Jackal

by Erin E. Adams

Danger for Black girls was different. It didn’t obey the boundaries of stories. For them, it was always real.

“Alice,” someone called. The voice was soft, she couldn’t be sure who it was, but it was coming from the trees.

Oh, to be a teenage girl. Excited and scared all at once, Keisha didn’t notice eyes watching her until well

“Hello?” she asked. “You aren’t Liz,” it replied.

Fear moves in people differently. When Liz’s and Keisha’s fears aligned, Keisha stepped out of her pattern. If there was room for only one Black girl, one of them wouldn’t survive. Keisha wanted to live. I watched Keisha. She reached out for Liz’s hand before she was pulled away. Keisha taught me that a heart can change. Hers changed me.

A new voice called out to her, “Morgan. There you are.”

Though I know Morgan’s heart well, they never found her body. Morgan, who was always remembered, slowly was forgotten. Her heart taught me the monstrosity in beauty.

Desire

and destruction. With her heart, I learned...

The lore had started with Alice. Rumors about her parents. Rumors about the woods. Rumors about her friends. With time, personal details got dismissed. Lost. Only the horrible ones remained.

“Kayla?” a voice said. “Kayla!”

He liked to remind me about his family. His wife. His child. Every time, I’d meet his eyes with understanding. That life, that tale he wove for me, was the dream. The way he was in the woods was his true nature.

After I was satiated by her heart, and he by his violence, the Fellow asked me, “What happened that night, Jack?”

Kayla’s heart taught me I needed a partner worth being brave for. I held on to that hope as I waited for Liz to return to the woods.