I think it's a human tendency that's been around for a while to try to be as good as possible to prove your worth.

I love you," I say. I said that once, before I went to Erudite headquarters, but he was asleep then. I don't know why I didn't say it when he could hear it. Maybe I was afraid to trust him with something so personal as my devotion. Or afraid that I did not know what it was to love someone. But now I think the scary thing was not saying it before it was too late. Not saying it before it was almost too late for me.

It's not cruelty, maybe, but a desire to understand that motivates them.

Do it fast, you pansycake.

It happened. It was awful. You aren't perfect. That's all there is. Don't confuse your grief with guilt.

It's stupid to miss a thing when there are so many people to miss instead, but I miss this train already, and all the others that carried me through the city, my city, after I was brave enough to ride them. I brush my fingers over the car wall, just once, and then jump.

We both have war inside us. Sometimes it keeps us alive. Sometimes it threatens to destroy us.