"The light is bright," said Evangeline. "It radiates through everything. I am awake. The top of my mind extends upward. For the first time I see the faintest shadows that obscure in clumps like a living flitting screen between myself and light. We are defined by light. My skin absorbs it. Our eyes swallow it and send it to the mind. What can I see with the eyes? Can I sift the light from shadow? Maybe if my heart thumps faster, if my components begin to tremble - the back of my skull strains, my ears pop - then the whole world would crackle and split.

"What would they look like? These beings around me, unsheathed of this - I know not what, but this - we retain our bodies, but NOT... not this. The page before me becomes whiter; I scarcely notice the floor, black and solid. There is a blue glove dangling from the handle on the window like the outside twilight gathering in. The blackboard is smudged ferociously - it tangles my perception and sinks in my gut."

"I am humility," said Moriah. "We are buried here, in the earth. We live each moment; we either move or we don't; we conflict with each other and define our shape."

"I pretend to be a child," said Evangeline. "I smile and step lightly and quickly. Perhaps it is best that they perceive me that way, so that they will accept and allow my presence. I wish only to escape. I have glimpsed the boxes and bones and I have no desire for them. I watch Moriah drag her feet in the dust. I love her, thus I understand. But Walker presses me - I cannot understand unless I feel the dirt beneath my nails. I have no desire for the grime but I land because of the set of his shoulders. His blades are set."