Here was something that I did all the time, and thought nothing of it, and it turns out the rest of the world thinks it’s completely reprehensible. That’s when I knew I needed to change, so I started making rules. The first one was; Don’t mess with animals.

Dead bodies are calm and silent – perfectly still, perfectly harmless. A corpse will never move, it will never laugh, and it will never judge. A corpse will never shout at you, hit you, or leave you. Far away from the zombies and junk that you see on TV, a corpse is actually the perfect friend. The perfect pet. I feel more comfortable with them than I do with real people.

If you have the strength to whine, you have the strength to do something about it.

I want to talk to you,” she said, “for hours and days and forever, but we can’t right now. Not here, and not while we’re still in danger.

People feared what was different, and whoever was the most different would win the witch-hunt lottery.

The monster behind the wall stirred. I’d come to think of it as a monster, but it was just me. Or the darker part of me, at least. You probably think it would be creepy to have a real monster hiding inside of you, but trust me – it’s far, far worse when the monster is really just your own mind. Calling it a monster seemed to distance it a little, which made me feel better about it. Not much better, but I take what I can get.

You are always in control of your own destiny.

Even a paranoid clock is being followed twice a day.

Most fires crackle and pop, but that’s not really the fire talking, it’s the wood. To hear the fire itself you need a huge blaze like this one, a furnace so powerful it roars with its own wind. I crouched as close as I dared and listened to its voice, a whispered howl of joy and rage.

It’s easier to fall back into the same old patterns of hate and retribution, because at least then we’re doing something.