Smallara

The paper curled again.  Charity groaned, not aloud, but in that low, breathless way that lived in her chest now, where frustration couldn’t even afford the dignity of volume. Her…

Charity sat in Alejandra’s lap like a forgotten trinket, her legs curled to one side, her body dwarfed by the soft valley of fabric beneath her. The worn couch smelled…

A sickness wrapped around Charity as Alejandra carried her from the cramped bedroom. The thin walls of the dingy apartment now felt like an impenetrable fortress. Only with Alejandra could…

Charity’s body tensed as the creak of shifting bedsprings cut through the quiet. The rhythmic breathing that had filled the room like a low, steady tide faltered, then caught. A…

Charity’s eyes blinked open to a dim golden haze, filtered sunlight bleeding through the frayed fabric of plaid cotton above her like stained glass through a ruined cathedral. For a…

The car’s hum had long faded by the time Charity really noticed the silence. She was too lost in the soft static roaring inside her own skull, the place where…