Carissa Broadbent

“You have nothing but me,” I said. “And yet, you’d let me go?”

“I have nothing but you,” he murmured. “So I am letting you go.”

“If they want to shit in their own beds, they can lie in it.”

But, there were worse things to be than unwelcome.

the thought of lying there with nothing to occupy myself but my thoughts seemed far more intimidating than forcing myself through exhaustion.

“Would you judge a squirrel by its ability to swim?”

. “But beautiful is not enough. It needs to be both beautiful and—”

The word eluded me, but Max provided, “Functional.”

I was too young to know the truth then. That victory meant another’s defeat, and sometimes our own defeat. That winning meant sacrifices, and sometimes ones that even our own people were not willing to make. That in war, someone always paid.

“People do all kinds of terrible things out of fear. It doesn’t change anything. I know far too well what that kind of behavior leads to.”

“We all have our sad stories,”

And I hate their deaths. But what I hate more is that there is no one left who remembers their lives