A tractor beam from the Imperial ship locked onto the shuttle and in seconds it became apparent they were being hauled in. The tractor was inescapable, and they knew it. The shuttle’s small yet potent engines struggled vainly against the irresistible pull. Inside, the Hammer and his men prepared to meet their fate.

— Christina Engela

My love, we can close our eyes, but we cannot stop the sunrise.

— Kamand Kojouri

No one, in the end, made it out of this life alive.

— Garth Risk Hallberg

Pleasure, ecstasy, they cannot seem to bear: their escape from it is in violence, in drinking and fighting and apparently inescapable----And, so why shouldn't their religion drive them to crucifixion of themselves and one another? He thinks.

— William Faulkner

We’ll sleep when we’re tired. When we wake, I’ll find a way to make you laugh, and I’ll live in the sound of it.” My throat gets tight because I long for that day to be now. “We’ll find somewhere you’ve never been, and we’ll make it ours—fill it with memories of us. That’s what I want.” I finish with the alcohol swab. Leaning close, I gently blow on his healing wound to ease the sting. Reed takes my hand and brings it to his lips, kissing it tenderly. “And when we get that sleep, there will never be a side or a side of the bed—we’ll always meet in the middle. And when I hold you there, in our bed, you’ll let me rest my lips here.” Reed lets go of my hand to move his thumb to caress the sensitive skin of my neck just beneath my ear. I get swept up in him: my body his with one touch. I turn and rub my cheek gently against his palm. “And we won’t rush...ever,” I murmur, forgetting to be scared. I want that future with him. “The world can spin around us, but we’ll take our time, savor every moment.” My head rests on his shoulder. “Just you and me.

— Amy A. Bartol