Photo by Peter Robbins on Unsplash
by Anne Anthony
The cunning virus crawls inside the girl’s sleeping brain, a swelter shelter of misfired electrical signals. Delirium finds her a willing believer, haunting her with visions. Candles, candles, red hot, Mama, burning, Mama—she yells, waking her mother as she puffs at the eruption of false flames, bloodshot red spreading across the floor. The bedroom door opens, but now, she flies through woods aflame with wildfire, licking her nightgown’s hem, sails over treetops, and splashes into an icy pond, where she shivers away her fever. Crawling into bed, the girl whispers—You blew out the candles, Mama—like a big bad wolf.
Anne Anthony credits her steady diet of comic books for her ardent belief in superpowers. She lives and writes in North Carolina. More here: linktr.ee/anchalastudio.
