He kissed back, all the pages spread out around us like riddles waiting to be solved. Let them wait. Let my genes unravel, my hinges come loose. If my fate rests in the hands of a madman, let death come and bring its worse. I'll take the ruined craters of laboratories, the dead trees, this city with ashes in the oxygen, if it means freedom. I'd sooner die here than live a hundred years with wires in my veins.
Lauren DeStefanoIt's best to let her go," he says. No, no, that's wrong. It's never right to give up on someone.
Lauren DeStefanoHer mind is a bird that's trapped inside her skull, flapping and thrashing, never breaking free.
Lauren DeStefanoSuddenly the clouds seem high above us. Theyโre moving over us in an arch, circling the planet. They have seen abysmal oceans and charred, scorched islands. They have seen how we destroyed the world. If I could see everything, as the clouds do, would I swirl around this remaining continent, still so full of color and life and seasons, wanting to protect it? Or would I just laugh at the futility of it all, and meander onward, down the earthโs sloping atmosphere?
Lauren DeStefano