All the Murmuring Bones

by A.G. Slatter

a sudden wish, a need for affection when he’d never given much himself.

Regarding impending death

Some folk make a point of not visiting pain on others when it’s been done to them; most people, though, think it’s their due to inflict a little of their own agony.

I cannot eat his grief at the moment, not when my own is such a filling meal.

you claim what you can endure from your once-life and burn the rest.