imaginary trouble

“A horrible fissure began in me, disrupting everything I’d believed in. “She starved me for affection, for praise, then gave me just enough to whet my palate. I’d have done anything she asked of me. But if she’s the sixth Omen, the moth, she never cared for me, did she? I was but a piece of parchment to scrawl her false story upon. A cog in her machine.” I bit the inside of my cheek. Turned to the wall. “I feel so stupid for my part in it.”
― Rachel Gillig, The Knight and the Moth

“Sometimes, it’s easier to do things the old-fashioned way.”
― Kerri Andrews, The Witch's Pet

“Was she making fun of me? Does someone really find me inspiring? Even though I spend my life pretzeling my personality to avoid being hated? Even though I am the fraudiest of impostors?”
― Ali Hazelwood, Love, Theoretically

“That was the way women operated in my community: if you wanted to be a wealthy Christian woman and maintain good standing, you needed to publicly disavow your luxuries in order to maintain possession of them. It was a strange tug-and-pull I’d borne witness to my entire life.”
― Caro Claire Burke, Yesteryear