Sublime

and lined the iron sights at the lonely bottle of

continued awareness in a buried man.

“But I want to see Eli.” “Why?” she asked. “You can’t kill him.” “That may be.” His fingers curled around the shovel. “But half the fun is trying.”

taut

He was like a man who had leaned around a corner and had seen an unexpected monster lying in wait, crouching among the dried bones of its old kills.

Every notch scratched in the kitchen door frame marked the growing up of someone now long dead.