But death is stronger than that and when you cover your eyes you are the one who can't see the dark. The dark still sees you.

Maybe he was real. Maybe I'd made him up. Either way, he didn't think I needed him anymore. Maybe he was right.

We no longer believe in fairy tales. But we will learn to believe in monsters

She began to feel like the plastic doll she had been named after, without even a hole where her mouth was supposed to be.

I'd sit around dreaming that the boys I saw at shows or at work - the boys with silver earrings and big boots - would tell me I was beautiful, take me home and feed me Thai food or omelets and undress me and make love to me all night with the palm trees whispering windsongs about a tortured gleaming city and the moonlight like flame melting our candle bodies.

You turned your head to look at me. Your eyes looked so big in your face, so mysterious — wide and flickering like a butterfly-wing mask. When you saw me the wails turned to sobs, and then just quieter heaves of your body. I held out my finger through the bars. Then you reached out and curled your fingers around mine, so tight. I knew you recognized me. That was the first time I knew I had a heart inside my body.

Pulling heads off Barbies, sticking them on the TV antenna and ruining the reception. But thats how witch babies are.