“If the careers want me, let them find me.”

“I just don't want them to change me, if I'm going to die I still want to be me.”

“Do you want me to have them sedate you until it's over?”

“I wish I could think of a way to show them that they don't own me. If I'm going to die, I still want to be me.”

“Let them go, I tell myself. Say good-bye and forget them. I do my best, thinking of them one by one, releasing them like birds from the protective cages inside me, locking the doors against their return.”

“Okay, listen to me, you're stronger than they are. You are. They just want a good show, that's all they want. You know how to hunt. Show them how good you are.”

“The ones I loved fly as birds in the open sky above me. Soaring, weaving, calling to me to join them. I want so badly to follow them, but the seawater saturates my wings, making it impossible to lift them. The ones I hated have taken to the water, horrible scaled things that tear my salty flesh with needle teeth. Biting again and again. Dragging me beneath the surface.”