Caroline Fraser

Here comes a candle to light you to bed,

And here comes a chopper to chop off your head.

If you’re someone alert to the hazards beneath your feet, the OWL conveys the nature of the place, hinting that what lies beneath is dishonest, deceptive, given to the false front.

The earth here looks safe, but it isn’t.

Nature is a serial killer

Swift as death, the owl sweeps across the meadow, lifting a squirming ground squirrel in its talons

Make a pact with the devil until you have crossed the bridge.
—Romanian proverb

Lonnie Trumbull and Lisa Wick, the stewardesses on Queen Anne Hill, are bludgeoned and left for dead.

onna Schram tells the newspaper that Seattle “probably has the best rape program in the country.”

That’s a good thing, because it also has the best rapist.

I knew myself, at the first breath of this new life, to be more wicked, tenfold more wicked…and the thought, in that moment, braced and delighted me like wine.

—Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde