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“I can barely handle a butter knife at dinnertime”

“Just aiive advice on this, because I’d done it It was all instinct All survival All vengeance

“He’s so big… The guy is like six four”

I didn’t stand a chance either Forneus wasn’t lanky and strange like the Malevolent I’d killed And killing thatAain

“He doesn’t believe I’el…wants me to prove myself”

Shit

“I was so high that I didn’t really understand what he was doing at the tioes through his angels pretty quickly…”

Then we had to get out of there as soon as possible

Her arms crossed over her chest, shadows on her face, her eyes down “I don’t think I can do this” Tears started to build “When life gets hard, you take a break You walk away froet a babysitter if you need to be alone for a while, s those pills to raine stop But this…there are no breaks There’s no pause button I wake up everycabin and walk out the door to see a sea of s, the cuts, they’re terrible But the mental torture…I think that’s the worst part”

It was easy to get swept up in her words, because truer words had never been spoken The exact thoughts had passed through my head before, but I wouldn’t allow myself to say them aloud, to burden someone else with the realization in case they hadn’t already come to the same conclusion

“I’raveyard…like all the others”

12

Constance

With Claire’s hand held in mine, alked up the hill to our church

“Just keep your eyes down”

Claire looked at the ground, ignoring the Malevolent as they stared from their positions around the settlement The world was so quiet that I could hear the hu would thicken over the next few days, so it aness around us I’d never experienced anything like it, not even the quietest nights in Paris

It was the sound of true silence

“Why…why do they stare at us?”

“Because they’re freaks”

“Are they…animals?”

“No They’re a bunch of losers ear costu to be scared of Just a bunch of freaks” I wanted her to understand what they really were, so she’d be less scared