Flashback

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Hannah stands in a small, sunlit room staring at herself in the mirror. She tries to count the scars on each of her arms but can’t keep track. She is thirty years old today, but no one calls or texts. There is no “Happy Birthday” or card to joke about getting old. Just a woman standing naked in a mirror, staring at scars from all the times she’s dragged a sharp enough object along her skin.


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Hannah stands in her bedroom, surrounded by pink walls and posters of boy bands. She stares at herself in the mirror, she tries to count the scars on each of her arms, but she can’t keep track. She is sixteen today, but no one calls or texts. Her parents are gone again, another ‘business trip’ to god knows where.

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Hannah stands on a step stool in the bathroom, she tries to count the freckles on her face, but she can’t keep track. She is seven today. She is wearing her favorite pink dress, and her mom is taking her on a shopping trip to the mall with her friends. She calls herself beautiful.

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