“It brewed in her as she eyed the pages full to the brims of their bellies with paragraphs and words.You bastards, she thought.You lovely bastards.Don’t make me happy. Please, don’t fill me up and let me think that something good can come of any of this.”

“Those images were the world, and it stewed in her as she sat with the lovely books and their manicured titles. It brewed in her as she eyed the pages full to the brims of their bellies with paragraphs and words. You bastards, she thought. You lovely bastards. Don't make me happy. Please, don't fill me up and let me think something good can come from any of this. Look at my bruises. Look at this graze. Do you see the graze inside me? Do you see it before your very eyes, eroding me? I don't want to hope for anything anymore.”

“Don't make me happy. Please, don't fill me up and let me think that something good can come of any of this. Look at my bruises. Look at this graze. Do you see this graze inside me? Do you see it before your very eyes, eroding me? I don't want to hope for anything more.”

“I wasn't a complete bastard. If she liked to think she saw good in me, if she wanted to take credit for it, I'd let her. She deserved that much.”

“Without moving her head, she turned her dark eyes toward me and answered, “Jenna, you are different from all the others who seek me. You come to me with an unselfish heart.” She paused and turned her head to match her eyes. “You seek to save someone and give up your own happiness in return.”Save someone and give up my own happiness in return,I repeated again in my head, trying to understand what she meant.“Ah, Jenna,” she continued. “Don’t let your mind worry you. Not everyone has happy endings.”

“She looked at me with those empty eyes, and I thought, I'm going to make sure I fill them up with something.”