Valerie

“And the answer was always lost in a tangle of becauses and wells and endless reasons that he clung to like a drowning man at straws.”
― Richard Matheson, Mad House

“The snow fell fast and thick. He looked up for a moment in the air, and thought that those white ashes strewn upon his hopes and misery, were suited to them well. He looked round on the whitening ground, and thought how Marion's foot-prints would be hushed and covered up, as soon as made, and even that remembrance of her blotted out. But he never felt the weather, and he never stirred.”
― Charles Dickens, The Battle of Life

“But, Mr. Grewgious seeing nothing there, not even a light in the windows, his gaze wandered from the windows to the stars, as if he would have read in them something that was hidden from him. Many of us would, if we could; but none of us so much as know our letters in the stars yet- or seem likely to, in this state of existence - and few languages can be read until their alphabets are mastered.”
― Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood

“Oh, you," he whispered. "How can you be real?"
"When I'm with you," she said, "I'm not sure that I am."
And before he knew it, he had slid his hands behind her ears, and threaded his fingers through her hair. He kissed her forehead, there, and there, and found her cheek and kissed it, there, and her nose. Then slowly, slowly, he brought his mouth to hers, and gently, reverently, kissed her.”
― Julie Berry, Lovely War