"But I was still determined to protect her. It might be the one good thing I would ever do in my life. I wondered if God would even notice."
- Steven Ramirez
"Even now I can’t describe the fear that contaminated my blood like black ink."
"‘Can’t you see what they are?’ I said. ‘They’re all dead.’"
"I don’t know how these things died without benefit of a bullet to the brain pan. They seemed to exist in an eternal twilight of longing."
"I heard them tearing at it. It was the sound of mortality."
"For an instant I saw before me the young girl this used to be."
"‘Eighth one this week,’ he said."
"I knew then I was going to die in the street without ever seeing Holly again. All because I tried to help an old woman, proving for all eternity that no good deed goes unpunished."
"During our time together in this place Holly didn’t outright avoid me or treat me rudely. But she wasn’t—how do women like to put it? She wasn’t emotionally available to me."
"Her voice was small and distant, like she’d already left the room."