i feel like a curtain has dropped away and i'm seeing people for who they really are, different, and sharp, and unknowable.

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

They've lied about everything.-about the fence, and the existence of Invalids, about a million other things besides. They told us the raids were carried out for our own protection. They told us the regulators were only interested in keeping the peace. They told us love was a disease. They told us it would kill us in the end. For the very first time I realize, that this, too, maight also be a lie.

I didn’t know it would be like this,” he says in a whisper. And then: “I’m scared.

Everywhere he touches is fire. My whole body is burning up, the two of us becoming twin points of the same bright white flame.

it's weird how much people change. for example, when i was a kid i loved all of these things..and over time all of them just fell away, one after another, replaced by friends and IMing and cell phones and boys and clothes. it's kind of sad, if you think about it. like there's no continuity in people at all. like something ruptures when you hit twelve, or thirteen, or whatever the age is when you're no longer a kid but a "young adult," and after that you're a totally different person. maybe even a less happy person. maybe even a worse one.

Things would get difficult again. But that was okay too. The bravery was in moving forward, no matter what.