The Man Behind The Mask

as a free fall. He was free-falling into the light in her eyes, trusting that he could survive the landing. He took a deep breath. He was going to tell it all.

What else do you want to do?” he asked softly. “To live dangerously. Before the blood vessel in your head lets go.”

put a hand to her forehead, swayed. He furrowed his brow, baffled.
“My best impression of pre-aneurism,” she told him.
She wasn’t sure what it was, but he brought out something zany in her, a kind of lack of inhibition that she had not experienced often.

Could be brain freeze. From the milkshake,” she told him.
“Ah.” He looked genuinely relieved, but she wasn’t letting him off the hook yet.

honestly, when he turned on the charm? It was nearly hopeless. That thing he had done with his eyelashes? The big, innocent blink?
Criminal, really.

Somehow his one hand left the small of her back, went to her hair and smoothed it soothingly.
That feeling was back.
Of being alive.
Only standin

“We rented Star Wars last week.”
“Really? That sounds like fun redefine

Boldly, almost daring him, she held out her hand.
Come, then, into the light.
And felt as if the bottom was falling out of her world when he took it. Because it was only then that she recognized what darkness she had been in.

e’s waving his tail at me. Like a middle finger. Wow. Even I can read his energy.

darkness. I can feel the light trying to get through. There are cracks in the wall and light is seeping in, and every time I patch one crack, another one appears.”