XVII | Something To Hide

❦

Tammie peels open
that soggy
piece of paper.

There'll be

new writing
on it.

A warning

from the nurses.

In messy pencil marks,
a hanged man swings

with a cheshire cat's smile

and a speech bubble floating over his head:
HA HA HA.

The blanks
are filled with my handwriting:
S U B S T I T U T E.

Exactly
how

we left it before.

'How strange...'

Tammie's grey eyes
meet mine with a question.

What will you do now?

I shrug.

'Sleep.
'There's nothing else to do.'

We can steal
another plastic knife.

Tammie follows me
to my bedroom

even though I tell her

I really want to sleep.

She sits at

one end of the bed
and wraps my blanket

around her.

[Read the full story at novelconbini.com!]