And in general, the residents of the town wondered why they all felt hollow just beneath the throat, the result of missing something they had never been able to name in the first place.

Can you imagine what it would be like to know that your life was just going to be a series of days that were all the same, that were do-overs?

Once upon a time there was a girl who wanted to put her fist through a mirror. She would tell everyone it was so that she could see what was on the other side, but really, it was so that she wouldn't have to look at herself. That, and because she thought she might be able to steal a piece of glass when no one was looking, and use it to carve her heart out of her chest.

Home is not a place, but rather, the people you love

When someone loves you up one side and down the other like that, you make every effort to stick around.

and another claimed it was inherited through a parent who was a carrier of the defective gene. I had always assumed the latter was the case with Claire. After all, surely a child who grew out of grief would be born with a heavy heart.

I know how difficult it can be when the image you've had of something doesn't match its reality; when the friend beside you turns into a monster.