Chloe Moore

“I’d never admit to this, but the thought of a monster’s breath on the back of my neck gives me a thrill. It propels me forward, the epitome of asking for it.”
― Kate Elizabeth Russell, My Dark Vanessa

“Afterward, as we walk down Congress Street toward my apartment, the man says, “Men like that know how to pick the right ones, you know? They’re real predators. They know how to scan a herd and select the weak.”

As he says that, I see a scene of me, fifteen and wild-eyed, separated from my parents, running in a panicked gait across a tundra landscape while Strane sprints after me, gathering me in his arms without breaking stride. An ocean roars in my ears, blocking out the rest of the man’s thoughts on the film, and I think, Maybe that’s all it was. I was an obvious target. He chose me not because I was special, but because he was hungry and I was easy.”
― Kate Elizabeth Russell, My Dark Vanessa

“It’s both creepy and out of my control, this ability I have to notice so much about other people when I’m positive no one notices anything at all about me.”
― Kate Elizabeth Russell, My Dark Vanessa

“The line of Polaroids stretches across my living room, the strawberry pajamas draped over the radiator. I wonder what level of crazy I’ve reached and how much further I could go, how many more steps until I become a woman who boards up the windows to live uninterrupted in the filth of her past.”
― Kate Elizabeth Russell, My Dark Vanessa