It was so big, that view. I’ll never remember it properly. How can anyone remember something that big? I don’t think people’s brains are designed for memories like that. They’re designed for things like phone numbers, or the color of someone’s hair. Not hugeness.

This be OK?? I asked, innocently. ‘You want me to have no skin left?’ You rolled your eyes. Actually, don’t answer that one.

Anyway, it’s easy to be what people want: give them something to stare at. nod and smile, tell them they’re gorgeous.” You flashed me your best charming grin before you added, “The three steps to money.

But without humans, the wild would take over. It would only take a hundred years or so for nature to win again.

Pain means it’s healing.

You know, maybe if we’d met as ordinary people, one day, maybe... maybe things might have been different. Maybe I could have loved you.

You won’t be able to hurt me, or touch me.

No one had ever looked at me like that before, with that kind of intensity. It unsettled me, surprised me I guess. Those blue, blue eyes, icy blue, looking back at me as if I could warm them up. They’re pretty powerful, you know, those eyes, pretty beautiful too.

I chased money, pretended to be someone else to get it. It got easier the longer I did it... but that’s the trap, see? When the deadness gets easier, you know you’re sinking deeper, becoming dead yourself.

I mean, that star over there is blinking at me madly now, but for how long? An hour or two, or for the next million years? And how long will we sit here like this? Just another moment, or the rest of our lives? You know which one I’d prefer...