Katabasis

by R.F. Kuang

“I feel sometimes it is so difficult to be conscious.”

Sex was not a noble desire, it was such an embarrassing capitulation.

At least her only victim was herself.

You will always have to perform twice as well for half the acclaim. You have no room for mistakes.”

“I think being in love might be the hardest thing to imagine.”

It always went like this—it didn’t matter what she intended, it all went to shit anyway because she was so stupid, worthless, she could not stop falling apart, she could not hold the thoughts inside, she made all the wrong choices and it hurt everyone around her.

wrath was not merely external; was not just a screaming raving tornado of destruction. Sometimes you swallowed it down like a hot coal. Sometimes it only ever burned you, slowly, from the inside out, until you choked.

Even if she was upset, her mind and body were too numb to register much; it took energy to grieve and she had none anymore.

A heart didn’t just break, a heart yanked out the rest of you.

You thought people were giants, and they devastated you by being so human.