You're a Good Little Slave

There is no sound more annoying than the chatter of a child, and none more sad than the silence they leave when they are gone.

When you're in a dark place, and your light is going to run out before too long, you get on with things. It's a wonder to me how few people apply that same logic to their lives.

It never pays to walk blindly. Especially not in your own castle where familiarity hides so much - even when we have the eyes to see.

There is something brittle in me that will break before it bends. Perhaps if the [the enemy] had brought a smaller army I might have had the sense to run. But he overdid it.

something in me had got broken, but not so broken I didn't remember what it was.

And when pain bites, men bargain. Boys too. We twist and turn, we plead and beg, we offer our tormentors what he wants so that the hurting will stop. And when there is no torturer to placate, no hooded man with hot irons and tongs, just a burn you can't escape, we bargain with God, or ourselves, depending on the size of our egos.