“It was easier to break promises when they weren't voiced.”

“You are now in league with the devil, my lady. May you rest easier at night than I”

“If I go to hell for this—”“I’ll be there as well. I’ll dance with you,” he promised.”

“He heard a soft voice calling him and turned towards it, trying to focus the vision before him. It wasn't his mother. If he weren't so tired, he would have smiled. He hadn't expected to find an angel in Hell. The angel, her image blurred, a whiteness surrounding her, would understand. The angel would know. "Why couldn't she love me?" he asked. The angel's answer was garbled. He strained to understand the words, not all his senses failed him as he slipped back into the abyss on the edge of Hell. And the angel knelt down beside the bed and wept.”

“It hurts to cry," she said, her voice raspy."It hurts worse not to.""Did you cry?""For four days straight.""Is that how long it took you to bury them?""Yes, ma'am," he said in a voice that sounded like stone grating against stone.”

“I think yourmother loves Leo.”“I don’t know if she loves him enough.”“What would be enough?”“To give up on the promise of love from another.”

“I have come to discover men are such prideful creatures.""And we're not?""Of course we are. But we are more capable of bending. Men tend to break.”