watered the moon with his blood.

All those years being told I was a genius, that I would do such wondrous things in my life. Adults love to say those things to children. It hurts them more than they could ever know. Because when a child grows up to live averagely—to live a mediocre life—they think they’ve failed somehow. And perhaps they have. But it’s really the adults that have failed them. It’s the adults that have misguided them into thinking that they were special, that they were destined for such greatness that never came. So, I tried to invent my own greatness. Using others.