The Devil in Silver

by Victor LaValle

the moon looked as hazy as the heart of an ice cube.

Remarkable, but a little ruined.

So much harder to do difficult things alone. That’s why so few people try.

This wasn’t about an infraction, but dictating a philosophy of life: certain types of people must be overseen.

The reading became a muscle relaxant, a sedative, a salve, and there was nothing wrong with that.

To sleep, to be less self-destructive, to communicate clearly with the world. Those all sounded like reasonable dreams to Pepper.

The outsized power of fear and the way it reshapes reality.

Sometimes hope just fades out.

Hard times make people scared. And scared people see monsters everywhere.”

A trick for making others invisible. That made a simple kind of sense to him.

“So how much of the world are you all scared of?”

But it takes a lot of courage to live for someone, too.”

But it wasn’t a monster that was killing them. It was the mine.”