Burying Boyhood

The candles finally burnt through, and the room descended into darkness. After passing that storm on a scale she’d never experienced before, making her worries and dreams known, Erin began to feel waves of fatigue hitting her. Her eyelids grew heavy as lead, able to finally close without resistance.

The slumber was anything but peaceful, riddled with many strange dreams. Most of them were meaningless and grotesque images, but there was one dream that made her heart skip a beat. In it she owed Richard a great amount of money, and he came every night to collect the debt. Each night he’d ‘collect’ a number of times, but the debt continued to snowball…

When she opened her eyes once more, Erin was greeted by the sight of a familiar ceiling. The curtains that had been pulled and flattened vigorously the night before, not closed properly yet. Faint light shot down from the window, meaning it was noon in the world outside.

Startled, she quickly sat up....