I haven’t taken a shower in nine no fourteen no twelve days. Voices say open eyes close eyes needle thread. I trace my fingers over words etched on the door of a graffitied bathroom stall. words written down by girls, so they’ll be remembered. Help! I want to run away. My boyfriend cheated on me. Have a good day! I do not have a pen to write wanted: girl, 26. Qualifications: sane. Voices say eat dirty money off dinner plates. No sleep for 4 hours 8 hours 9 hours. My tower is my mind. Clamp my hands over my ears. Voices say peel the skin off your bones. Ghosting girl, magician trick. Watch me disappear, money jangling. Coins glittering like fish scales. Three pennies, a nickel and a dime: all that’s left of me.
Candace Hartsuyker is a first-year fiction student in McNeese State University’s MFA Program. She has been published in Foliate Oak, Foxglove Journal, The Ginger Collect, Former Cactus and Anti-Heroin Chic.