There's a hazy smile on her lips that won't go away, and her hair is a mess. It's like a brushfire filled with casualties.

There's nothing here to say good-bye to. There's no dancing girl. No mischievous smile. She's gone, off with her sisters, broken free, escaped. And if she were here now, she would say, "Go.

It's the silence I imagine in the rest of the world, the silence of an endless ocean and uninhabitable island, a silence that can be seen from space.

Write words you’re willing to burn at the stake for. Write words you’d believe in even if the rest of the world didn’t.

A strange thing, words. Once they're said, it's hard to imagine they're untrue.

Bet you never eat, he says. Bet you drink up the oxygen like it's butter. Bet you can go for days on nothing but thoughts.

A party in the orange grove. The pain on Linden's face is immediate. I am unwavering. He has cost me more pain than I will ever be able to repay.