Dia Reeves

“The red color infesting Wyatt's lure spread like licks of flame until the entire stretch of rattling glass was full of bloody-colored pinwheels throbbing like sick, misshapen hearts.”

“Even if you were Hannibal Lecter himself, around here you're nothing special.”

“Wanting to connect doesn't make you needy--it makes you human.”

“When Fancy still didn't answer, he took her hand, and with his red paintbrush, he wrote 'please' into her palm.”

“She decided not to look him in the eyes ever again. It was too much like being shoved over the edge of a ravine.”

“Wanna see the rest of my happy place?”

“I’d give just about anything if I could make you care,” he said. “Especially about me.”

“I do know you, Fancy. All about you. The problem is, you don’t know about me.”

“If you were left alone, you'd hate it. Loneliness gets old in a hurry”

“When you had no one to vent to, everything stayed inside and festered like old meat in a hot fridge.”

“Trust. Affection. Respect." I shoved her tainted after-school snack across the table. "It must be hard to think of qualities you don't possess.”

“I had the craziest idea that if I looked closely enough, maybe tilted his head toward the light, I'd be able to see into his brain.”

“Emotional abuse is just as bad as physical abuse. Worse! You can heal broken bones; you can't heal a broken mind.”

“1821," I told him, noting mailboxes of castles and pirate ships and the street numbers painted on them. I had to fis hmy penlight from my pack to see the numbers; streetlights were scarce, and the sky bulged with low, sooty clouds instead of helpful moonlight.”

“Paulie looked thoughtful. 'Well don't use Elmer's glue,' he warned. 'it sure didn't work on the Blackberry.”

“They can't even decide what flavor of crazy I am.”

“I'd rather be miserable and free than happy and caged.”

“The rain echoed in the shadowy attic space and made me feel small and fragile, like a lace glove left behind on moving day - mateless and abandoned.”

“But what if the monsters come?""Fancy." Kit looked away from the drama to stare at her sister, surprised. "We are the monsters.”

“He looked as shocked as if I'd asked him to masturbate in front of me.”

“What the eyes don't see, the heart can't feel.”

“It's easier to be careful in dresses. You have to be or you end up flashing your underclothes or destroying beautiful fabric. Dresses force you to be on guard.”

“The rain hung from his earlobes like delicate jewelry.”

“I kissed him, and even though it hurt my mouth, I didn't mind; Wyatt's kisses were worth suffering over.”

“You ain't scared I'll kill you?You already did. At the dark park. The suspense is gone.”

“Holding on to a four-year-old boy wasn't weird, as it should have been. It was comforting. Like holding an incredibly sticky teddy bear.”

“I don't even register on the freakometer.”

“You need air. You need food. You don't need some beastly boy.”

“I figured she wanted to get into it with me, some he's-my-man-so-step-off song and dance. If so, she would have to dance solo.I don't do drama.”

“She was like the moon—part of her was always hidden away.”

“She tucked a five-dollar bill into my dress strap—like I was a stripper!”

“If I can't, then I'll paint the walls of her house red with my blood.”

“I caught her red-handed with her hands down his pants.""You did not," Fancy told Madda sternly, with as much dignity as she was able. "It was just one hand.”

“If I had the power to resurrect, I'd use it on you." Now he was the one whispering. "There's an important part of you that's dead: the part that cares.”

“You're like rottweilers - they protect you from burglars, but nothing protects you from them.”

“Fancy clipped a scrap of newsprint to her canvas and wrote, I don't have friends.Ilan's hand covered hers briefly as he plucked the charcoal from her hand and wrote beneath her words, you have me.”

“No, thanks. If I start wearing heels, boys will whistle at me when I walk by.”

“Humans are predators, not prey. Always remember that.”

“The worst thing you can do is rest all your hopes on a wish. A granted wish doesn't equal a perfect life.”

“You're like a doll I had when I was a kid. She was all stiched together and her head kept falling off, but I loved that doll. That's what you look like. Like somebody just loved you to death.”

“Real monsters eat you from the inside out.”

“Poison ivy and deer crap and rocks. Oh, my!”

“Trying to understand Daddy is like trying to nail jelly to a tree.”

“People?" As though she'd never heard of such a thing. "They're like dolls. Plastic and shiny and fake.”

“I'm the Bonesaw Killer's daughter," she whispered, almost to herself. "Why would you ever think I was good?”

“Standing in fron of the doors of a cCatholic church when service is over is a good way to die young.”

“Mother is the name for God on the lips and hearts of children.”

“Love is a trap. Don't ever get caught.”

“But what was the point of love if it didn't keep people from leaving you?”

“How did you get out of the suicide door?" Her disbelief was a living, pettable thing."Magic."Her eyes narrowed. "There is no magic.""Maybe not for you. But I'm from out of town.”