Loneliness is the human condition.

That day, when Astrid came home from school, Claire brought out the jewelry she kept in the freezer and dumped it onto her bed, a pirate’s treasure, deliciously icy. Freezing strands of green jade beads with jeweled clasps, a pendant of amber enclosing a fossilized fern. Astrid pressed it, cold, to her cheek. She draped an antique crystal bracelet down the part in in her hair, let it lap on her forehead like a cool tongue.

(  'They used to bury people like this. Mouths full of jewels and a gold coin over each eye. Fare for the ferryman'....BIG Content Warning for mentions of eating disorders, suicidal ideations, and....uhh...sexual undertones...yeah.... )

Astrid wanted to tell her not to entertain despair like this. Despair wasn’t a guest, you didn’t play its favorite music, find it a comfortable chair. Despair was the enemy. It frightened her for Claire to bare her needs so openly. If a person needed something badly, it was Astrid's experience that it would surely be taken away. She didn’t need to put mirrors on the roof to know that.


[[ and so we head into the darkness that is Chapter 19. Lifted and altered slightly from White Oleander by Janet Fitch. This one's a doozy. NFB, obviously, but can be open, as always ]]