Juniper Unraveling (Juniper Unraveling #1)

by Keri Lake

I mean, one minute, you’re shoe bait, the next, you’re the only thing left with legs.

I guess some evil group of scientists somehow fused it with a virus, which made the disease easy to spread from one person to another, like the flu. And voila. A worldwide shit-storm that annihilated over half of the population.

Where survival is concerned, tears have no place. Stay focused, and stay alive.

Es mejor la muerte. Death is better.

“Indifference to death isn’t going to help you here. Learn to be indifferent to pain, and you’ll become invincible. Defiant.”

But there is no monster more terrifying than the human being who lacks compassion.

“Safety is an illusion, remember?” “Yes, you’re right. But survival is reality.”

I’ve also come to realize that pain doesn’t strike at once, as one might think. It’s organic. From the moment you fall in love with someone, your pain begins. You just don’t feel it yet, but it’s there. The silence beneath your laughter. The shadows behind an embrace. Tranquility before the storm.

Pain has no concept of time, and when it arrives, you’re never ready for it. But it’s always been there, hiding behind a mask of denial, deceiving you into thinking there’s such a thing as eternal happiness.

Falling in love means you have to be brave enough to accept the pain when it comes to stake its claim.

Because I’m sick. And so is he. We’re the perfect, twisted match, destined for pain like a sad tragedy. The moth who fell in love with the flame. He’s the reaper, and I’m his disciple.

I close my eyes, allowing the gathered tears to fall against the cotton pillow, as the truth surfaces over the chaos inside my head. I’ve fallen in love with a monster. And, perhaps, so has he.

there isn’t a vaccine in creation that can cure hatred and indifference to human suffering. They are the most virulent diseases in existence.

When the world is at its darkest, somehow love still carries the light. Love is strength and weakness. A crutch and a sword. It can leave a person hollow and heal their wounds. It’s a friend to the stars, with pain as its shadow. A dichotomy whose time is uncertain. But above all things, love is necessary.

We don’t see the real world. We only see our world.