I’ve never really had a party before.” “Why did you have one now?” I say, just to keep him talking. He gives a half laugh. “I thought if I had a party, you would come.

The hours here are flat and round, disks of gray layered one on top of the other...they move slowly, at a grind, until it seems as though they are not moving at all. They are just pressing down.

Amazing how hope lives. Without air or water, with hardly anything at all to nurture it.

That's the easy thing about falling: there is only one choice after that.

I screamed until my voice dried up in my throat. We all did. All of us in Ward Six, all of us forgotten, left to rot.

Are you sure you can't dematerialize? Not even a little?" "I'm sure.

Now I'd rather be infected with love for the tiniest sliver of a second than live a hundred years smothered by a lie.