Mariam

“Her bravery stands beside her fear as she bites down hard on her lip.
She’s already hungry for flesh.
“I’m glad it’s you.” Just this morning, she
held my knife. She didn’t want to hurt anyone then, or now. “You’re gentle
with them.”
It’s not true. I’m gentle when I am afforded it. She takes in a
long, shaky breath. Holds it, savors it. Closes her eyes and must feel the
burn in her lungs that screams life. Then, she lets it go.
“Please. I’d like
something gentle now.”
― Racquel Marie, If We Survive This

“As per usual, though, closure is just out of my reach. Closure means
ending, and I have never known how to swallow one of those without
choking.”
― Racquel Marie, If We Survive This

“For instance, is it really so natural and inevitable for an old woman to eke
out a living by scavenging cardboard boxes? Is that part of the essence of
human life? Is dying like that down to the individual, nothing to do with
anyone else? And if it’s not natural and inevitable, just sufficiently common
to be accepted as such, isn’t that futility even worse than if it was simply the
essence of life?”
― Hwang Jungeun, One Hundred Shadows

“Getting comfortable is how you die. I’ve never been comfortable, though, not fully. Even when life was
gentle with me, my brain sensed the danger. How generous of the world to finally validate my fears.”
― Racquel Marie, If We Survive This