The Tattooed Heart

[short story]

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

I have a scar. It’s big, with dozens of stitches. No one can see it, not even me. It’s a scar that can only be felt. I didn’t want it, you know? But it was given to me anyway.

Where do you have the scar?

It’s hidden, in a recondite place. But I feel it: it’s sharp. Sometimes it spikes me, makes me bleed inside; steels my oxygen. Those who look intently can…