“Every spot his mouth touches closes the empty spaces inside.”

“My mind is quiet now. There is no fire or ash, no sulfur or shattering glass. Only silence, empty and cold.”

“The questions push me further into the space in between, the place where my madness lays waiting for me. I struggle with each question, determined to extract some sort of answer, an explanation for everything that has happened so far. But no answers come and I’m forced to acknowledge the feeling lodged between my two worldsTerror.”

“My hands are still bleeding, too bloody. Every stain once gone has returned, like a permanent mark of the sins I've committed.”

“Forever. He carved the word into his soul. Kiera was his forever, deformity or no deformity.”

“She slips into the seat at our table, refusing to look up at me. I reach for her hand, sending a shiver through me when our finger tips touch. She glances at me, her eyes filled with a feral fear that reaches into my depths, pulling on emotions I refuse to acknowledge. Things I can’t feel now. Won’t feel ever again.”

“I’d accepted my judgment without question. Agreed to live a mortal life. I didn’t know my memories would come with me; didn’t know I’d relive them every day.Death would have been more merciful.”