Being liberated means reading what you want to read, and fantasizing about what you want to fantasize about.

But the sky was never quite the same shade of blue again.

Life is a tragedy, one way or another. What is certain is that you die.

From my stone pillow I have dreamed dreams of the mortal world above. I have heard its voices, its new music, as lullabies as I lie in my grave. I have envisioned its fantastical discoveries. I have known its courage in the timeless sanctum of my thoughts. And though it shuts me out with its dazzling forms, I long for one with the strength to roam it fearlessly, to ride the Devil's Road through its heart.

That was my nature - going from temptation after temptation, not to sin, but to be redeemed.

How shameful. How predictable! How insipid. And how sweet.

I stumble through a carnival of horrors