DAFFODIL’S LOST VIGIL

She sat on the couch, cigarette between her index and middle fingers, her long, bare legs crossed, and wrote. Smoke filled her lungs, then the living room as she exhaled.

PARTICLES OF BLOOD: Traces of Darkness

She came to on the bathroom’s hard floor. Deep bone pain seared her cheekbone as she lifted her head to wipe the drool from the side of her face; a small, clear pool marked her desperate state on the floor.

PARTICLES OF BLOOD: Down Deep into the Deep, Black Hole

“Can you describe the man you saw?” Officer Rayne said, jolting Hetty from her friend’s lifeless eyes.

PARTICLES OF BLOOD: The Underground

Hetty’s mind slipped to the few hours priors. She could feel the bright winter sun on her skin, a reminder of the past days of warmth when autumn had reigned and bestowed its easy days and cool nights.

PARTICLES OF BLOOD

Hetty stared at her hands splayed on her lap, covered in blood. She studied the blood’s different life stages—wet, sticky, dry, flaky—and blew warm breath onto her raised hand. Minute particles of blood floated into the air.