HELLO, MARIA SANCHEZ

My hands shake as I pretend to hold a microphone.

“Hello,” I begin, forcing a smile.

My stuffed animals are my audience.

“I’m Maria Sanchez, and I’m-”

“Hello, Maria Sanchez,” they say in unison.

My eyes stay glued to the paper.

“Today, I’d like to talk about-”

“Were you going to throw us away?”

The voices are deeper than Daddy’s.

I look up.

Their smiles are all wrong.

“You forgot about us, didn’t you?”

They’re crying blood.

Bright colors fade into rotting mold.

I’m pinned to the ground, screaming into their paws.

“We’re going to have so much fun together.”