Home > Work > The Forest of Hands and Teeth (The Forest of Hands and Teeth, #1)
1 " There is a child - a baby - who long since kicked off her blankets. Her skin is ashen and her mouth open in a perpetual yet silent scream. She isn't old enough to roll over, to sit up, to climb. So she lies there kicking her fat legs against the footboard of the crib, eternally calling for her mother. For food. For flesh. "
― Carrie Ryan , The Forest of Hands and Teeth (The Forest of Hands and Teeth, #1)
2 " The living used to wonder what happened after death. She said that whole religions were born and evolved around this one simple uncertainty. "
3 " I sit with my knees pulled in tight and my arms wrapped around my shins. I can no longer feel my feet, as if blood refuses to spread so far from my heart. "
4 " I know in my life there have been breaches, but I also know that I am very good at blocking out the memories that serve me no purpose. "
5 " Who are we if not the stories we pass down? What happens when there's no one left to tell those stories? To hear them? Who will ever know that I existed? What if we are the only ones left -- who will know our stories then? Who will remember those? "
6 " You think you want love, Mary. You think it is this beautiful gift that does nothing but fill you and make you whole. But you are wrong. Love can be cruel and ugly. It can become dark and cause the deepest pain. "
7 " I realize that sometimes death comes before you expect it. That while we are rarely prepared for our friends, family and loved ones to die, we are never prepared for our own deaths. Never prepared to reconcile our own regrets. "
8 " It's as if there is infinity between our lips and we will never actually touch. Like math, where dividing by half can last for eternity. "
9 " Did you know that when we were kids Cass used to tell me your stories? She used to laugh at you. Not in a mean way, but in the way that Cass used to laugh at everything before...." He gestures around us at our world now. I shake my head. "I thought Cass never liked my stories. Never remembered them." "Oh yes, I would beg her to tell me if she had new stories from you." "Why didn't you ask me yourself?" I whisper. "Because you were Harry's," he responds. "Not always." "Yes, always," he says. "Always in his eyes," he adds in a softer tone. "
10 " I will always need you," I whisper. "All of this time I've waited for you. And you were never coming for me. Why did you let me wait for you? "
11 " I love you, Mary," he says, and that is when I let the tears come. The great heaving sobs of terror and pain that shake my body until I can do nothing but grab on to Travis to anchor me to this spot. He pulls me toward him and I curl around his body as I weep. I fall into darkness with his fingers trailing through my har, my cheeks still wet and my body heaving. "
12 " Keď spoznáš lásku ... láska je to, vďaka čomu hodno žiť. Keď s ňou každý deň žiješ. Zobúdzaš sa s ňou, držíš sa jej v nepohode a po prežitej nočnej more. Keď je láska tvoje útočisko pred smrťou, čo nás obklopuje a napĺňa ťa až po okraj, že to ani nedokážeš vyjadriť. "
13 " Habits die hard and absence doesn't stop my fingers from searching. "
14 " Would you ever give up the ocean for me? "
15 " I want to sleep, I want dreams to pull me from this world and make me forget. To stop the memories from swirling around me. To put an end to this ache that consumes me. "
16 " Suddenly, all I can think about are all the things I don't know about him. All the things I never had time to learn. I don't know if his feet are ticklish or how long his toes are. I don't know what nightmares he had as a child. I don't know which stars are his favorites, what shapes he sees in the clouds. I don't know what he is truly afraid of or what memories he holds closest. And I don't have enough time now, never enough time. I want to be in the moment with him, feel his body against mine and think of nothing else, but my mind explodes with grief for all that I am missing. All that I will miss. All that I have wasted. "
17 " It wouldn't have mattered if they were scratches or not," he says, his voice like liquid. "I was bitten during the escape from the house." My limbs go weak, everything inside me folding in collapsing on itself."I was already dead," he says, opening his eyes. "
18 " We forget that the rest of live can be just as dangerous. I think about how fragile we are here-- like fish in a glass bowl with the darkness pressing in on every side. "
19 " Because I do not accept the hand of God; I do not believe in divine intervention or predestination. I cannot believe that our paths are pre-chosen and that our lives have no will. That there is no such thing as choice. "
20 " ... If you never try to see [someone] for who they are, then you don't love them enough. "
