Rick Yancey

They say no one knows the Bible better than the devil.

Cassie?__t__ Sammy, holding on to Ben, because he__ feeling the Ben thing a little more than he is the Cassie one at the moment. Who__ this guy falling from the ductwork, and what__ he doing with my sister?__his must be Sammy,_ Evan says.__his is Sammy,_ I say. __h! And this is____en Parish,_ Ben says.__en Parish?_ Evan looks at me. That Ben Parish?__en,_ I say, my face on fire. I want to laugh and crawl under the counter at the same time. __his is Evan Walker.___s he your boyfriend?_ Sammy asks.I don__ know what to say. Ben looks totally lost, Evan completely amused, and Sammy just damned curious. It__ my first truly awkward moment in the alien lair, and I__ been through my share of moments.__e__ a friend from high school,_ I mutter.And Evan corrects me, since it__ clear I__e lost my mind. __ctually, Sam, Ben is Cassie__ friend from high school.___he__ not my friend,_ Ben says. __ mean, I guess I kind of remember her_ Then Evan__ words sink in. __ow do you know who I am?___e doesn__!_ I fairly

And it occurs to me that there__ no real difference between us, the living and the dead; it__ just a matter of tense: past-dead and future-dead.

We're all dead...Some of us are just a little further along than others.

I should have asked, I guess,_ he says. __ shouldn__ have assumed.___hat?__e rotates around on his butt to face me. Me on the sofa, him on the floor, looking up. __hat I was going with you.___hat? We weren__ even talking about that! And why would you want to go with me, Evan? Since you think he__ dead?___ just don__ want you to be dead, Cassie.

It's almost dawn. You can feel it coming. The world holds its breath, because there's really no guarantee that the sun will rise. That there was a yesterday doesn't mean there will be a tomorrow.

So cold your tears freeze against your cheeks.'It's not my fault,' I told Bear. 'I don't make the weather. You got a beef, take it up with God.' That's what I've been doing a lot lately: taking it up with

Tears welled in his eyes. It was like watching chocolate melt.

Even the most sensitive person can get used to even the most insensitive things.

Madness is a wholly human malady borne in a brain too evolved__r not quite evolved enough__o bear the awful burden of its own existence.

If the enemy looks just like you, how do you fight him?

Sullivan had her Crucifix Soldier and now I have mine. No. I am the soldier. Teacup is the cross.

I always assumed it owed more to the fact that he didn't like me.

His other hand finds my cheek, and he wipes away my tears with his thumb. The chocolate scent overwhelms me as he bends over and whispers in my ear, __o, Cassie. No, no, no.__ throw my arm around his neck and press his dry cheek against my wet one. I__ shaking like an epileptic, and for the first time I can feel the weight of the quilts on the top of my toes because the blinding dark sharpens your other senses.I__ a bubbling stew of random thoughts and feelings. I__ worried my hair might smell. I want some chocolate. This guy holding me__ell, it__ more like I was holding him__as seen me in all my naked glory. What did he think about my body? What did I think about my body? Does God really care about promises? Do I really care about God? Are miracles something like the Red Sea parting or more like Evan Walker finding me locked in a block of ice in a wilderness of white?__assie, it__ going to be okay,_ he whispers into my ear, chocolate breath.

We__e here, and then we__e gone, and it__ not about the time we__e here, but what we do with the time.

Life is full of little ironies, but it's also pockmarked with some the size of that big rock in Australia.

I should have bailed. That little voice had my back. That little voice is older than I am. It's older than the oldest person who ever lived. I should have listened to that voice.

It's been a long time since humans were prey animals. A hundred thousand years or so. But buried deep in our genes the memory remains: the awareness of the gazelle, the instinct of the antelope. The wind whispers through the grass. A shadow flits between the trees. And up speaks the little voice that goes. Shhhh, it's close now. Close.