#z

I’m leaving.” Her cold lips barely moved as she mouthed the words. Horror fisted around his vitals. “No.” For the first time she met his eyes. Hers were red-rimmed but dry. “I have to leave, Simon.” “No.” He was a little boy denied a sweet. He felt like falling down and screaming. “Let me go.” “I can’t let you go.” He half laughed here in the too-bright, cold London sun before his own house. “I’ll die if I do.” She closed her eyes. “No, you won’t. I can’t stay and watch you tear yourself apart.” “Lucy.” “Let me go, Simon. Please.” She opened her eyes, and he saw infinite pain in her gaze. Had he done this to his angel? Oh, God. He unclasped his hands. ↗

— Elizabeth Hoyt

#lucy #simondabomb #the-serpent-prince #the-sun-watches-the-sun

I’ll stab him,” offers Jaden as she makes a stabbing motion. “You expect me to play along?” Rob scoffs, gripping his arm protectively. “Pretty much,” replies Landon earnestly. “You’re serious?” “As a heart attack.” “No,” argues Rob. “I’m not going to let Jaden—or anyone else—skewer me.” He’s greeted with an amused silence. “Bleedin’ crime is what it is,” he mutters. “Why can’t someone else go all noble sacrifice-y? It’s because I’m English, ain’t it? ↗

— Laura Kreitzer

#humor #laura-kreitzer #scifi #summer-chronicles #scifi

In essence I find that the foundation of modern conservatism is driven by a clinging to God in fear of the world, whereas the foundation of modern liberalism is a clinging to the world in fear of God; albeit, the true foundation should be one's clinging to God in fear of God. ↗

— Criss Jami

#belief #clinging #conservatism #conservative #essence

The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens. ↗

— Alexis de Tocqueville

#democratic #democratic society #functions #health #may

He was seemingly born not only with a gift for language, but with a particularly nasty clock which makes him go crazy every three years or so. ↗

— Kurt Vonnegut

#giftedness #mental-health #mental-illness #mental-illness

You have to quit confusing a madness with a mission. ↗

— Flannery O'Connor

#delusion #extremism #fanaticism #fanatics #guerrilla-decontextualism

Ritual abuse diagnosis research – excerpt from a chapter in: Lacter, E. & Lehman, K. (2008).Guidelines to Differential Diagnosis between Schizophrenia and Ritual Abuse/Mind Control Traumatic Stress. In J.R. Noblitt & P. Perskin(Eds.), Ritual Abuse in the Twenty-first Century: Psychological, Forensic, Social and Political Considerations, pp. 85-154. Bandon, Oregon: Robert D. Reed Publishers. quotes: A second study revealed that these results were unrelated to patients’ degree of media and hospital milieu exposure to the subject of Satanic ritual abuse. “In fact, less media exposure was associated with production of more Satanic content in patients reporting ritual abuse, evidence that reports of ritual abuse are not primarily the product of exposure contagion.” Responses are consistent with the devastating and pervasive abuse these victims have experienced, so often including immediate family members. ↗

— Randy Noblitt

#cult #dissociation #dissociative-identity-disorder #false-memories #hospitals

Anything under size five isn't a woman. It's a boy with breasts. ↗

— Laurell K. Hamilton

#sizeism #anita-blake

It was not a great presence but a great absence, a geometric ocean of darkness that seemed to swallow heaven itself. ↗

— Laura Hillenbrand

#zeppelin #world-war-ii

I never thought I should live to grow blasé about the sound of gunfire, but so I have ↗

— George Orwell

#world-war-ii #world-war-ii