“I looked back at the boy and his father. The man was holding him close now, his arms wrapped tightly around him as if to shield him from the cold. Their laughter echoed down the street–bright and fleeting, and full of something I hadn’t felt in years. I wondered if that boy would grow up to feel the same sting of disappointment I did, if his father would one day become a stranger too.” PhilosophyLossGriefFamilyRelationshipEmotionalIsolationExistentialismLiterary Fiction Author:Sasha Harding
“Maybe she was better at pretending than I'd given her credit for. Or maybe I was the one pretending.” PhilosophyLossGriefFamilyRelationshipEmotionalIsolationExistentialismLiterary Fiction Author:Sasha Harding
“I was sober enough to have a conscience, but not sober enough to actually use it. Trapped in this numb body, floating somewhere between clarity and oblivion.” PhilosophyLossGriefFamilyRelationshipEmotionalIsolationExistentialismLiterary Fiction Author:Sasha Harding
“It wasn't the first time I had relied on her in our strange, undefined 'relationship.' Late-night texts, spontaneous meet-ups, testing boundaries—most of the time, she did bite. But this? This felt different. It wasn't just curiosity or intrigue anymore. I wasn't just waiting to see how far I could push her. I needed her. I wanted her in a way I couldn't fully explain, in a way that went far beyond anything I'd felt before.” PhilosophyLossGriefFamilyRelationshipEmotionalIsolationExistentialismLiterary Fiction Author:Sasha Harding
“The rest of the evening unfolded in a gentle, unspoken rhythm. We didn’t rush through anything. We didn’t need to. There was comfort in the quiet moments between us. I didn’t feel the need to fill the space with words, and neither did she. I didn’t have to be anywhere or do anything right now. For once, I was just... here. And that was enough. The world outside continued to spin, I let myself sink into the moment, the steady rhythm of her breathing, and for once, I didn’t have to wonder if I was doing the right thing. I just had to believe it.” PhilosophyLossGriefFamilyRelationshipEmotionalIsolationExistentialismLiterary Fiction Author:Sasha Harding
“I deliberate on whether the morning would bring a golden sun, melting the thick snow at the foot of the house, turning ice to rivulets down the stone steps. Or if winter would keep its hold, the chill climbing steadily up the windows, pressing cold fingers against the glass, trying to find its way inside. I wondered if the frost would cling to the dubstep or if it had already settled within.” PhilosophyLossGriefFamilyRelationshipEmotionalIsolationExistentialismLiterary Fiction Author:Sasha Harding
“I love you."The words slipped from my lips into the cold air—small, fragile, real. Her breath hitched, the first real reaction I'd received from her all evening. My heart hammered in my chest, as I waited. Half of me was hoping she'd say it back, but the other half was terrified that I had said it too soon. Perhaps I had—perhaps I had ruined something. But there was no doubt in my mind. If there was one thing I was certain of in this world, it was that I loved her. Completely. Undeniably.” PhilosophyLossGriefFamilyRelationshipEmotionalIsolationExistentialismLiterary Fiction Author:Sasha Harding
“And something—something was terribly, terribly wrong.” PhilosophyLossGriefFamilyRelationshipEmotionalIsolationExistentialismLiterary Fiction Author:Sasha Harding
“The call came early in the morning with news—the kind of news that doesn't wait for a more convenient hour. It didn't surprise me. It should have, but it didn't. I don't know why, but the only thing I felt at that moment was the cold press of the phone against my ear, a lifeless object relaying lifeless news.” LossGriefFamilyRelationshipEmotionalIsolationExistentialismLiterary FictionMelancholic Author:Sasha Harding
“Even with the weight of it all—the distant phone call, the pooling rain, the quiet ache in my chest—the world kept spinning. Indifferent, relentless, and unchanged despite all it had lost.” LossGriefFamilyRelationshipEmotionalIsolationExistentialismLiterary FictionMelancholic Author:Sasha Harding
“Her words lingered in the air, mingling with the salty tang of the sea breeze, until they became indistinguishable from the whispers of the ocean itself.” PhilosophyLossGriefFamilyRelationshipEmotionalIsolationExistentialismLiterary Fiction Author:Sasha Harding
“The world, it seemed, had no interest in change. It was the same as it had always been, with people waking up each day only to go through the motions, drifting through their routines like the walking dead. Nothing truly shifted, nothing truly mattered.” PhilosophyLossGriefFamilyRelationshipEmotionalIsolationExistentialismLiterary Fiction Author:Sasha Harding
“You always hear that crap about "kill them with kindness." Fuck that. Honestly, genuinely, truly—fuck that. As long as you let shitty people get away with shitty things, nothing ever changes. Why should I let them insult and degrade me and still grace them with my pearly whites? Why should we let ourselves get worn down by human garbage? It doesn't work that way. It can't. It mustn't.” PhilosophyLossGriefFamilyRelationshipEmotionalExistentialismLiterary FictionPolitcs Author:Sasha Harding
“It was in times like these I wondered if dying could be a peaceful thing. I'd been cooped up the last few days, struggling with the flu—or at least, that was what I thought it was. My nose felt like a delicate piece of china, one sneeze away from shattering me completely. My throat? Violated. And not in a way that could be mistaken for pleasurable.” PhilosophyLossGriefFamilyRelationshipEmotionalIsolationExistentialismLiterary Fiction Author:Sasha Harding
“The thing about studying ancient history is that it rips away the comforting illusions of progress. People love to think we've evolved, that we've left behind the savagery of our ancestors. But have we? Sure, we've built taller buildings, faster machines, systems so complex I can't even begin to comprehend them. But at our core, we're still the same selfish, short-sighted creatures we've always been.” PhilosophyLossGriefFamilyHistoryRelationshipEmotionalIsolationExistentialismLiterary Fiction Author:Sasha Harding
“Maybe that's what makes us human—the fact that we know how broken we are, but we keep playing the game anyway. Maybe that's what the ancients were trying to say all along. Life's a tragedy, sure, but it's also a comedy. And the only way to survive was to keep laughing, even when there's nothing funny about it.” PhilosophyLossGriefFamilyRelationshipEmotionalIsolationExistentialismLiterary Fiction Author:Sasha Harding
“I reached out, pressing my fingers against the cold surface of the mirror. For a fleeting second, I wondered if my hand might slip through, might fall into whatever world lay on the other side. Would anyone notice I had gone? Would they even care?” PhilosophyLossGriefFamilyRelationshipEmotionalIsolationExistentialismLiterary Fiction Author:Sasha Harding
“But I wasn't there. I wasn't anywhere. Not really. And I pondered how long my mask had been fading for...” PhilosophyLossGriefFamilyRelationshipEmotionalIsolationExistentialismLiterary Fiction Author:Sasha Harding
“Tears began to fall, hot and relentless, tracing tracks down my face. I didn't even try to stop them. I didn’t even know why I was crying. Maybe it was the pain. The tears kept coming, a relentless tide. My throat ached, my head pounded, and my body felt like it was caving in on itself. For a moment, I hoped that I might just pass out. Anything to make it stop.” PhilosophyLossGriefFamilyRelationshipEmotionalIsolationExistentialismLiterary Fiction Author:Sasha Harding
“I realised the hardest part wouldn’t be facing them–it would be facing myself.” PhilosophyLossGriefFamilyRelationshipEmotionalIsolationExistentialismLiterary Fiction Author:Sasha Harding