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Grief was my constant companion, its echoing halls my home. The place where love once dwelled, before Death was cruel enough to steal it from me.
“Forever is a long time, Astoria. That’s why I’ve come. I only wished to make sure you were okay.”
One could only spit venom so long until their hearts decayed to match their thoughts.
It wasn’t death I feared. At certain points in my life, I’d even welcomed the idea, arms wide, heart open.
“If you had a heart, I’d drive a knife through it.” I tilted my head. “If I had a heart, I’d offer you my own blade.”
“I’d rather taste your mouth than let that question decay between us again. At least it would shut you up.”
Grim was gentle, but sometimes even kindness, when you were already bleeding, could cut the deepest.
Wisdom isn’t grown—it’s sewn over time. Through grief, laughter, heartache… even love.”
Humans fought over the meaning of life, waged wars under the guise of justice, and clung to religions that promised both beginnings and endings. We justified cruelty for the sake of an afterlife no one could prove, terrified of death’s finality.
Everything we did—our wars, our beliefs, our search for redemption—was driven by our fear of the end.
“Not just a star. The star. The one thing bright enough to make even Death look up.”
“You didn’t survive all this time to perform worthiness. And you don’t owe the world a legacy just to justify your existence.”
"I don't want your firsts," he said, the words agonized. "I want your lasts. Your last kiss, your last laugh, your last life… your last breath.”
"Your darkness has always felt like my light,"
I had once thought we were oil and water—two forces forever opposed. Now I knew we were something else entirely. We were fire and tide. Destruction and renewal. Under the right conditions, we could either extinguish or exalt each other.
“I have now known love, and even a single fleeting second of it with her is worth more than a million lifetimes lived without.”
Sometimes, to banish the dark, all we really need is to give it a name and tell it to flee.”
Death was absolute, but she knew better than most that life is measured not by time, but by love.
