The girl by the pond has secrets that she can’t bury underwater.

She walks the chain fence until she finds the grave with one rose planted firmly in the ground. She’d been held captive for years-years-years, years before the pregnancy, the afterthoughts of a baby who might set them free.

Angela Carlton’s fiction has been published in Every Writer, Everyday Fiction, Pedestal Magazine, 6S, 50 Word Stories, Spillwords Press, The Dribble Drabble Review and Friday Flash Fiction. In 2022, “A Jigsaw Life,” a collection of stories was released. In 2023, her story “Swallowed,” was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. See more on Facebook.