Burn the Dark Quotes

“Look, the witches were one thing—she’d been fighting monster-faced hags for a couple of years at this point, gnarled old witches and chubby-cheeked bohemians that could Force-throw furniture like Carrie, fill your car with snakes, and turn themselves into raving gorgons.”
― S.A. Hunt, Burn the Dark

“We are all the sum of our lives, hon… and we all gotta carry a piece of crazy to the end.”
― S.A. Hunt, Malus Domestica

“The last time I did the Downward Dog, I got crabs and a ticket for public indecency.”
― S.A. Hunt, Malus Domestica

“You killed twen-ty witches. Twennnnnty! Ah - ah - ah - ah - ah.”
She smirked at his impression of the Count. “About twenty. Nineteen, maybe? I’ve kicked the shit out of a lot more people than that, though.”
― S.A. Hunt, Burn the Dark

“Clutching his burning body were these impossibly strong arms, thick and hard and veiny, smooth, cold, so like the stony arms of an ogre Wayne expected to hear the battle-chant of Sauron’s army of Uruk-hai all around him, and the clank and clash of iron swords, and battle cries in unintelligible tongues.”
― S.A. Hunt, Burn the Dark

“That’s what you get for dating muggles.”
“Muggles?”
“Civilians. John Q. Public.” He emphasized each term with a toss of his hand. “Maybe you needed to go out with somebody like me. We’re both—”
“Kinda fucked up?”
― S.A. Hunt, Burn the Dark

“Was it like in the movies?” he asked, flipping a burger. Kssssss. “You know, like a montage with a music backing, and you’re beating up a kick-bag and throwing wooden stakes at a dummy?”
“That’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” Robin gave him a dark eye.”
― S.A. Hunt, Burn the Dark

“Steeling her nerve, she crossed herself with the Glock—mammaries, ovaries, wallet, and watch—and pushed the back door open.”
― S.A. Hunt, Burn the Dark

“He settled on a classic rock station—Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night, Heinrich would have liked that—and he looked to her for approval.”
― S.A. Hunt, Burn the Dark

“On a squat wooden pedestal was a flatscreen television that would not have been out of place on the bridge of a Star Trek spaceship.”
― S.A. Hunt, Burn the Dark

“Lot of Black folks, we talk about bein’ invisible, you know—white people, they can look right through you, like you ain’t even there. I judo that shit, right? I make it work for me. I’m like a ninja, I vanish. Ali said float like a butterfly. One minute I’m there, the next, I ain’t. Ain’t nothing but burnt rubber and a little bit of Forever Red in the air.”
― S.A. Hunt, Burn the Dark

“Inside was a pile of photographs, a bottle of perfume, a gold ring with a simple ball-chain through it, the kind of necklace that usually has dog tags on it. Wayne took out the ring and reverently lowered the chain around his neck, letting the wedding band rest on his chest.
“Nice ring, Mr. Frodo.”
Wayne looked up. “It was my mom’s.”
― S.A. Hunt, Burn the Dark

“To get them out of the way, he had already pinned up his posters on the narrow strips of wall between each of the cupola’s windows. One of them was a movie poster for a Friday the 13th movie, with a full-body shot of the hockey-masked Jason Voorhees coming at you with a machete. Another depicted the cast of the TV show The Walking Dead, with the character Rick standing on top of a school bus aiming his giant revolver. Romero’s original black-and-white Night of the Living Dead. The popular zombie game Left 4 Dead 2.”
― S.A. Hunt, Burn the Dark

“A chubby white kid with brush-cut hair was making his way up the driveway, his hands buried in his hoodie’s pockets. He seemed to be about Wayne’s age, if several inches taller. Wayne thought he looked like Pugsley Addams gone mainstream, or maybe the older brother from Home Alone.”
― S.A. Hunt, Burn the Dark

“To get the dining-room table in, they carried the table up onto the front porch, then turned it on end like a giant coin and rolled it through the house. Leon ushered Wayne in ahead of the table, confusing him at first, but when his father started humming the Indiana Jones theme and pretending the table was the boulder from Raiders of the Lost Ark, he couldn’t help but run away from it in slow-motion.”
― S.A. Hunt, Burn the Dark

“I like it,” said Wayne. To the south, he could see the tops of buildings in distant Blackfield, rising over the trees behind the house.
“Then welcome to your new Batcave, Master Wayne.”
“The Batcave is underground.” Leon continued his Atlas impression, hands against the ceiling.
“Work with me, here. I’m old and out of touch.”
“Batman’s older than you are.”
“Keep it up and I’ll make you sleep in the garage anyway!”
― S.A. Hunt, Burn the Dark

“One last place we haven’t checked. There’s a closet out here on the landing you can sleep in, if you can fit.”
“A closet?”
“Yeah, like Harry Potter.” “Harry Potter lived under the stairs.”
― S.A. Hunt, Burn the Dark

“She wore nothing but a pair of gray panties and even inside the van, warmed by her farts and body heat all night, the air was graveyard-clammy, so she knew the late autumn morning outside would require something a little more substantial than usual.”
― S.A. Hunt, Burn the Dark

“One tub held baby-food jars emptied of their contents and refilled with alcohol. Another tub contained handfuls of stacked twigs, another was full of something that might have been ginger root, or perhaps bits of wild mushroom.”
― S.A. Hunt, Burn the Dark

“Across the street from the van was a board fence. Someone had spray-painted incomprehensible graffiti on it—could have been an ambigram for all she knew, legible upside-down as well as right-side-up.”
― S.A. Hunt, Burn the Dark

“That term of endearment brought back old, old memories. Robin’s mind flickered with images of herself as a tiny child, sitting in the Lazenbury’s kitchen, eating Chips Ahoy cookies and drinking apple juice, reading the comics out of the Sunday paper or watching ReBoot, Pirates of Dark Water, or Darkwing Duck on the wood-cabinet Magnavox.”
― S.A. Hunt, Malus Domestica

“Grandmother Marilyn had a dog back then, a miniature Pinscher named Penny, for the coins of copper fur over his eyes. She loved that dog almost as much as Mr. Nosy.”
― S.A. Hunt, Malus Domestica

“Blood for the garden, young David,” she said in that smoky, patronizing blackbird voice of hers. “We always need blood for the garden.”
― S.A. Hunt, Malus Domestica