Vanessa

“The world isn’t all towers of white marble, and it isn’t all gardens of perfectly trimmed grass,” said Pain softly. “Whether we want to look or not, we cannot escape from the world. We can retreat for awhile, but always it is there.”
― Sara A. Mueller, The Bone Orchard

“She couldn’t find anyone who was responsible except herself.”
― Sara A. Mueller, The Bone Orchard

“They’re all falling away from me. I don’t want to be the Lady. I’m just learning how to be me. I don’t want to go back to the Lady, to being an empty nothing. I’m afraid.”
― Sara A. Mueller, The Bone Orchard

“The pleasure wasn't often pleasure; it was release from pain. It was binding yourself and feeling good when the bandages came off, it was cutting a hole in your leg so it could feel it heal. I had suffered, and I had made the suffering into something I could consider good. I made it so that suffering was a kind of work.”
― Megan Nolan, Acts of Desperation