I remember that feeling of skin. It's strange to remember touch more than thought. But my fingers still tingle with it.

Far, far away something made a single ghostly howl, like a banshee in the dark.

You smiled then, and your whole face changed with it. It kind of lit up, like there were sunbeams coming from inside you.

Lets face it, you did steal me. But you saved my life too. And somewhere in the middle, you showed me a place so different and beautiful, I can never get it out of my mind. And I can't get you out of there either. You're stuck in my brain like my own blood vessels.

I remember the lights turning into blurs of blazing fire. I remember the air-conditioning chilling my arms. The smell of coffee smudging into the smell of eucalyptus.

People love what they're used to, I guess." "No." You shook your head. "People should love what needs loving. That way they can save it.

I wrapped my arms around me as tightly as I could, and stared up at the stars. Had I not been so cold and wanting to escape so badly, I could have stared at them forever: They were amazingly beautiful, so dense and bright. My eyes could get lost up there if I left them looking long enough. [...] They swallowed me up. They were like a hundred thousand tiny candles, sending out hope.