Birds and Stones

Seven

War hands her stones the next day.

Are they for the birds she questions Her. War closes her eyes and nods. Her face is tilted upwards and She looks like a dream.

She knows it is futile but she throws her stones. Her arms ache and she alternates between them. Her heart also aches but she finds nothing to alternate it with. Nothing wants to share that pain, they all stopped caring for the teamwork preached at school.

War I can not go on she tells Her. She is wary.

War bends down and her heart lurches. War picks up a stone and throws it into the air. It punctures the sky like a crow.

Then it is hellish. Malignant noises come out of the birds, a curtain of screeching, sounds that are angry, so so angry. The sky darkens on top of her.

The birds lament. The birds cry and shudder. She is collapsing in on herself, she is crouched down on the ground with her head in her hands and she is shaking worse than a leaf amidst a storm.

The birds continue, the birds go on. You wanted pigeon stew the bird-song mocks her in a question, You wanted pigeon stew.

She feels she is dying. She thinks she hears a piercing noise that distances everything, she thinks her limbs are on fire and that she deserves it, all of it.

She yells I am sorry until her throat is raw. She yells it when her voice is gone. She screams even when her dad and what is left of her brothers call her crazy. She screams and screams and screams even when her voice doesn't carry.

Knifes rip through the tendons in her throat but she has to let everyone know that I am sorry. I am sorry.