She curls into a ball
She wraps her arms
Around her legs
Brought up to her chest
For a minute
Her eyes are shut
Squeezed,
Tight as can be
But then
She opens
Her eyes and mouth
Screams
Shrill
Loud
Louder
Louderlouderlouder
Sadly
It's never loud enough
To shove out the silences
To scare away the ghosts
The ghosts-
Past
Present
Future
It's like
Charles Dickens'
A Christmas Carol
But twisted
Because
She's done nothing wrong
She worked hard in school
She had friends
She fancied who they told her to
She fought for the good
She didn't collapse
But once the pressure's gone
How can you not fall?
There was nothing to hold her
To keep her upright
Safe
Her wonderful haven
Was dead
Gone
With the rest of them
So she hid
A safe place
In the country
He'd never been there
She'd never been there
None of them had ever been there
And so it was safe
Free
Unhaunted
Right?
Wrong.
They followed her
Traced her footsteps
Laughed at her inner turmoil
They talked
Shouted, even
To make her hear
Because they thought she was deaf
She was deaf to reality
But not to them
So she shut them out
Afraid of what they would bring.