#spare

She was halfway to deep sleep when the door creaked, a noise loud enough to rouse her, yet soft enough to doubt her having heard anything. She lay motionless, listening but hearing only the wind outside, the clock, the sounds of an ancient building. Normal sounds, but still her skin prickled. Pressure built in her head. Her pulse beat in her ears. The feeling of pressure thickened, stealing over her, a sense of envelopment, a shift in perception. Not her pulse, but footsteps. Someone pacing. Ten steps toward the fireplace. Ten back to the foot of her bed. The susurration of fabric against fabric. Metal sliding along metal, a low ringing sound, and mixed with that a murmuring. She peered into the darkness but saw nothing. No moving shadows, no figure approaching her bed, just the inert shapes of furniture and the resulting shadows. The resonance in her head grew, half convincing her she heard footsteps and the low, regular sound of breathing. The murmuring began again, a breath, then a whisper. My love. Steps paced near, and she swore she could feel the air thicken. Pain lanced along her temple. My heart. Unendurable pressure. She tried to move, but couldn't. Her limbs were frozen, trapped in her nightmare. More footsteps. A breath on her cheek. Cold air wafted through the room. My own. A face flashed before her eyes. She tried to breathe and couldn't get air into her lungs. She screwed her eyes shut, but the face didn't go away. The features blurred, looming, threatening, laughing. She knew that face, but the recollection refused to come. Terror like she'd known only once before in her life consumed her. Her lungs refused to expand. Or couldn't. She was going to die. She knew it. A scream bubbled in her throat. ↗

— Carolyn Jewel

#dream-sequence #olivia #the-spare #dreams

Spare me the whispering, crowded room, the friends who come and gape and go, the ceremonious air of gloom - all, which makes death a hideous show. ↗

— Matthew Arnold

#come #crowded #death #friends #gloom

Similarly, gender-equality, supremacy of law, political participation, civil society, and transparency are among the indispensable elements that are the imperatives of democratization. ↗

— Recep Tayyip Erdogan

#civil #civil society #democratization #elements #imperatives

A taste for truth at any cost is a passion which spares nothing. ↗

— Albert Camus

#cost #nothing #passion #spares #taste

When he was twenty-three or twenty-four my father began to learn German and read philosophy in his spare hours, which did not look as though he were destined to remain long on board ship! ↗

— Edward Carpenter

#board #destined #did #father #german

Unimaginative people are spared quite a lot. They're often much happier, because they don't go through all the variety of conceptions of the person they love. ↗

— Mary Wesley

#conceptions #go #happier #lot #love

I hope to devote all of my spare time, which ordinarily would go to research, my summers, and every ounce of strength I can muster to further the project. ↗

— Louis Finkelstein

#every #further #go #hope #i

Success comprises in itself the seeds of its own decline and sport is not spared by this law. ↗

— Pierre de Coubertin

#decline #itself #law #own #seeds

If our society continues to support basic research on how living organisms function, it is likely that my great grandchildren will be spared the agony of losing family members to most types of cancer. ↗

— Paul D. Boyer

#basic #basic research #cancer #continues #family

A basic tenet of a healthy democracy is open dialogue and transparency. ↗

— Peter Fenn

#democracy #dialogue #healthy #open #tenet