You know what mom told me once? She said that everyone has some evil inside them, and the first step to loving anyone is to recognize the same evil in ourselves, so we're able to forgive them.

Today you will choose your factions. Until this point you have followed your parents’ paths, your parents’ rules. Today you will find your own path, make your own rules.

People tend to overestimate my character," I say quietly. "They think that because I'm small, or a girl, or a Stiff, I can't possibly be cruel. But they're wrong.

Fear," she says, "is more powerful than pain.

Before we sit down, he puts his mouth next to my ear and says, “I like your hair that way.

He should be the one to die, part of me thinks. I don't want to lose him, another part argues. I don't know which part to believe.

And then the screaming begins.