She clutched the train ticket tighter and waited for the sense of escape to come over her as it had a dozen times before, that heady sensation of having just scooted through the clanging gate, of eluding the thrown net. It didn't come. She was running again, but she wasn't escaping. She'd been chased to ground a long, long time ago.

Charm is getting people to say "yes" without ever having to ask them a question.

The lower your decolletage, the less the need for conversation.

And enigmatic smile is worth ten pages of dialog.

You can figure out what the villain fears by his choice of weapons.

Pain is the only reward for clinging to impossible dreams." (Harry Braxton)

She'd stood by that creed. No softness, because the world wasn't soft; lots of laughter, because if you were in on the joke, the joke couldn't be on you; And no wanting what you couldn't take, because the world never gave. Or so she'd thought.