Light for the Damned

        “Will you be good?”

         She nodded, whimpering.

         He squinted his eyes, unconvinced.  “Will…you…be…good?”

         “Yes,yes!”

         He nodded.  “Alright then.  Go.”

        She dashed toward the window, scraping her shoulder on the teeth of the rake, but she didn’t notice.  Instead, she hurried to the frame,  and pushed her face against the glass. The brightness on the other side made her eyes water, but she soaked it in.

         Oh, the light, she thought, the wonderful light—

         “It’s time.”

         “What?!  Oh, god, please, not yet, not again—“

         He yanked her by the hair, and dragged her screaming back into the darkness.