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Left alone in the dark, this secret festers, until everything around it is infected with its rot and it has become impossible to ignore, forcing us to witness the most depraved sides of humanity.
Some things are so horrible that the only sane response is a bit of madness.
“All spirits have a thirst for blood.”
“You must be careful with that, Roos. It’s a dangerous thing, to try and give someone everything. One day, you might find you’ve given away things you should’ve kept. Some parts of us must remain inviolate if we are to survive as a person.”
and it was wrong of me to say his name in this place of new beginnings. I should have known better. To speak of evil is to invite it in.
The angels hunching over these graves were in poor shape, sour rain having eaten away at them until their features had almost been blotted out, soot leaving dark streaks on their robes and wings.
I felt quite useless and rather lonely. I was used to this, but I resented how easy it was to feel this way again now, when I had expected I need never be alone again.
“Happy. Such a funny little word, don’t you think? Perhaps not so hard a state to achieve, but nearly impossible to maintain, and different for everyone. I’m sure there are people out there who would be perfectly happy to never have to clean, but not me. Doing little has never agreed with me. It gives me too much time to dwell on things.”
“Knowing is cold, I suppose,” she said. “Cold and distant. You know things with your mind. Understanding is different. It’s warm. You understand things with your mind, yes, but also with your heart.”
Ruth scuttled down the wall and took hold of my hand as I brought it to my mouth. Her hand was ice-cold, whereas Agnes’s had been fever hot, but the body is easily tricked, so the sensation felt the same.
His other gifts included a dead butterfly, a piece of quartz, a crow’s feather of inky black, several vertebrae small as pebbles, and a piece of glass
But all this love, all this yearning, it has to mean something.
