“Be still, child.”
It’s not a request, it’s a prayer. Her voice is a whisper-rush of exhale to the baby in her arms, held tight against her chest, knees pinched to fit into that cramped space between the walls.
“Don’t let him hear,” she says again, praying out loud.
The footsteps from the room beyond sound like thunder. They shake the wood. The footsteps get closer. The thunder is rolling. Gestapo storm front. She squeezes the baby tighter and tighter. Silencing. She can hear her struggling to breathe. She can feel it.
Kate E. Lore is the pen name of Kate Isaacs. Graduated with a bachelor’s degree from The Ohio State University. Kate was born in Dayton, Ohio, but currently lives in Columbus, Ohio. Kate has self-published comics, been featured in anthologies, written articles for magazines, and had multiple publications in literary magazines for both fiction and nonfiction. A jack-of-all-trades, Kate splits her time up between fiction and nonfiction, a graphic memoir and a written one, screenplays, flash prose, full-length novels, painting and comics. Not to mention her dating blog. For more information see: kateelore.com, facebook.com/writerlore, twitter.com/KateeLore, Patreon.
The Centifictionist 
You must be logged in to post a comment.