My mother collapses on the floor as her claws dig into my arm. The air is filled with what I can only assume to be the smell of embalming fluid as I stare at my little brother’s lifeless body.

Stiff, cold, on a hard wooden table with a blanket draped over him. I’m aware of nails in my skin somewhere in the back of my consciousness as my mother vomits all over the floor. Her screaming is a roar i...

I’m going to do it. I’m going to do it now. I have to tell Rivven Hase how I feel about him. That one kiss under the bleachers has been replaying in my mind for the last ten days. I can’t get over the feel of his onyx strands of hair in my hand or the taste of him on my lips. I need him so bad it’s primal. Who cares what everybody else thinks? It’s 2025. Boys kiss boys. I don’t want him to hide fr...

The point of the nightly punishments which could range from beatings to burnings- was to demonstrate who was in charge. The idea was to solidify within us that we were to obey, we were property. Don’t get me wrong, they never did enough to incapacitate us. We still had a job to do, so a dislocated shoulder or branded leg wasn’t out of the ordinary.

“Thank you,” I say to the warden.

The limp is ba...