1
I feel an emptiness open in my chest, coupled with a strange downward pull in my throat. I think, this is my heart sinking.Kermit Roosevelt III
2
I never wanted to be safe... I wanted to be good.Kermit Roosevelt III
3
But for a moment I stay there, suspended above the green swell of the land as though thrown up onto the crest of a wave, seeing for the first time a break in the at horizon. For this the boats crossed the ocean, the wagons climbed the mountain pass. For this the songs were sung with desert all around. This is what is given: the promise there is still a way, if we can find it, the promise we can always be renewed. .Kermit Roosevelt III
4
There is no suspension, no whispered prayer for silk to stop my fall. There is only the falling, and it goes on and on, in fierce silence and sharp bursts of breath.Kermit Roosevelt III
5
We are at war, and in time of war there is only one rule. Form your battalion and fight.Kermit Roosevelt III
6
I never wanted to be safe, I wanted to be good.Kermit Roosevelt III
7
I never wanted to safe... I wanted to be good.Kermit Roosevelt III
8
From the front row of the balcony, I look out over the Uptown Cinema. The red velvet seats are emptying, the credits scrolling up the screen. Ginger Rogers married a Nazi, but Cary Grant got her out of it. Their ship is sailing to America; sun burns away the fog and the wind blows free. Now they are gone and I am coming back to reality, breathing a harsher air. It is how I always feel when a movie ends.Kermit Roosevelt III
9
He places me on the concrete floor, expressionless as he studies me. “It’ll be easier next time, ” he whispers, “killing on command.” 1352 hunkers in front of me, his brown eyes boring into mine. “They’ll desensitise you through exposure or drive you mad by it. Either way, sooner or later the death will cease to matter to you. All that remains to be seen is if you’ll retain your sanity when that happens.”“ Is that what they did to you?” I snarl at him, my fear of the truth in his admission urging me to anger.“ No, ” 1352 answers simply, “they didn’t need to because I’ve been theirs from the moment I woke up.” He rests a palm over my chest, “You though, you still have a heart. You’re not a corpse made animate. They need to kill you before they can possess you but death is not always the stilling of a pulse. Sometimes it takes the more complex task of destroying a soul to kill a person, rather than simply sending it on its way. They need to corrupt you because they need you to behave in a way that overshadows everything you’ve ever stood for previously, only then can they claim you.Angela Louise McGurk