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The Girl with a Thousand Faces

Book by Sunyi Dean · 3 quotes · Asian Fantasy, Darkness, Death

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The Girl with a Thousand Faces Quotes

“She gathers you close amidst the churning currents. Never doubt that I will always love you, she whispers, and she dives. This time, there is no going up. No return to the surface. There’s a certain strange peace in that knowledge. At least you won’t be alone, you tell yourself. Even if the only person who stays with you is your murderer, it is still better than dying by yourself. You do not resist as she bears you down, nor do you cry (no tears beneath the ocean, after all). Instead, you think of Baba, crouched over the kitchen table as he whispers, All things are transient because now you understand him, so perfectly well. Darkness encroaches, still and quiet; the storm cannot touch these depths. Pressure compresses your lungs and bursts in your ears and it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter at all. Your silence matches Sea Sister’s in this salt-tinged world she inhabits. Then death arrives like a sudden breeze, and blows your spirit clean away.”

“Somewhere to the south of your tiny refuge, Hong Kong is currently surrendering to Japan this very afternoon. The history textbooks will refer to this day as Black Christmas. Soon, troops will move in to establish martial law and subjugate the population. Soon, thousands of men will die in prisons and POW camps, while thousands of women will face rape and sexual slavery. Thousands more will starve because there is no food coming into the ports, while many will die screaming from torture. I cannot help most of them, and my heart bleeds for this. The darkest hours of your city are here, and they will last for three years, eight months. The legacy of pain they leave behind will last even longer. It is everything your parents feared would happen, and more.”