Devils' Day Party

by C.M. Stunich

Forever is composed of Nows –Emily Dickinson

“I want to live in a world where I’m free to be as weird as I want without judgment, where other people care more about living their own lives than they do about how I live mine.”

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice … shame on me.

“You know, some part of me wants you to get pregnant.” He flexes his jaw, turning to look back at me with a face as sharp and cunning as a fox's. “Because then I'll be allowed—no, encouraged—to be with you. Otherwise, my dad will never let me have a girl like you.”

Nothing lasts forever. That is the nature of beautiful things.

“Raz and Calix are both in love with you, just thought you should know,”

“Je t'appartiendrai malgré tout. Toujours,” he murmurs as I drift to sleep, wrapped up in Calix's arms and feeling his breath in my hair. Regardless, I’ll still belong to you. Always.

Isn’t it strange, how sometimes we can tell the truth and still be looked at like a liar?

you have to ask for what you need. You have to give yourself a voice, or you can't expect anyone to know what's really going through your mind.

Lying to other people is insane; lying to yourself is suicidal.”

They say magic happens on Devils' Day. They must be right. As I move down the hallway in a daze, that niggling feeling is back, that unwanted, awful feeling that tells me what I need in order to break the time loop. Sacrifice.

“Tu es plus belle que la lune et les étoiles ensemble,” Calix murmurs against my ear, his warm breath making me shiver with pleasure. You're more beautiful than the moon and stars combined.

Goodnight, little devil, I tell myself as I start to drift further from consciousness. And good luck in the next life. Wherever that may be, however it may turn out, at least I know what I'm going to do when I get there. I'm going to live.

Each moment we have here on this earth is worth being thankful for because it's more than we're owed.