“I’d had more than my fair share of near-death experiences; it wasn’t somethingyou ever really got used to.It seemed oddly inevitable, though, facing death again. Like I really was markedfor disaster. I’d escaped time and time again, but it kept coming back for me.Still, this time was so different from the others.You could run from someone you feared, you could try to fight someone youhated. All my reactions were geared toward those kinds of killers—the monsters,the enemies.When you loved the one who was killing you, it left you no options. How couldyou run, how could you fight, when doing so would hurt that beloved one? If yourlife was all you had to give your beloved, how could you not give it?If it was someone you truly loved?”