DEV1AT3

Sometimes you don't know you've crossed the line till you're on the other side.

It doesn't take a genius to appeal to the worst in people. All it takes is an asshole and a microphone.

They say it gets easier with time, you know? They're liars.

Friends are a family in a world like this. And family is more important than anything under heaven.

But when you're looking down the barrel at your own funeral, even doing something stupid sounds better than doing nothing at all.

So your masters set you hunting someone and away you go? Like a dog?" "Never understood that," the Preacher sighed. "How callin' someone a dog is supposed to be some kinda insult. I seen men die, Snowflake. I seen dogs die. Believe me when I say, dogs tend to go with more dignity.

When you've lost everything," she whispered, "you're free to do anything.

I learned m-my father wasn't my father," she said, voice growing stronger. "My mind wasn't my mind and my life w-wasn't my life. I learned... the people I l-loved didn't love me at all. And everything I believed was a lie." ... "But that wasn't the b-big secret," she whispered. ... "The big secret is this...." And moving so smoothly it almost seemed in slow motion, the girl pushed her fingers straight through the man's chest and tore his heart right out through his ribs. "When you've lost everything," she whispered, "you're free to do anything.

Wondering how they'd come all this way, been through so much, and learned so little. The supposed faithful. The so-called pure. In truth, they were grubby and emaciated. Desperate and ugly. Blind and complacent. Willing to murder innocents whose only crime was being born different. All to maintain their illusion that they were somehow superior. That their hatred and fear were justified, that their cause was righteous. that this was somehow anything other than murder.

But he also knew there were truths bigger than the ones he was programed with. Yes, he knew there was the letter of the law, the spirit of the Law and all the gray in between. But even after all he'd learned, all he'd suffered, he knew sometimes there was simple black and white, too. Sometimes there was right, and there was just plain wrong.

We never know what life will throw at us, Lemon," the old man said. "We never know where it will lead us. But we can know ourselves. And in knowing ourselves, we know the world.

Folks always need someone to hate. Usually someone different. If we can't find an Other, we make one up. It's just the way people are.

They'd had it all. Humans. And look what they did with it.

They said you never love anyone quite the way you love your First.

Turning the words of the Goodbook into a weapon of hate. Turning the promise of hereafter into a tool to accrue power here on earth. It was a brilliant racket. There was no way to prove it right or wrong until it was too late. It's genius, really. Cricket shook his head. "It doesn't take a genius to appeal to the worst in people. All it takes is an asshole and a microphone.