Crypt of the Moon Spider (Lunar Gothic Trilogy, #1)

by Nathan Ballingrud

She breathed for a moment, trying to collect herself. But it was like attempting to gather pollen in the gusting wind: she scattered like a million bright vessels.

Idly, he considered the strength it would take to incapacitate Dr. Cull long enough to smash the hide of the satellite and pry himself out—the mewling, compromised version of himself, the part that needed love and had love yet to give; the rotten part of the meat—and grind it beneath his heel. He wondered if he would hear himself scream.

“How could I ever become a burden to them? That doesn’t make any sense.” “When what you need outweighs what you offer. Make no mistake, child. Your life does not belong to you.”

“God help you, if what you say is true.” Veronica turned. “Why, Mama?” “Because if you’re going to take your life for your own you’ll have to give up everything else. Do you understand me? It will cost you so much it breaks my heart to even think about it.”

“Tell me a story about the moon,” she said. She watched it sail through the rushing clouds, lighting them up from the inside like huge gray lanterns. And it seemed to her that it watched her right back, as though it had been waiting all this time for her to come outside and say hello. As though it knew her so well it might call her by her name.

Instead she felt a swelling of joy on behalf of all the imprisoned melancholy, all of whom would live, all of whom would become hosts to great populations. Soon these cold and ghostly forests would throng with life once again, and the moon would open its glaring eye.