Each step is more difficult than the last; the heaviness fills me and turns my limbs to stone. You must hurt or be hurt.

It's as though the words are trapped, buried under past fears, past lives, like fossils compressed under layers of dirt.

The reason you can never go home again isn't necessarily that places change, but people do. So nothing ever looks the same.

That is what Alex is now: a shadow-boy

She liked that word: we. It sounded warm and open, like a hug.

That's my favorite thing about him. I like to lie next to him when it's late, dark, and so quiet I can hear my own heartbeat. It's times like that when I'm sure that I'm in love.

Fear. Blame. Don't forget. Mom. I love you. -Lauren Oliver, Delerium