Friday's Whims of the Time Traveler 54.0: February 16th, 2009

Untitled
by Belinda Roddie

She looked like a twelve-year-old ghost. Her deadpan, hardened face and her glazed eyes looked like they belonged to a shadow, a completely different entity, haunting the world. We were staring at each other, eyes locked, not moving or speaking.

 I wanted to shut her out. Even if I closed my eyes and opened them again, she was still looking at me. Go away, I ordered. Please go away. I began to scream at her, trying to scare her off, trying to shatter the glass between us into a million pieces with my fists so I could reach her and slam her face into the dirt, hit her until the color came back into her cheeks so she could look normal again.

But I didn’t break the glass. I could only let my fists unclench, my knees shuddering beneath me as I sank to the floor. Down there, I couldn’t see her staring. I couldn’t see her mouth move with silent screams, arms flailing as she tried to reach me.

Seven years later, I know I was better off without the bad luck.  

The work you see here has not been edited nor altered since February 16th, 2009.

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