Sophie

“He dropped the taunts and looked me in the eye. “Yes, you will be of my flesh, my Hand,” Roman said.

I felt myself blanch – I knew the price would be steep, but that didn’t sound like a job offer. I wasn’t sure what he was or what he meant, but I had a sinking feeling that I would regret my ignorance very soon.

“It’s only fair. A body for a body. Unfortunately, you don’t have much time.” Roman paused for dramatic effect. “Tick tock, kitten,” said the alligator.”
― Mel Harlan, The Demon You Know

“If they'd known the truth about Persephone, they would have thought we were strange, wicked little beasts — and we were. What little girl isn't?”
― Kate Alice Marshall, What Lies in the Woods

“Our loved ones are just as important to us as food and water. If I ask you right now where your boyfriend or girlfriend is, or where you would go to pick up your children, you probably have a pretty good idea of how to locate them. We use brain maps to find our loved ones, to predict where they are, and to search for them when they are gone. A key problem in grief is that there is a mismatch between the virtual map we always use to find our loved ones, and the reality, after they die, that they can no longer be found in the dimensions of space and time. The unlikely situation that they are not on the map at all, the alarm and confusion that this causes, is one reason grief overwhelms us.”
― Mary-Frances O'Connor, The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss

“Grief is a heart-wrenchingly painful problem for the brain to solve, and grieving necessitates learning to live in the world with the absence of someone you love deeply, who is ingrained in your understanding of the world. This means that for the brain, your loved one is simultaneously gone and also everlasting, and you are walking through two worlds at the same time. You are navigating your life despite the fact that they have been stolen from you, a premise that makes no sense, and that is both confusing and upsetting.”
― Mary-Frances O'Connor, The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss