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d9f8578
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There were books about how to be gay; he'd seen them in stores and libraries. Some of them even had diagrams. But there weren't any diagrams about how to fall in love with your best friend and not fuck everything up.
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youth
romance
love
unrequited-love
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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4de46ec
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You hold onto what you have; you do not give it up easily, even when you know it is poisoning you.
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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2badc01
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He has '
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love
food
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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6d9f002
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It was like discovering that your innermost fires and terrors, the things you believed no one else could fathom, were in fact the basis of a recognized philosophy. Some part of you felt intimately invaded, threatened; some other part fell to its knees and sobbed in gratitude that it was no longer alone.
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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4821746
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If you want something, you don't wait for the world to deal it out for you. You take it.
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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db19888
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The sky is purple, the flare of a match behind a cupped hand is gold; the liquor is green, bright green, made from a thousand herbs, made from altars. Those who know enough to drink Chartreuse at Mardi Gras are lucky, because the distilled essence of the town burns in their bellies. Chartreuse glows in the dark, and if you drink enough of it, your eyes will turn bright green.
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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1b74aaa
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Maybe they did what they had to do to live, and tried to get a little love and have a little fun before the darkness took them.
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love
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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332a7ca
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I'm your nightmare. Did you think you were done with nightmares, now you've become one?
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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c6a49f7
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With the first kiss his mouth will taste of wormwood.
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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1b9d49d
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Rickey sometimes wondered what would have become of them if the Peychaud crew hadn't imploded one night in a marathon of apocalyptic drunkenness. No one remembered much of this night, but by the end of it, two cars were totaled, the sous chef and the bartender were in Charity Hospital, the chef was in jail, and the grill guy's wife was filing for divorce. The owner decided to close the place and they found themselves jobless. Rickey guessed..
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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6c8dcaa
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At some point you have to start letting people save their own life.
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save
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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ee296c4
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No", said a voice from the dark doorway. A weary voice, a voice for speaking long after midnight, a voice to be used when all paths are blocked, when castles have fallen to ruins, when morning will not come again."
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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a049354
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in until ten, not even on Mardi Gras nights. No one except the girl in the black silk dress, the thin little girl with the short, soft dark hair that fell in a curtain across her eyes. Christian always wanted to brush it away from her face, to feel it trickle through his fingers like rain. Tonight, as usual, she slipped in at nine-thirty and looked around for the friends who were never there. The wind blew the French Quarter in behind her, ..
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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75ee10d
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Trevor cupped his hands around it, felt Zach's heartbeat throbbing between his palms. The skin of the shaft was textured, slightly rippled beneath the surface. The head was as smooth as satin, as rose petals. Trevor rubbed his thumb across it, squeezed gently, heard Zack suck air in through his teeth and moan as he let it out. He could see blood suffusing the tissue just beneath the translucent skin, a deep dusky rose delicately purpled at ..
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lovers
lgbtq
gay
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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b730045
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Atheists loved to use that term to describe some shadowy force that somehow controlled human destiny, but what the hell did they think the universe was? Did they think the stars and nebulae took an interest in their doings, and if they really meant God, why couldn't they just say so?
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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6a30f26
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And that's another thing. What if I were to talk to Tanker, find out if he's happy at the Polonius Room, see if maybe he wants to come back? He was always such a key part of this kitchen." Rickey pointed a chocolate-smudged finger at Lenny. "Don't you dare. If I decide I want to talk to him, I'll talk to him. I told you, I don't need you handling my business for me." "I understand," Lenny said, making a mental note to call Tanker."
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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e6f6286
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Never relinquish your terrors. That's when they catch you.
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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2f14600
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Didn't he have to admit, begrudgingly, that in some extra-perverse corner of his brain the idea of having to be out of town before sundown appealed to him? New Orleans had been the only constant thing in his life. But didn't he yet an itchy foot sometimes, didn't he sometimes think about just throwing all his stuff in his car and going? Of course he did. Everybody did, even normal people, the ones with triple mortgages and orthodontists' bi..
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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bfd2ff1
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Horror is the badge of humanity, worn proudly, self-righteously, and often falsely.
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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1229602
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Ah, relationships. If he was lucky, Luke thought, he would never have another one.
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fiction
lgbt
horror
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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3abfd33
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But if I die without trying again, I'm a coward. I don't mind having regrets about stuff I've done. It's the regrets about stuff I haven't done that bother me.
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fiction
lgbt
horror
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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3c6d3b6
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Stare at him," said Ghost. "They won't bite you if you keep staring at them." Steve backed away. "They bite?" Not really. They hiss at you, mostly. The only time geese are ever dangerous is when you happen to be standing on the edge of a cliff. I heard about a guy that almost got killed that way." By geese?" Yeah, there was a whole flock of them coming after him. All hissing and cackling and stabbing at his ankles with their big ol' beaks. ..
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supernatural
vampires
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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1276685
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He wasn't much for erasing anyway. Sometimes your mistakes showed you the really interesting connections between your brain, your hand, and your heart, the ones you might otherwise never know were there. They were important even if you had no idea what they meant. Like now, for instance. Coming back here might be the biggest mistake he'd ever made. But it might also be the most important thing he'd ever done.
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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411fd5a
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Out here the wild things are healthy, the old trees whose roots find sustenance far below the ill-used layer of topsoil, the occasional rosebush gone to green thicket and thorns, the unstoppable kudzu. It is as if they have decided to take back the land for their own.
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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0883dab
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A chiropractor is a doctor who performs adjustments on the spine," Rickey told the class before bending Gary backward and "adjusting" him, ripping off the false arm and spraying red hair dye all over the classroom. Gary howled in "pain" and collapsed dramatically on the threadbare school carpet, his legs flailing a bit before hitting the floor with a terrible, final-sounding . That was the first time they were sent to the principal's offi..
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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f5b8165
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I press my hands against my chest, wishing I could somehow be even closer to him. I hate skin; I hate bones and bodies. I want to curl up inside of him and be carried there forever.
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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2cecc24
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In every long-term relationship are a few pockets of deep and dangerous water into which one can step unaware if not careful. Eventually, somebody drowns or the interested parties post warning signs around these pockets.
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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ed499bb
|
And what was I if not death's ghostwriter?
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fiction
lgbt
horror
|
Poppy Z. Brite |
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a5bfb6d
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Let the night come. We are not afraid.
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lost-souls
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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b21fdea
|
Terry remembered a summer two or three years ago when there had been a plague of luna moths (...) One night Ghost has mused aloud that to the bats, the moths' blood must taste like creme de la menthe.
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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22fc758
|
They were kissing again, carefully at first, learning the shape and texture of each other's lips, testing the sharpness of the teeth behind them. It's too fast, said a panicky voice in his mind. And too dangerous. He'll drink your juices, taste your brain, crack your soul open like an egg! Hell, I think I want him to do all that.
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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4ab558f
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All at once it hit him: this was power too, just as surely as smashing your fist into someone's face, just as surely as putting a hammer through someone's skull. The power to make another person crazy with pleasure instead of fear and pain, to have every cell in another person's body at your thrall.
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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7e0d0b0
|
Help the ones you love, his grandmother had told him, help them when you can, and after that, mind your business. Your gift doesn't give you the right to go rearranging other people's lives for them. You might see their souls, but they won't always want you to be their mirror.
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|
Poppy Z. Brite |
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bcc7547
|
AS WE THINK, SO WE ARE;
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|
Poppy Z. Brite |
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798a6c8
|
Death doesn't hurt," said one of the twins, and a light came into his silver eyes. "Death is dark, death is sweet." The other twin took up the litany. "Death is all that lasts forever. Death is eternal beauty." "Death is a lover with a thousand tongues--" "A thousand insect caresses--" "Death is easy."
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Poppy Z. Brite |
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0d2b415
|
My grandmother told me you shouldn't try to define evil, that the minute you think you've got it all pinned down, a kind of evil you never even thought of will sneak up behind you and jump inside your head. I don't think anyone knows what evil is. I don't think anyone has the right to say.
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|
Poppy Z. Brite |
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23906ed
|
Zillah took her arm and led her toward the van. Ann kept her arm squeezed against her body so that his fingers would come into contact with the sideswell of her breast. He didn't move his hand away. Soon she felt his fingers begin to move, subtly caressing her, a forefinger darting out to graze her nipple. The nipple shivered erect,
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Poppy Z. Brite |