Celia McMahon

Oda once said that when you speak excessively, it isn't necessarily communicating,_ Jimmi says as he hunches over, resting his elbows on his knees. He yawns and doesn't cover his mouth.__hat does that mean?___t means that you can shut your mouth and still say what you need to say using the other gifts the gods gave us.

I see my father. I see him gone away. My world is a little bit colder.

Maybe you should stop putting so much faith into what you read in books.

I've come to believe that we, as people, only tend to remember only certain of what we hear or read just for that reason. Most of what we retain coincide with our personal beliefs and feelings and the rest, we throw away into the back of our minds where we keep it or forget it entirely.

I trust you. Those are the last words my father said before he left. That means that every decision I make, I would have to question myself whether it was the right one. I can picture him, expectations in his eyes. Because of that, I can see the same look in others. He could not have damned me more.

Dead. The words fall from my tongue and linger there like poison. A slow death hanging from my lips. I shake the thought away and swallow but I can still taste the remnants in the back of my throat. It's sour and I gag a little as tears swell behind my eyes.

I lost my family,_ he says softly. The tone of his voice justifies my earlier regret. __f you have nothing to love, you have nothing to lose. Even your own life becomes meaningless.

Whatever my path, I have faith I will end up where I need to be.

Everyone makes mistakes. If everyone fell into the sand after making a mistake we would never get anywhere. We'd all be washed away in the sea, lost forever. Do you understand?

When we die, our bodies turn to dust,_ he says. __f you were nobody of consequence, you're forgotten unless you do something worth remembering._ When he looks my way, I purse my lips and look down. __therwise, you're just another place marker in the ground. These buildings will rot here, their bodies are above the ground taunting us with what we did wrong as a people. Reminding us of the evil we're capable of. They are constant.

It's irresponsible to think things are just going to work out because you believe things happen for a reason. I refuse to accept these things. I refuse to give in to that absurdity. You saw what happened in Lucille and you lived with Col all those years. You know the suffering they went through. Even this place. There are so many empty houses yet so many homeless. Society is breaking. The kingdoms are failing them.

I can hear birds singing but they don't sound at all like the birds I knew. These are mocking and possessed. I imagine they have deformed bodies with glowing eyes, leading the wagon to my own personal damnation. All my wishes and all my draining prayers haven't brought me home. They are bringing me to the one place I sought to be and the one place I wanted to far from.

Now go. Leaving quickly is the best thing you can do. Don't think about it, don't look back, and don't think that what's behind you is better than what's in front because it's not. Not in the very least, Hannah.

Everyone is good at heart. We all do things with the greatest of intentions and most of the time we do it for selfish reasons. Myself included.

Jimmi manages a laugh that makes my skin crawl. __o you really think what you read in those books is true? Sure, some of it may be but have you ever actually paid attention to it? It's all false set upon us as truth. You can't coat something with lies and intend it to go away. It's asinine and lackluster at best.

Why would they lie to us?___ecause deep down, we're all afraid of having peace. Because deep down we know we're all poisoned. We're more afraid of ourselves than we are of others. In that thinking, we deny ourselves the very power that we could have. In that thinking, we put liars on pedestals. Then, when the time is right they proclaim their lies as truth and revel in it as if they did something truly righteous and people will fall to their knees because we never learn if our mistakes are never admitted and cataloged. What better way to destroy a person than to make them realize that everything they ever believed was wrong?

The way he moves-a singular motion with such ease-put me in awe. He takes down one, two and then three without even bending his back. Knocking down a man so gracefully was nothing I had ever seen before and this red dance drew me in as it did the others around him. He could have easily killed those men. This is a man who has control over himself. This is the kind of man I need.

..and she a star, to outshine all the suns of mans days.