#oooo ouch

“I did not hate him!”

“Yes, you did, but you stayed with him and made yourself a martyr, and then you blamed him for your misery, and you keep on blaming him, long after he can defend himself. Well, that’s not going to be me, because the last person I want to be in this world is you.”

In the thick silence that followed Hope’s tirade, the image of Penrose Duckers’s full-sized crossbow filled Twyla’s mind, the heft of it, the tension of pulling the string into the nut, the heady power of the release. If Hope’s words were the shaft, then Twyla’s pierced heart was the bull’s-eye. Shaking with emotion, she hoisted herself out of the too-small swing.

“That’s good. Because the last thing I want for you to be in this life is me. But understand this: I am the person who put you into this world and loves you more than anyone else ever can or will, and I don’t want to see you making the same mistakes I made. Which is why I’m telling you to think twice before you hand over your birth key to someone who may not cherish it as much as he ought to.”

Hope shook her head in fury and disgust. “I can’t even look at you right now,” she told Twyla before she stomped inside. Twyla remained beside the swing set as Hope’s barb repeated over and over in her mind, shredding her.”

"I bought the game on the day it released. Downloaded every DLC for it the day it was too released. Got the added optional additional content. And; now my disc is too scratched to play. Shouldn't had set my luck to 1."