Let me know if you're going to do something stupid, kid, 'cause I'll ditch you like that.

There always has to be someone to take the punches. That's how it works. It isn't fair, it isn't right, but that kid licking slop off the floor over there means that we get to eat in peace.

One last breath. We all have to take one eventually. It was over.

But nobody can run from their own demons.

It's incredible how much stamina you can find when you're fighting and enemy in battle, even if that enemy is just in your imagination.

Let me know if you're going to do something stupid, kid, 'cause I'll ditch you like that.

Something in my gut twisted so hard that it felt like I was being tickled by an invisible hand, and it took me a moment to realize what it was. Hope. It had been so long since I'd felt it that the sensation was like something living inside me, something wonderful waiting to break free, just like I was.