But first, my friends, I need you to do something for me. We have two spies in the back of the auditorium.

I'm gonnna break your faces!

She smiled for the first time, and he almost had to look away, as if something that nice didn’t belong in such a glum and gray place, as if he had no right to look at her expression.

Just follow me and run like your life depends on it. Because it does.

Your demons are always with you, Skale answered. His voice seemed even raspier than the day before. Don't you understand that by now? Always with you, impossible to escape. But you never can guess how they might manifest themselves.

I watched as that kid died. In his last few seconds there was pure terror in his eyes. You can't do that. You can't do that to a person. I don't care what anybody tells me, I don't care how many people go crazy and die, I don't care if the whole shuck human race ends. Even if that was the only thing that had to happen to find the cure, I'd still be against it.

In my early writing, all of my characters were exactly the same person. They all spoke the same, made the same types of jokes, reacted the same, etc. I think they were all just me in disguise.