As Many Souls as Stars

You could have as many souls as stars, my love, and all those lives would be as unhappy as the first.

She was starting to believe they were the same thing. When humans wanted each other, they were all mouths and teeth, desire and satisfaction. Miriam wanted Esther in that way, also. She didn't see the need to distinguish between lust and love, consumption and devotion. Miriam loved her. She wanted her life and her death and each bloody beat of her heart in between.

I love you," she said, "and I hate you, more than I have ever hated anyone. I see it now: you must love someone to truly hate them. They must give you something before they can take it away.

You believe love is submission," Cybil replied. "If that is so, then how can he ever love you back?

And God above us all," Cybil said. "Observing us squirming on our hooks.

Esther felt as if she were ripe fruit, about to burst its skin, a cloud about to rain, and she was so undone, so confused, so exhausted of feeling constantly on the edge of something without actually reaching it.