adjust and notices again that the rain is the only sound now. The screams have stopped altogether, which is a concern of sorts, and as he listens harder but all he can hear are the rain drops tapping onto his hood. It’s a gentle tap, as if asking permission to enter, and he pulls the hood down to let them in. They onto his head and it’s soothing to him.

She used to rub my head. We’d sometimes read before going to sleep or just lie around sometimes. It was the only thing that relaxed me back then.

When I felt pressure building in my mind. A frustration. Like a tight cramp or an itch in my brain that I couldn’t scratch. Two minutes of her hands on my scalp, two second even, her delicate fingers running through my hair, it was