Ravage (Dance With My Demons, #3)

by Steph Macca

There comes a point where we adapt. You become so used to the trauma and pain that it's all you know. When it disappears, you don't know how to cope without it. Your body stays in that survival mode, constantly on edge until you start to go insane.

I may not have known love, but we can still learn it. We don't have to become our trauma. We don't have to become the people who made us. I'll never

I want to believe what my heart is telling me, but my head is at war. Be rational. Be strong. How? How do I be strong? I don't know what's real anymore. I don't know how long I've been down here. It feels like forever.

I'm tired. I've tried to fight. I don't want to give up, but I'm tired. Tired of all the pain. I'm sick of fighting a losing battle. Life is meant to be hard—but not like this.

I love that she sees flaws in people and thinks they are beautiful. I was never enough for my family growing up—I was either too much to handle or, in comparison to my father, not enough. I was forgotten and tossed aside, treated like an insane criminal. But Avery accepts me for who I am, allowing me to be the devil in her dreams and her nightmares.

"You're not weak. It's okay to fall apart if you need it. Just as long as you can put the pieces back together.

Sometimes, the darkness is where we thrive, where we are reborn after finding ourselves. It hides all your flaws, engulfing you. And when you think you can't breathe, you become intoxicated by the freedom it offers.

Something has snapped in her. For the first time in her life, she's no longer solely focusing on the misery—the unstable control over her emotions that she learned to hide. Now, she's angry. But she's never allowed herself to feel that way, scared of standing up for herself. It's dangerous, the potential to implode once she allows herself to give into the rage. That's the hardest part—because once she does give in, it signifies much more than anyone could imagine. It would mean that she has self-worth. That she sees her own potential.

"She's a dark horse. Imagine what will happen when she finally takes hold of that pain and runs with it. Imagine what she can become."

know it. Little Killer – You are my absolute everything. Everyone deserves the chance to love you too. So, if your heart belongs to three people, then that's okay. I'm not going anywhere, no matter what happens.

"The number system is our own personal tally. We group people by the risk we think they are to Lilydale. Group one is the most critical—likely on Arthur's hit list. Group five is the people we are least concerned about—patients like Ashwood. We know they won't be targeted."

Why is it that the night makes it harder to hide our vulnerability? During the day, it's easy to pretend we are okay. There's something about shadows and exhaustion that make it that much harder to fight away the demons.

family. Sometimes the world is unforgiving. It would be nice to believe that karma is a sure thing, but truthfully, bad guys always win. That

"Maintenant tu es à moi aussi,"