Alice

“All I knew was that life without her was a dark void. She was my best friend. My teammate. My family, even more than my parents, who I’d left behind the day I turned eighteen and saw only once in a blue moon. I wasn’t parentless. Not like Miley. But spending time with her was the thing that brought me to life, made me realize that the kind of love I got at home was halfhearted and finite. Drops of water in a bucket. Miley—and her mom, Jane—loved like the turquoise ocean I’d only seen in postcards. Warm and limitless.”
― Noelle W. Ihli, Gray After Dark

“It is not a weakness to be seen”
― Shen Tao, The Poet Empress

“From one branch, two azaleas blooming,
Fighting for a piece of the dawn.
The roots lie rotten, the leaves die weeping;
Come night, all the flowers are gone.”
― Shen Tao, The Poet Empress

“Was I so wrong to treasure humans? she wondered. Will they always leave me alone in the dark?
She swore to never care for humans again, to never lend them her heart, never try to save them from themselves. But still, she tasted their tears like the salt of the sea, felt the ache of their pain deep in her bones, cried for them as she wished someone would cry for her, even once. She did not know if she would ever find the love that humans held for only each other, but she would continue searching until the end of time.”
― Kylie Lee Baker, Japanese Gothic