sydney

Hey Alecto, film this!_ she called out. With the slide being as tall as a two-storey house, it felt slightly risky being up there. __n second thought, why don__ you come up here? It__ a blast being up here.___ don__ really like to be in high places,_ said Alecto as he filmed her, the camera lens reflecting the entire playground, which was partially secluded by tall trees that cast otherworldly shadows dancing across the ground.__f you don__ like being in high places, then why__ you take so many drugs in the seventies?_ Mandy questioned jokingly. __o you want me to go up there and push you off the top of that slide?_ Alecto threatened coldly.__ou__ never do that, we__e best friends!_ Mandy pointed out. She reached over and picked a bright red maple flower from one of the long branches of the trees, tossing it down to him. __ven in this failing 21st century, where people are cell phone addicts and crude humor and violence is the norm, even when society falls apart and drowns in its own mistakes, we__l still be best friends!_ She looked incredibly eccentric, never mind the fact that she was an adult woman wearing a trippy rainbow Pucci dress from the 1970__, standing on top of a slide at a children__ playground. Alecto didn__ seem to mind, he just continued to film her with his camera like she__ asked him to.

You only really fall apart in front of the people you know can piece you back together.

Wendy__ house, unlike many in Cape Breton, had three floors, along with a basement and attic. Aside from Wendy__ bedroom, there was a laundry room. The dirty water in the sink would rush from the washer hose, bubbling up, threatening to overflow, but it never did. Next-door was a motel with a neon sign that read in turquoise and pink, __e have the best rates in town!_, but the ___ in __ates_ kept flickering on and off day and night so that every few seconds it would switch to, __e have the best rats in town!

You will not! It's wrong.""What, kissing you, or kissing you in Pies and Stuff?

It is terrifying,_ said Adrian. __nd weird, for lack of a better word. And part of you knows_ well, part of you knows something__ not right. That your thinking__ not right. But what do you about that? All we can go on is what we think, how we see the world. If you can__ trust your own mind, what can you trust? What other people tell you?

With a few swift steps, Adrian stood in front of me again. The wall was only a couple inches behind me, and I had nowhere to go. He made no threatening moves, but he did clasp my hands and hold them to his chest while leaning down to me.__o, you will listen. For once, you__e going to hear something that doesn__ fit into your neat, compartmentalized world of order and logic and reason. Because this isn__ reasonable. If you__e terrified, believe me__his scares the hell out of me, too. You asked about Rose? I tried to be a better person for her__ut it was to impress her, to get her to want me. But when I__ around you, I want to be better because_ well, because it feels right. Because I want to. You make me want to become something greater than myself. I want to excel. You inspire me in every act, every word, every glance. I look at you, and you__e like_ like light made into flesh. I said it on Halloween and meant every word: you are the most beautiful creature I have ever seen walking this earth. And you don__ even know it. You have no clue how beautiful you are or how brightly you shine.

What you do in your dreams is never your choice. But it made me happy anyway.

Awareness Makes a Cure Possible.

Sydney, look at me.' He rested his hands on the car roof and leaned in. 'No one is going to hurt you. Do you know why?' She shook her head, and Victor smiled. 'Because I'll hurt them first.