False Witness

by Karin Slaughter

She concentrated on the daggers flaying her muscles and nerves. Pain could be its own addiction. Callie had lived with it for so long that when she thought of her life before, she only saw tiny bursts of light, stars barely penetrating the darkness. She knew that there had been a time long ago when all she’d craved was the rush of endorphins that came from running hard or riding her bike too fast

None of that mattered. Callie might have enjoyed the touching, because touching felt good, but children were incapable of making adult choices. They had no comprehension of romantic love. They lacked the maturity to understand the way their bodies reacted to sexual contact. They were physically and emotionally unprepared for intercourse.

“Your relationship with a person doesn’t end when they die. It only gets stronger.”