Honesty leads to peace.

I feel like myself, strong and weak at once - allowed, at least for a little while, to be both.

Did you ever meet someone named Caleb?" I say. 'Caleb," Fernando says. "Yes, there was a Caleb in my initiate class. Brilliant, but he was... what's the colloquial term for it? A suck-up." he smirks.

Change, like healing, takes time.

Sometimes I still forget to look for the gentler parts of her. For so long all I saw was the strength, standing out like the wiry muscles in her arms or the black ink marking her collarbone with flight.

I kiss him as the train slides into unlit, uncertain land. I kiss him for as long as I want, for longer than I should, given that my brother sits three feet away from me.

I have done bad things. I can't take them back, and they are part of who I am. Most of the time, they seem like the only thing I am.