Ebony "Interstellar Introvert"

“HERE IS THE THING ABOUT fury. It starts in your chest. It starts as fear.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“Glean them,” he ordered with contempt for the crowd so great that he bit his own lip. “Glean them all.”
― Neal Shusterman, The Toll

“It was only when she sat and the hem of her dress lifted that I noticed the blood pooling in her glass slippers, the fine crack along one side. Indigo removed the shoes carefully. Two of her toes were blue. Later, we would discover they were broken. Later, I would cradle her ankles and tell her I loved her and insist on carrying her up the stairs and all throughout the house. I had always found the rejected stepsisters of Cinderella far more captivating than the story’s namesake, and now I knew why. When the shoe did not fit, they cut off their toes, sliced off their heels, squeezed their feet into glass, and lowered their skirts to cover the pain. Perhaps, in the end, the prince made the wrong choice. Such devotion is hard to come by, after all. Look how I will carve myself to fit into your life. Who will not do less? In Indigo’s blue toes and ruined skin, I saw a love letter. Gruesome, yes, but for all that it became in the end, it must be said that it was always true.”
― Roshani Chokshi, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride

“Pain is inexplicably vital to us. It pins us to the very fabric of our lives, that which joy and comfort and warmth have made alien and foreign. Pain speaks to us in a voice that carries the hallowed certainty of hymns: I know exactly what you deserve, and I shall give it to you.”
― Roshani Chokshi, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride