Comfortable Madness First PDF 4-13-18

Shit Follows
Voices told me to run. If I went somewhere where no one
knew me, maybe the voices would fade, and I’d be normal. If only
for a day.
“I want to go away,” I said.
“Go away?”
“You know,” I said. “Somewhere new.”
Tayla sighed and steered around a silver CRV. A couple of
older women sat in the front talking. They looked good together,
like they had a history. I wondered if they were a couple. I wanted
to know everything about them, but they fell away and Tayla turned
toward home.
“Nothing’s going to change,” she said.
I nodded.
“Shit follows,” she said.
I knew it. I knew she hated me. I knew she was going to
leave. I popped the door open.
Asphalt sped by. Cars honked. Tayla swerved.
“Jesus!” she shouted.
She got to the curb, her fingers white on the wheel.
“What the fuck?” she screamed.
Jamming the car into park, she grabbed my arm, tight, too
tight. I pulled.
“Stop!” I yelled.
“Butter, goddammit.”
We wrestled for a moment, pulling and pushing. I had to
get out. I had to get away. A wild, fiery fear filled me. I fought with
the seatbelt latch. Tayla slapped at me, cussing and blocking my
fists as I tried to punch her. She was going to kill me. She was
going to hide the body in the woods and no one would ever see me
again.