Chapter Eight

CHAPTER EIGHT

The Significance of Words

The reason for Eddie’s abrupt and discourteous departure is this: When he met Bryony’s eyes, he was nearly knocked down by the force of her soul. A sweet soul, to be sure, but a strong soul. A courageous and carefully optimistic soul, and a soul that would be forced to endure the most gruesome and unspeakable tragedy. She would be broken, and razored, and her pink lips and her soft fingers and the insides of her elbows, and oh, oh, oh! Her fate was carefully engraved onto the irises of her eyes with jewelers’ tools, and Eddie couldn’t deny what he saw. She seemed like such a nice girl, a delicate thing that had fallen down from the stars, and the horrors that would befall her were . . . they were too much. Eddie couldn’t do it again.

Wait, what was that? Eddie couldn’t do it again, you wonder?

Such a difference one little word makes. Such weight and significance that word carries. If Eddie couldn’t do it, well, then, certainly it could be und