Written by Thanisha Chowdhury
Art by Donovan Reeves
- Leave before the sun sees you and take nothing. You will not be returning.
- Follow the moss, and when there is none left, the dark. It won’t hurt you, but if you linger, you will be swallowed whole.
- Remember: the calls you hear in your mother’s voice are never your mother.
- When you see lights, turn the opposite way. They will be waiting for you where the grass breathes the most dew, where dark and moist breaths vibrate into laughs.
- Don’t fear the talons, claws, fangs, and yellow eyes. Once, they were you. Once, they slept in their own ribs, coaxed melodies out of themselves by burning their bones.
- Nowhere to go, nowhere to live, a whole world to die in.
- There is a difference between mythical and mystical, and you are crackling with magic, head to toe.
- Become a witch, goblin, demon, wretch—become something horrible. Become something with talons and fur. Shed your old skin. Cut your hair. Unfold your tongue from behind your teeth.
- There is no one here to strip you of yourself but you.