1
The clouds took on the shape of dancers; from somewhere far off, Pram heard music before the clouds became normal again.Lauren DeStefano
2
Felix wasn't sure of his limits, if he had limits. After he'd been dead a while, he began to suspect he could swim to the bottom of the oceans. Beyond that. He suspected that he could swim so far down that he'd eventually go through the center of the earth and come out the other side. He could swim into the clouds, into the stars. Maybe there were ghosts on the other planets. Maybe there were ghosts laughing and splashing each other with the heat of the sun. He wasn't brave enough to find out.Lauren DeStefano
3
Felix had left his heart buried in the ground years ago, but he felt it crack apart.Lauren DeStefano
4
He was now working his way through the many shades of grief. Sadness made everything gray, he'd learned, but there were different types of gray, some darker than others. There were dark spots in his memories he wasn't brave enough to enter.Lauren DeStefano
5
She knew that the dead hid pieces of themselves in the world. They buried organs in the living. They stuffed memories into trees and clouds and other innocuous things.Lauren DeStefano
6
Pram wasn't told the story of her birth. But even as a very small girl, she felt deep in her chest that she was alive and dead at the same time.Lauren DeStefano
7
They're making me go to school, " Pram said. "I don't think it's a very good idea. I've read about how cruel kids can be."" Are you afraid they'll be cruel, or that being around them for too long will make you cruel?" Felix said." Both, I suppose.Lauren DeStefano
8
Stone gnomes and angels filled the gardens, and it seemed that they were also sleeping, as though a witch had cast a spell on them.Lauren DeStefano