Annabelle

by Kyle Tran Myhre

When the haunted house catches fire: a moment of indecision.

The house was, after all, built on bones, and blood, and bad intentions.

Everyone who enters the house feels that overwhelming dread, the evil that perhaps only fire can purge.

It’s tempting to just let it burn.

We were together. I forget the rest.

You are in danger too. We need a plan before we go.

Sylvia Plath // Holly Warburton // Working for the Knife, Mitski // Are You Satisfied?, MARINA // House of Hummingbird, directed by Kim Bora (2018) // Lady Bird, directed by Greta Gerwig (2017) // Tender Offerings, First Aid Kit // Play it Again, Sam directed by Woody Allen (1972) // Ruins, First Aid Kit // Ikiru, directed by Akira Kurosawa (1952) // Nightlife no. 1, Sangram Majumdar // Sorry to Myself, Alanis Morissette // Sabrina, directed by Billy Wilder (1954) // The Book of Disquiet, Fernando Pessoa (1982) // Rashomon, directed by Akira Kurosawa (1950) // It's Not, Aimee Mann // Les Animaux de Distance, Paz Boira

how do you say goodbye, you know? it’s not an unfriend and block kind of situation. but you watch the people you once loved go on and have a life and you’re outside of it. and it’s bittersweet because of course it’s okay that you’re both thriving. but she used to be who you’d call if you needed to cry. she used to be who’d you’d be binge watching the new series with. you used to be hers, in a way, even if that way wasn’t permanent. and now she’s someone else and so are you and your friendship is clicking heart shapes next to pictures where she smiles next to people you’ve never met. you know where her birthmark is. she knows where you’ve buried your dead.