His scars were hidden and safe in her hand.

Feeling special is the worst kind of cage a person can build for himself.

Separating them were two layers of brick, a few inches of plaster, and nine years of silence.

All opening moves were the same, like in chess. You don't have to come up with anything new, there's no point, because you're both after the same thing anyway. The game soon finds its own way and it's only at that point that you need a strategy.

Mattia thought that he and Alice were like that, twin primes, alone and lost, close but not close enough to really touch each other.

It was strange to find them here, still alive, with their shared bits of past that suddenly counted for nothing.

In fact, they didn't talk much at all, but they spent time together, each in his own abyss, held safe and tight by the other's silence.