“A scream hurled up my throat, but I never heard it. I'd slipped into a welcoming darkness.”

“I'd never heard any noise quite so welcome as the click that a shotgun made when it wasn't killing me.”

“Not caring who heard, I let loose a wail I left I'd been saving up my whole life. It traveled through my body, beginning in my lungs and spreading to the tips of my fingers and toes. I screamed until there was nothing left inside that hadn't been stripped raw.”

“I screamed until my voice dried up in my throat. We all did. All of us in Ward Six, all of us forgotten, left to rot.”

“As it turned out, Welcome was where I lost everything, and gained everything. Welcome was the place where my life was guided from one track to another, ending me to places I'd never thought of going.”

“My stomach churned. The monster had mimicked Thalia perfectly. If I'd heard that voice in the dark, calling for help, I would've run straight toward it.”