Quotes From "Burning Falls" By Laura Kreitzer

1
She would rather remain silent, but her voice is no longer something to fear. It’s strong. Powerful. A weapon of emotions. Laura Kreitzer
2
It hurts, ” Summer cries, head shaking back and forth. “Please, make it stop.” Sweat beads on her forehead.“ What hurts?” Cameron asks.“ My eyes.” Summer’s eyes open. Everyone gasps. They’re no longer blue; they appear bionic, like a circuit board’s inside her eyes. Panicked now, Summer reaches for her face. “What is it? What’s wrong? Laura Kreitzer
3
She draws back, yet refuses to lose skin contact. Golden light flickers across his face. He is the night, the stars. His soul shines so brightly, she could pour it into a jar, and it’d be as bright as the sun. Laura Kreitzer
4
Why aren’t you smiling?” Cameron asks. She picks up the Astropad and stops the video.“ Because this is the beginning, not the end. Laura Kreitzer
5
She waits for his reprimand or words of disapproval. He kisses her instead. Hard. Lips demanding, fingers tightening on her chin. He consumes her with this single act. Laura Kreitzer
6
Time keeps ticking away, unaware of the suffering each second generates. Time doesn’t care, because if it did, it would’ve reversed. Laura Kreitzer
7
Struggling transforms her captor into a Chinese finger trap. She’s suffocating. Sucking in air without relief. Her lungs expand. Contract. Expand. They fill with lies and broken promises. With despair and lost hope. Each inhale is empty. Invisible hands reach into her body and constrict around her windpipe. She watches her friends collapse like supernovae, their cognizance disappearing into a black hole. A black hole she’s quickly cascading into. The dark consumes, bleeds into her vision. She blinks. Catches icy blue eyes peeking out from the shadows. Laura Kreitzer
8
Landon drops the bloody knife and stares at Summer like he doesn’t even know her anymore. The truth is, she’ll never be the girl she was seven months ago. Too much has happened. Too much has changed.“ Why’d you do that?” Summer cries.“ To save you, ” he says. But there’s nothing left to save. Laura Kreitzer
9
He holds her for an eternity. Time cascades into the void of the past. She inhales his scent. Full of man and strength and yearning. And she wonders why she ever doubted their relationship. Why she let Julian’s soothing touch coax her into loving him too. Gage is everything. Gage is hers. Laura Kreitzer
10
Death and his scythe do not come. No sweeping black capes or ethereal escapes. There’s no pearly gate, no prisms of colors as his soul slips away. The stillness is cold steel. The silence is empty with no memory to mend it. Laura Kreitzer
11
She feels him scoot closer, the heat of him radiating off his chest and absorbing into her skin. His legs straddle her from behind, and he places delicate kisses along her shoulder, her back, the very center of her spine. Each time is like an electric current surging through her, soul stirring and lovely. Laura Kreitzer
12
Her gaze travels back to the lie twisted in a tempest of mud and blood. She witnesses the culmination of her recklessness through a curved lens. Absorbed in life uncoiling, unaware of the world beyond this ridge. His light hair, darkened by rain. His stiff shoulders, full of pain. The vision poisoned with truth. With rust-stained hues. Laura Kreitzer
13
I’m sorry, ” he says. No two words were ever truer. Still, she says nothing. Once a shield, now her taciturnity is brandished like a blade, carving away his sanity. She’s the flaw in the paragon of life–the reason angels choose to dive to their downfalls in fiery comets of stardust. Laura Kreitzer
14
Dreams deny her the freedom she truly seeks. Darkness consumes. Leg muscles burn. She runs away, even while lost in the paradise of sleep. Gravity is a crushing force bearing down on her chest, shattering wings and refusing her flight. A whisper in her mind. You don’t belong here. Laura Kreitzer
15
You should’ve told me, ” she repeats. “Because here’s a news flash: You might’ve wanted to shelter me, but there’s nowhere you can hide me that’ll keep me safe from what’s inside my head. Laura Kreitzer
16
A glacial chill rushes through Gage. He whips around just in time to see arms clutch Summer around the middle and drag her into the dark. Panic seizes him, and he takes off after her, regardless of the chaos brewing behind him. Her cry of surprise echoes all around them, drilling into his bones. Laura Kreitzer
17
You didn’t tell Summer about it, did you?”“ What?” Gage scoffs. “Yeah, telling your girlfriend the Angel of Death might visit her if some switch is flipped is normal pillow talk. Laura Kreitzer
18
Maybe the Society was right all along. From the very beginning, that’s what they called her. A time bomb. Tick, tick, tick. Laura Kreitzer
19
I thought it was just him, ” she says, ignoring him. “But then I found out I had the same effect, which means the Society did something to my head too.” Gage’s eyes close, horror washing over him. “You really do love him.”“ Yes. No. I don’t know.” Her cries start up again, piercing his heart. “Gage, help me.”“ I love you, ” he says, holding her closer. “That’s real. Laura Kreitzer
20
Just in case you’re wondering, ” Gage says, breaking the silence, “this alliance of ours doesn’t mean I like you.”“ Feeling’s mutual.” Julian tosses him a disdainful look. Laura Kreitzer
21
I can’t–won’t do that to him, ” Summer says sharply. “Or to myself. Besides, your feelings for me aren’t real. The Society did this to you. And if they did it to you, they probably scrambled my brain too. I can’t trust that any of this is real. Laura Kreitzer
22
Seconds ebb and wane. She’s not afraid of her voice anymore, but she’s not entirely sure she trusts it. She’s seen the damage caused with a single word. Right now, each one is a weapon, a conduit of war, and she won’t just throw them out there all willy-nilly. Laura Kreitzer
23
When I see your scars, do I want to erase them? Absolutely. But not your physical scars. The real ones, beneath the surface. The ones that compel you to stay silent or force you to cringe. Those are the scars I want to obliterate.” His finger circles the dip of a burn mark on her forearm. “This is a battle trophy and nothing to be ashamed of. Every one of your scars makes you more beautiful to me. . Laura Kreitzer
24
Dammit, Gage. What the hell were you thinking?”“ I wasn’t, ” he shouts. “I was upset she wanted to stay, and I lost it.” Ethan scoffs. “Yeah, you did.”“ I’m an idiot.”“ Yeah, you are.”“ Shut up. Laura Kreitzer
25
If this is my final moment, ” she says, “then I can die happy.”“ Is that why you’re saying all this? Because you think we’re going to die?”“ I don’t know, ” she admits.“ Dammit, Summer.” He clings to her waist, grip desperate, eyes heavy with torment. “You’re saying everything I want to hear, but I don’t know if I can trust it. Laura Kreitzer
26
Time is a thief. A killer. Time is killing him. Laura Kreitzer
27
Her mum is leaning against the wall, arms crossed, when Summer exits. “Gage left from here a few minutes ago, ” she says, tone neutral. “His hair was ruffled.” She gestures with her hand above her head. The haze Gage left Summer in vanishes. She frowns. Her mum sighs and steps forward. Smooths her daughter’s hair. “If he hurts you, ” she says in a mild tone, “I’ll kill him. Laura Kreitzer
28
Avery slides on his glasses and opens his eyes again. “Dammit! ” he says again with more feeling. “Why does stuff like this keep happening?”“ You say that as if it’s a bad thing, ” Rob says, smirking. Laura Kreitzer
29
A layer of fine powder coats his skin.“ My lungs are turning to concrete, ” Rob wheezes, hacking and spitting.“ So are my eyes. How do I always get roped into these things?” Avery coughs and pats Rob’s back in sympathy. A poof of dust billows from the contact. Laura Kreitzer
30
The night surrounds, breathes across her skin. They’re lost in the shadows of the moon. Laura Kreitzer
31
He’s focused on something–or someone–over her shoulder. The harmonious warbling of the rainforest morphs into organized disarray, as if a primitive maestro has thrown conducting to the wind and let Mother Nature take over. Birds trill a warning as the breeze rustles the plant life. Wings flutter overhead. A crescendo of stridulation changes tempo, the insects seemingly performing a sonata as the rhythm shifts yet again.“ What–who is it?” Summer asks in a strained whisper. His gaze lands on her, his brows furrowing. “The Forsaken. . Laura Kreitzer
32
He smiles at her before ever opening his eyes. The innocence in his face ensnares. Wraps her heart in a cocoon. They did this to him. The Society. Constructed that smile with malicious expectations. Now she must rip it off his face. Because she doesn’t deserve his love. Or Gage’s. This madness coils around her throat, darkening every inch of her soul. Laura Kreitzer
33
Every Forsaken in a mile radius can probably hear you. You’re just asking for trouble if you two don’t stop whipping out the measuring stick.”“ It’s his fault, ” Avery snaps, pointing at Julian.“Shut up, ya wanker.” They start in on each other again. They yell as if they both have megaphones to their mouths, standing inches apart. Each vulgar insult is more illogical than the last. . Laura Kreitzer
34
Why won’t you look at me?” she murmurs. He doesn’t speak, seemingly at a loss for words.“ It’s my scars.” It comes out as barely a whisper. Horror spasms across his face. “What? No, ” he says, a bit breathless. “You’re beautiful. All of you. Laura Kreitzer
35
Refusing to listen to him any longer, Julian backs up. “Whenever you realize working together is in Summer’s best interest, come find me, Boy Scout. Until then, I’ll just pretend you don’t exist.” Then he walks away. Gage glares at Julian’s retreating form. His hand scrapes through his hair as he fumes. A guttural roar of rage crawls up his throat, and he kicks the sand. Damn him and his stupid logic. He’s right. And Gage knows he’s right. But that doesn’t mean he has to like it. . Laura Kreitzer
36
The aftermath of bearing shackles is an exquisite devastation, fraught with the ravages of survival. Even though one is no longer held captive–be that from a person, a government, or one’s inner self–the scars are deeply engraved into one’s psyche, and there’s no remedy for the soul. Many have the misconception that freedom equals happiness forever and ever. That’s a wicked delusion. Laura Kreitzer
37
Terror builds inside him. The reality that tonight will be his last leaves a sour taste in his mouth. The Tainted will eat him, or on a more terrifying note–if that’s even possible–maybe turn him into one of them. He’d rather die. But first, he’ll take as many of those bastards out as he can. He throws his pack into the throng and jerks the blade from his belt. With a thudding heart, he slices through them. Blood arcs over him, onto him. Laura Kreitzer
38
Slowly, he lifts the flashlight. Her shorts are torn and frayed, her shirt ripped from chest to naval, exposing her black bra and dirty stomach. And then he raises the light so it reflects off her face, off the crimson tears streaming from the girl’s eyes. Her boney hands fly up to protect her face, and her head tilts sharply as she hisses. Laura Kreitzer
39
Summer turns and marches away, fed up with being handled like a child. Like she’s a glass doll that might break at any minute. She hasn’t been a child since the day she was whipped into muteness. Anxiety might strangle her sometimes, but she’s not some baby needing to be coddled. Laura Kreitzer
40
Gage is waiting on the makeshift bed when she enters the room she’s been sleeping in. The small lantern in the corner barely lights his features. His shoulders are hunched, his hands clasped together before him, and when he looks up, his face is downcast. There are a number of reasons why he would look this way, but the worst possible thing comes to mind first. Someone is dead. Laura Kreitzer
41
As he plods behind Cameron and Summer, he can’t help but stare at Summer’s exposed, glistening skin. His thoughts aren’t depraved or even mildly in the splasher. In fact, he focuses on the marks of cruelty crisscrossing her back, stomach, and shoulders. He trudges along, drenched, feet swollen, constantly searching for even a hint of a breeze, all while being forced to stare at the alarming network of burns traversing Summer’s delicate skin. This latticework of hate reveals a brutal truth–one he can scarcely comprehend. Yes, he’s glimpsed and felt her scars before, but this is the first time he’s really, truly seen the severity and extent of her life as a slave. With each step, he must digest the monstrosities of her past, leaving him utterly devastated. . Laura Kreitzer
42
What’s with savage humans always wanting to cannibalize us?” Jaden asks as she runs past Summer to check for any more of the Tainted around the corner.“ They want to suck your blood, ” Rob says in a Romanian accent. Jaden snorts. Too bad humor won’t help them out of this mess. Laura Kreitzer