by Alexa Hailey

He thundered into town on the heels of a storm.

That night the rain fell heavy, pounding the pavement outside the bar.

The wind screamed a warning, but inside the yellow light was warm, and I couldn’t hear it.

My love for him struck fast as lightning. He had me in the bathroom, and I thought I’d finally found shelter.

He left me with a piece of himself in my belly, blown in like unwanted leaves through the front door.

On stormy nights she comes to me and asks about him.

I tell her what we had was over before the storm.

Alexa Hailey is a freelance and fiction writer from Massachusetts. Her fiction has been published in Flash Fiction Magazine, Vamp Cat Mag, and Detritus. She tweets at @lexabobexa.