Twin Flames Quotes

It is an absolute human certainty that no one can know his own beauty or perceive a sense of his own worth until it has been reflected back to him in the mirror of another loving, caring human being.

For some people, “the point of no return” begins at the very moment their souls become aware of each others’ existence.

He touched my soul long before I knew what his hands felt like.

I am a wild woman. it would take a warrior to tame my spirit.

It wasn't exactly love at first sight, but it was deeper than that. A sense of belonging to a place I never knew I wanted but somehow always needed. It was a home that carried a heartbeat.

The way our fingers intertwine feels so natural and right; as if our hands hold memories of meeting in a thousand other lifetimes.

Everywhere he touches is fire. My whole body is burning up, the two of us becoming twin points of the same bright white flame.

Our souls speak a language that is beyond human understanding. A connection so rare the universe won't let us part.

Even the smallest shift in perspective can bring about the greatest healing.

Well,' I said. 'I could strip off my clothes and reveal to you that under my jeans and sweatshirt I'm actually wearing a tank top and short-shorts, much like Lara Croft from Tomb Raider...only mine are flame-retardant and covered in glow-in-the-dark dinosaur stickers.' No one stirred. Not even Christopher, who actually has a thing for Lara Croft. 'I know what you're thinking,' I went on. 'Glow-in-the-dark dinosaur stickers are so last year. But I think they add a certain je ne sais quoi to the whole ensemble. It's true, short-shorts are uncomfortable under jeans and hard to get off in the ladies' room, but they make the twin thigh-holsters in which I hold my high-caliber pistols so easy to get to....' The oven timer dinged. 'Thank you, Em,' Mr. Greer said, yawning. 'That was very persuasive.

Our hearts speak the same language but more importantly our souls share the same voice.

You have to appreciate where you have come from to know who you are in the present and whom you would like to be in the future.

I can't help but feel, across oceans and vast fields we will connect again. What we share is too rare to let go of for good but sometimes we have to accept, the timing isn't right.

So many went on a quest to tame her, The only man to win her heart was the one Who was also free.

The more I get to know him, the more I can feel my heart opening without my control. I always wanted a man to look at me as if I were a miracle, but I didn't realise I would oneday see a man just as grande

You are the ruler of my heart. There is no measure greater than this.

He was the one I wasn't looking for.

It's him, it always has been and it always will be ~ the only thing left now is timing.

Many speak to her but she's looking for the one who knows her souls language.

A big issue that some empaths face is unrequited love and all the grief that accompanies this experience. If someone truly is your soulmate or twin flame, the relationship will happen sooner or later. Don’t put your life on hold for another person, no matter how badly you want to be with them. If it’s meant to be, it will be.

Searching for a mind long lost I found it shaping colors and history near the cliffs of your heart.

Impossible to let go ... No longer knowing how to hold on.

Things began happening with odd synchronicity, as if the universe itself was conspiring on behalf of their love story.

He smiled up at me, his eyes twin golden flames. “I do so prefer hand-to-hand combat with you,” he said, catching my other wrist when I swung my fist down. “I like how close it brings us, Princess.” I shrieked my frustration – my irritation – at him. At myself. “There is something so wrong with you!” “Probably, but you know what?” He lifted his head off the ground. “That’s the part you like the most.

Find my hand in the darkness, intertwined you will be the day to my night. We can share wings and take flight towards our own inner light.

Never surrender to you're passions. Dream and live to excess.

Our eyes met and our souls caught on fire.

Every cloud has a silver lining. The edge of light that shines brightest holds a sliver of hope for a bright today & an even better tomorrow.

If you are not more alive when in love then you my friend are in love with the wrong one.

She’s everything. My past. My present. My future. My twin flame— the one who shares the path of my soul.

Unlike traditional relationships, Twin Flames mirror each other’s deepest desires, wounds, and shadows, leading to a push-pull dynamic of love, conflict, separation, and reunion.

The right relationship is the one that aligns with your soul’s highest good, whether it’s a Twin Flame or a Soulmate.

If you have met your Twin Flame, you are embarking on one of the most intense, challenging, and rewarding journeys of your life.

When you find your twin flame you also find your freedom, for there is nothing more exhilarating, wild and free than absolute soul love.

The Phoenix burns and rebirths from the ashes in the absence of need for witness, acceptance, understanding or belief.

I miss him for all the things he forgot to see in himself & if im lucky fate will help us rekindle a flame that never got set alight in the first place.

I can resist everything but the temptation of you.

Because of their sacred gift of translating and embodying energy, empaths are able to spot their soul mates or twin flames a mile away.

Twin flame relationships are often described as the most intense, exhilarating, and life-altering connections one can experience.

Your Twin Flame forces you to face your inner demons, so you can free yourself from them.

Never invest in any kind of relationship with anyone who is not willing to work on themselves just a little every day. A person who takes no interest in any form of self-improvement, personal development or spiritual growth will also not be inclined to make much of an effort building a truly meaningful connection with you. A relationship with only one partner willing to do the work ceases to be a relationship. And as anyone who has been there will tell you - it's pointless to try and dance the tango solo.

The thought of never crossing your path again is to enormous to bare, so for now I'll make dreams in my heart and remind myself to go and sit & remember them every once in a while.

My mind aches with a thousand stories. All variations with shredded threads of truth.

Soul mates recognise one another's vibration. They instantly fuse to the life force that surrounds their core of being.

Not everyone is meant to be with their Twin Flame. Many people choose a Soulmate relationship for a more stable and fulfilling life.

My body's been touched a thousand or more times but I am craving something so much deeper than that ~ I desire to be felt, right down to the core of my soul and the corners of my heart. That's what love is about isn't it ~ cracking yourself open to the possibility that it could change your life.

She always, She always wanted to express herself but no one cared, So she stopped, She was crushed, Stiff & lifeless, Like everything else.

You are worth fighting for.

With you, it's different. I can see the rest of my life before my eyes and that scares me a little. Men don't tame my wild heart but somehow I crossed your path and have never been the same since.

Loving you feels like my commitment to eternity a long time ago

With so many people in the world i am confident in saying, if you connect with someone on a soul level you dont take them for granted.

Never deviate from the path unless you are going to make love in the bushes .....

I look into your eyes and I’m sure that some divine artist dipped her brush in the same soul and used it to paint us both.

Our souls are madly in love, but our human keeps getting in the way. I'll find you first in our next life, Its the only promise i can make.

You and I The starry sky Dancing in the night Talking all things life.

Love is transcendent. It knows not of time nor space. It exist between 'us' for 'us.' Love and be loved. ~ Always ~

Thank you for existing.

Twin flame love is raw, real and rare ~ it comes when we least expect, can't understand nor have the patience to accept it, than its gone & the true test of fate starts to play. A bond built amongst the stars can't be tampered by an earthly experience, trust the distance, twin flames always meet again.

The thought of you makes my heart melt.

Totally present in this moment for you.

He didn't have to say much, It was all in his eyes ~ He didn't have to do much, It was enough, just to be at his side.

There is a man waiting for a woman like you, don't settle for someone who only opens half of your heart.

Living in the same building as her was the worst kind of distraction, and I had no one except myself to blame. Twin flames of resentment and frustration burned in my chest. I was weak for Stella Alonso, and I hated it.

Happiness comes easier when I'm thinking of you.

You are the master of my heart. I am a slave to you're soul. Intertwined in a perfect embrace that I will never release myself from.

Soul mate love transcends beyond the ethereal plane.

Twin flames burn eternal. Destine to shine bright in a united embrace that is set to last for an eternity.

We can try and push eachother away, we can try and deny what we feel but when two hearts have connected and two souls have been reminded of love there is simply no way fate can keep us apart.

Control is an illusion, as is restraint. Dark to light, light to darkness.

My soul remembered him, my heart connected with him but time had separated him from wanting me right now.

There are no rules, no deadlines, no guarantees, only the lessons your soul needs to learn.

Upon first glance I felt a sense of familiarity with you. Like we had been down this road a thousand times before, why I felt this with a complete stranger I am yet to know but I trust further down the road our chance meeting will make perfect sense.

The New Colossus Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she with silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

Maybe we are stars apart from each other, that there's an invisible line connecting us. I'd like to think we are together in one constellation

Never forsake what we have. There is no barter or trade worth exchanging what we mean to one another.

Eternities mutual embrace.

What can I tell you about the alchemy of twins? Twins are two bodies that dance to each other’s joy. Two minds that drown in each other’s despair. Two spirits that fly with each other’s love. Twins are two separate beings conjoined at the heart!

The world is a big place for a little heart like mine, I have kept it locked away until I meet warrior that tames my wild.

My hope is that it will offer some comfort to those who doubt their sanity, and ease the pain until the dust finally settles.

These days when you kiss a prince you often run the risk of turning him into a frog. But don't let the ogres in shining armor get you down. There is no need for distress - you don't want to be anyone's damsel anyway. Simply remind yourself that you are busy racking up those 'frequent failure points' that will eventually pay for an all expenses paid trip to Mr Right.

Feel my presence. Recognise my soul. Love my heart.

Unquenchable desire for interconnectedness. Sate me.

Fate had a hand in it - luck had nothing to do with it.

You are about to enter an arena, brimming with the darkest moments you will ever experience.

A wounded heart that loves even more is immortal, it only survives and blooms time after time. If you happen to live in it, there's no safer place in the world than its beating.

I yearn to taste my desire on your lips.

I want you to be happy and for me to be part of that happiness.

All paths lead me to you.

All that I am. All that I will be is defined by this moment.

i trust our connection, regardless of what logic has to say.

Whose are all these ghosts?” she said, smiling at a flustered-looking Geraldine. “Oh,” said Geraldine, “I think they might be mine...?

I was never certain of much, but I was so certain of you. The mind plays on tricks like that, but the heart doesn’t know how to lie.

The thought of you makes my days brighter and my nights filled with dreams.

Looking back at our lives, the unbelievable thing is that despite all the times when things felt so wrong, we still managed to meet at the perfect moment. Almost as if by some plan which we were unaware of.

Tearing through the room like an F5 tornado of hyperactive joy was Taylor Hawkins, my brother from another mother, my best friend, a man for whom I would take a bullet. Upon first meeting, our bond was immediate, and we grew closer with every day, every song, every note that we ever played together. I am not afraid to say that our chance meeting was a kind of love at first sight, igniting a musical “twin flame” that still burns to this day. Together, we have become an unstoppable duo, onstage and off, in pursuit of any and all adventure we can find. We are absolutely meant to be, and I am grateful that we found each other in this lifetime.

The measure of space & time creates an echo of haunting distance between us, yet we are close, we are united in the love we forge together.

I want to explore every aspect of you.

You make me want to be a better than I am today.

You are the missing piece of my heart and soul. United we are now whole.

I will gladly spend the rest of my days learning your secrets.

Colour me with you're intentions.

If its a lie, Then let me live, Between the interconnected fabric of truths, Offer me no more, Give me no less.

I was starting to fall for him, He didn't say it but the way He looked at me, Told me he felt the same.

No one survives this journey intact. Parts of your character will be cut away forever, as the lessons you receive on your path, remould you.

I see him in my mind's eye, feel him in my soul...twin flames will unite.

Twin flames of resentment and frustration burned in my chest. I was weak for Stella Alonso, and I hated it.

Twin flames do not “complete” you because you are already innately “complete” at a soulful level. Instead, they compliment you deeply and help you to grow.

Twin Flame spirituality is very pure. It seems to be a step above individual spirituality. I believe that is because the tf is not about oneself, but about God and all of humanity

Oh Love, whenever I hear your name, I hear the heartbeat of every lifetime all at once. I feel the heartbeat of the universe the way I get extreme earthquake shocks but completely safe

i met you and I knew, I was seeking you & you were seeking me to.

I hear them say "Why do I miss someone I haven't even met?" How about not missing someone because it feels like they've been with you all along?

We shared the same madness, we just met at the wrong time.

You became the sonnet that was etched in my minds eye. Existing outside the dreams we shared in the presence of our eternal love.

I love you more than the cookie monster loves cookies.

Forever and always from me to you. My love is pure, my love is true. It is gifted to none other than you.

You are a God among men and I am you're queen of hearts.

I am insatiable - aim to sate me but never dull my flames of desire that are fuelled by the existence of you.

You weren't even mine to lose but you were one of the greatest losses of my life.

Half and half equals one. And if already divided, Left they are as two halves For they're broken hearted.

Time and time again, we reconnect. It's like the universe nudges us to give it one more chance.

She drinks in his nakedness. Her sixth sense of knowing assures her that he is the one she has been waiting for all her life.

Dance with me through moments of surreality. We are one.

It is a feeling deep in your soul, that you have known this person forever. Even if you have never met them before in this lifetime, something inside you knows them, their energy, their essence, their soul.

I have always been a lone wolf and in the real sense of the word (people say it all the time but it's usually not true.) I feel like I watch people and I wonder why they do things. Especially when it comes to love and relationships: most of the time I am thinking "Why are they together when they are not meant to be together?" but then I realize that they don't know that they're not meant to be together; it's just me who knows things like that! And I don't see any importance in all the other reasons why people usually want to be together— because it looks good, because it's convenient, because it's a fun game to play... the only reason to be with someone is if you are meant for someone. You're a wolf and they're a wolf too and you look at each other and you say "You're my family, you're my home." Well, that's how I think.

When we get married, we promise a person the rest of our lives, "Til death do us part". But what if in another life we promised someone forever? What if ten lifetimes ago we promised someone lifetime after lifetime after lifetime? Think about it. Maybe that's why marriages fail when they do fail. Because maybe promises are never really broken.

In a crowded room my soul would still feel it's way to you. All we need to do is thank fate for putting us there.

It's not whether your love is temporary or has infinity. It's about the feeling of infinity when you're in love.

We have tried to run from our love, but our souls crave this magic.

I can't quite explain it but it feels like i've heard your voice a thousand times before and your name rings true to my soul. We have lived many lives and now we get one more.

We are just particles of the Universe;Our true story is written upon the Stars dear... Life is just an experience ,an experiential evolution .So simple :)

We will never have an expiration date. Our love is destined to exist forever.

Some mysteries are meant to stay that way.

You are the keeper of my eternal secrets.

You are my dark turned to bright, the day into my light. A vision of splendour to my lights, light.

Shattered edges of the diamonds rough sets to cut the unsuspecting.

I share my secrets with the moon, She talks about her love story with the sun & I share all my dreams about you.

And then she learnt to be a little wild she had to be a little less afraid.

It's nice to be chosen, to be that girl you have been searching for all your life.

There is a special essence about someone who is about to change your life, fated by the stars, like the universe planned it all along. Somehow these connections aren’t always designed to stay, like a shooting star - Magical yet fleeting.

My soul craves your magic, You're A memory of another life.

And the love in their eyes set the world on fire.

Beyond the mask she is witness to his glorious soul. Exposed to the elements, she warms her skin in his light and essence of being.

Right time, right place, right moment.

My instinct is saying its not over, but your adamant it is, what do I trust?

My soul has always remembered you, my mind is just trying to catch up.

There is so much magic in knowing you, i meet parts of myself ive been at war with, your presence alone is enough to make me feel like i win a few.

The extraordinary Soul Mate and Twin Flame encounters, makes one feel as if they have just arrived at a temple. They have been given access to the Divine. As they enter the room where the holy of holies resides, they can sense the spark of the Almighty deep within each other.

You are the wild Door to my peace Because you are an honest sinner I see you as my priest You can be my compass If you let me be the maze Come as vision in my night I'll become the shade in your days

Im happy to sit and be an ear to listen when the world gets wild but Id much prefer to watch the ways your eyes in sparkle in the midst of convincing me why you love the things you do. It gives me hope that someone else out there feels everything with this much depth and has the willingness to create a beautiful life from it.

You are a song I could listen to over and over again although I'm convinced it had played in my head a many times before

I want to be owned by you.

By the grace of god I feel you.

May I be awoken by the thunder of Zeus & touched by his lighting. It only need strike once. Once is enough to ignite the soul with purpose.

You are my perfect sentiment.

I could hear the human noise as were standing still in between the spaces of silence.

I sit under the weeping willow to watch the hanged man divine his truth.

He breathed life into my soul without laying his bare hands on my skin, my heart didn't have a choice.

Even if i had known the outcome before i made the choice, the cost to keep you was to lose me and that price is one i can no longer afford. My soul deserves more.

Honour the way a stranger can make sense in your world. Most people have been around for years without shaking our core & then one small instant in time, we cross paths with that one person who before them we didn't know what we were exactly looking for. Over 6 billion people I share this planet with and I've only felt that soul shaking, jaw dropping connection 4 times. Believe me when I say it's rare and you definitely owe it to yourself to honour it.

There are a lot of fleeting moments in life, and it’s always those small encounters that touch the fucking core. It changes you in subtle yet apparent ways. There was before them, but after them will come with a fight to forget that little moment that change your entire life.

I felt you before I knew of your existence, maybe it was a hint from the universe to continue on the yellow brick road, so when I would find you along my travels I would simply just know.

Elysian Mates are the most unpredictable of all the Star Bonds,” Zenith started. “An Elysian Mate is your absolute perfect match. Your other half, your soul mate, your twin flame, your one true love. It has many names. But in Solaria we call it this. Your Elysian Mate is Star Bound to you somewhere in this world. And if you come into contact with each other, the Zodiac will draw you together like two ends of a rope bound to a turning wheel. And the more time you spend together, the more you will be pulled magnetically and inescapably toward one another. But...

With you i feel safe. Content enough to know my whole world could be crashing down and you'd still be my home.

I've never had to ask a thing from you, as everything you've ever fed my soul was love.

Forever is a hypnotic version of infinity.

People usually fall in love. But some people were born in love. Already. And always.

I want to be tantric with you.

Blessed are those whose hearts are filled with the warmth of love from another.

You are my treasure.

I love the way you make me feel. I was incomplete without you.

The moon had never been as bright as the shine it was granting the sky with, committing every moment until sunrise.

He's the reason I am strong but he is also my biggest weakness.

He is the greatest mystery I had even known, one that always had me craving just a little bit more.

see me as your moonlight and you're the sky, i'm the satellite orbiting through your night

Our could always run but we could never hide Our souls crave this magic.

We werent exactly lovers yet, But we were a little more then friends. We just kept meeting at the wrong time, but our connection never ends.

I won't deny that I haven't been this vulnerable for a long time, it scares me ~ all of it, love, emotion and connection but I've reached a point in my life that I now know this type of love doesn't knock often and when it does, maybe it's time to open the door.

Please remember that your twin flame connection is not about fulfilling your own romantic needs, it's about reflecting the light to others in the world. If you are having problems with your twin, just back off, send your twin good thoughts, or none, and allow the purity of the twin flame shine and illuminate others you come into contact with. THAT IS WHAT THE TWIN FLAME IS FOR. Rise above your own personal desires and serve the good of all humanity.

If you're lucky enough you'll come across a certain individual who will completely shake up your life. A spark so deep you feel it before meeting them, a soul preparation for a drastic change. Whether this chance meeting it fleeting or holds longevity, it's a signpost you won't be able to ignore and you'll be a completely different person to whom you were before. This is magic, this is fate, this is purpose. And this is why we are alive, to experience a soul in human form and embrace The depth of life.

A twin flame is a person who is your friend, lover, and teacher in this life. He or she is the catalyst of your spiritual growth and the mirror of your deepest desires, needs, and fears. Your twin flame will reflect back to you all of your inner shadows, but also your deepest beauty and greatest strengths. In this way, your twin flame helps you to access tremendous emotional, psychological, and spiritual growth.

We all have a " someone " who we carry in our hearts sometimes for an entire lifetime. That one that just doesn't fully remove itself from your journey, reminded at coffee shops through scent and character of a stranger, or a song that you once shared. Years can go by without a thought and then one day you are reminded and it all comes crashing back. The one that could have been, the one that you never knew exactly how to say goodbye to. The one you wish to meet first in another life.

I have tried to run from your love, but my soul craves your magic.

To be alone was my best interest because needing myself was looking for you

My soul is in love with your soul.

You are my miracle.

Her soul whispers to his, "Take me. I am ready.

Her thought encased in a cocoon of desire. She allows the streams of sunlight to warm the core of her being while she waits for metamorphous.

i found my flower, there she was, she caught my eye and captured my heart. i listened to her...she called out to me with her colors and warmth, held me with her softness and beauty, silently asking only that i let her grow, and let her be, and love her for who she was: my flower

When you know you know. You won’t have to spend time translating your soul to another person, they will understand you. You won’t have to tell another person how to treat you, that should come naturally. You won’t have to spend time doubting your self worth because they’ll make you feel like you’re the only person in this world that matters. When you cross paths with your soulmate you will know.

The two lovers walked among the willow trees, and the oneness of each was a language speaking of the oneness of both; and an ear listening in silence to the inspiration of love; and a seeing eye seeing the glory of happiness. "Astarte has brought back our souls to this life so that the delights of love and the glory of youth might not be forbidden us, my beloved.

Attracting a person into your life who is genuinely compatible with you requires inner work. How can you discover who your soul mate is without first knowing who you really are and what you really want out of life? You’ll always be clambering around in the dark.

our life is a coloring book...together we color our world onto the vibrant pages with our radiant hues, saturating and warming our lives with a beauty that's so filled with colorful luminosity, just like sparkling sunbeams shining through a thousand colorful leaves ablaze on autumn trees

The jet-fuel smell thick in the air, the flame and smoke surrounding you, you can only get to 011 and that's enough to make you foreign, to make you other, to make you Mexican. You take out your wallet and put an ID between your teeth so they can find you when it all collapses. Your flesh may burn but your teeth will remain and the ID will be there. It's a fake ID. Nobody will ever know you died. Nobody will ever know you lived.

Our souls danced in magic, but reality wore thin. Two lovers who kept getting it wrong - Our timing always out of sync. A telepathy between our hearts, but our human keeps getting it wrong. A new melody but the same old song. Apart, but together - on the road we travel on. We'll never be out of touch our souls are too interwined - but we'll be out of reach , walking paths of a different kind, promised to find eachother first next life.

I’m no coward. But I’m no fool, either. I know when to fight, and I know when to survive to fight another day. *** I will not cease to exist. I will not die, no matter how much pain there is. I made a promise to someone. Someone who is my highest star, my brightest sun. Someone I want to be like. I wonder who it is. *** Inside that hollowed-out woman, there’s a place they can’t touch. There’s more to me than I thought there was. Something that no one and nothing can take away from me.

People who come into our lives for a season are the souls who show up whenever you forget how to play the game called, ‘Life.’ They enter your life with a sole purpose to help you define the goals so that you come out of it victorious. When they teach you the basics and set a solid foundation for you, they walk out of your game choosing not to be your opponent but stand at a distance just to see you win. Whenever you forget the rules, they come back, again and again, to remind you the rules of the games and to make sure that you don't lose, in any case.

I’ve never seen another love like Scarlett and Jameson’s. It was one of those fated lightning strikes, miraculous to see up close, to feel the energy between the two when they were in the same room. That is the love that lives in your veins. I’ve never seen another love like I had for Edward—we were twin flames. But I’ve also never seen another love like I had for Brian—deep and calm and true. Or another love like William’s for Hannah—achingly sweet. But I have seen the same love that I had for William the day I stepped onto that plane. It lives in you. You are the culmination of every lightning strike and twist of fate. Do not settle for the love that hones your edges and turns you brittle and cold, Georgia. Not when there are so many other kinds of love waiting for you. And don’t wait like I did, wasting seventeen years because I’d left one bitter foot in my past. We’re all entitled to our mistakes. When you recognize them for what they are, don’t live there. Life is too short to miss the lightning strike and too long to live it alone. This is where my story ends. I’ll be watching over you to see where yours leads.

An asteroid or comet traveling at cosmic velocities would enter the Earth’s atmosphere at such a speed that the air beneath it couldn’t get out of the way and would be compressed, as in a bicycle pump. As anyone who has used such a pump knows, compressed air grows swiftly hot, and the temperature below it would rise to some 60,000 Kelvin, or ten times the surface temperature of the Sun. In this instant of its arrival in our atmosphere, everything in the meteor’s path—people, houses, factories, cars—would crinkle and vanish like cellophane in a flame. One second after entering the atmosphere, the meteorite would slam into the Earth’s surface, where the people of Manson had a moment before been going about their business. The meteorite itself would vaporize instantly, but the blast would blow out a thousand cubic kilometers of rock, earth, and superheated gases. Every living thing within 150 miles that hadn’t been killed by the heat of entry would now be killed by the blast. Radiating outward at almost the speed of light would be the initial shock wave, sweeping everything before it. For those outside the zone of immediate devastation, the first inkling of catastrophe would be a flash of blinding light—the brightest ever seen by human eyes—followed an instant to a minute or two later by an apocalyptic sight of unimaginable grandeur: a roiling wall of darkness reaching high into the heavens, filling an entire field of view and traveling at thousands of miles an hour. Its approach would be eerily silent since it would be moving far beyond the speed of sound. Anyone in a tall building in Omaha or Des Moines, say, who chanced to look in the right direction would see a bewildering veil of turmoil followed by instantaneous oblivion. Within minutes, over an area stretching from Denver to Detroit and encompassing what had once been Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, the Twin Cities—the whole of the Midwest, in short—nearly every standing thing would be flattened or on fire, and nearly every living thing would be dead. People up to a thousand miles away would be knocked off their feet and sliced or clobbered by a blizzard of flying projectiles. Beyond a thousand miles the devastation from the blast would gradually diminish. But that’s just the initial shockwave. No one can do more than guess what the associated damage would be, other than that it would be brisk and global. The impact would almost certainly set off a chain of devastating earthquakes. Volcanoes across the globe would begin to rumble and spew. Tsunamis would rise up and head devastatingly for distant shores. Within an hour, a cloud of blackness would cover the planet, and burning rock and other debris would be pelting down everywhere, setting much of the planet ablaze. It has been estimated that at least a billion and a half people would be dead by the end of the first day. The massive disturbances to the ionosphere would knock out communications systems everywhere, so survivors would have no idea what was happening elsewhere or where to turn. It would hardly matter. As one commentator has put it, fleeing would mean “selecting a slow death over a quick one. The death toll would be very little affected by any plausible relocation effort, since Earth’s ability to support life would be universally diminished.

I say is someone in there?’ The voice is the young post-New formalist from Pittsburgh who affects Continental and wears an ascot that won’t stay tight, with that hesitant knocking of when you know perfectly well someone’s in there, the bathroom door composed of thirty-six that’s three times a lengthwise twelve recessed two-bevelled squares in a warped rectangle of steam-softened wood, not quite white, the bottom outside corner right here raw wood and mangled from hitting the cabinets’ bottom drawer’s wicked metal knob, through the door and offset ‘Red’ and glowering actors and calendar and very crowded scene and pubic spirals of pale blue smoke from the elephant-colored rubble of ash and little blackened chunks in the foil funnel’s cone, the smoke’s baby-blanket blue that’s sent her sliding down along the wall past knotted washcloth, towel rack, blood-flower wallpaper and intricately grimed electrical outlet, the light sharp bitter tint of a heated sky’s blue that’s left her uprightly fetal with chin on knees in yet another North American bathroom, deveiled, too pretty for words, maybe the Prettiest Girl Of All Time (Prettiest G.O.A.T.), knees to chest, slew-footed by the radiant chill of the claw-footed tub’s porcelain, Molly’s had somebody lacquer the tub in blue, lacquer, she’s holding the bottle, recalling vividly its slogan for the past generation was The Choice of a Nude Generation, when she was of back-pocket height and prettier by far than any of the peach-colored titans they’d gazed up at, his hand in her lap her hand in the box and rooting down past candy for the Prize, more fun way too much fun inside her veil on the counter above her, the stuff in the funnel exhausted though it’s still smoking thinly, its graph reaching its highest spiked prick, peak, the arrow’s best descent, so good she can’t stand it and reaches out for the cold tub’s rim’s cold edge to pull herself up as the white- party-noise reaches, for her, the sort of stereophonic precipice of volume to teeter on just before the speaker’s blow, people barely twitching and conversations strettoing against a ghastly old pre-Carter thing saying ‘We’ve Only Just Begun,’ Joelle’s limbs have been removed to a distance where their acknowledgement of her commands seems like magic, both clogs simply gone, nowhere in sight, and socks oddly wet, pulls her face up to face the unclean medicine-cabinet mirror, twin roses of flame still hanging in the glass’s corner, hair of the flame she’s eaten now trailing like the legs of wasps through the air of the glass she uses to locate the de-faced veil and what’s inside it, loading up the cone again, the ashes from the last load make the world's best filter: this is a fact. Breathes in and out like a savvy diver… –and is knelt vomiting over the lip of the cool blue tub, gouges on the tub’s lip revealing sandy white gritty stuff below the lacquer and porcelain, vomiting muddy juice and blue smoke and dots of mercuric red into the claw-footed trough, and can hear again and seems to see, against the fire of her closed lids’ blood, bladed vessels aloft in the night to monitor flow, searchlit helicopters, fat fingers of blue light from one sky, searching.

You heard me. Let someone else send you to your blaze of glory. You're a speck, man. You're nothing. You're not worth the bullet or the mark on my soul for taking you out." You trying to piss me off again, Patrick?" He removed Campbell Rawson from his shoulder and held him aloft. I tilted my wrist so the cylinder fell into my palm, shrugged. "You're a joke, Gerry. I'm just calling it like I see it." That so?" Absolutely." I met his hard eyes with my own. "And you'll be replaced, just like everything else, in maybe a week, tops. Some other dumb, sick shit will come along and kill some people and he'll be all over the papers, and all over Hard Copy and you'll be yesterday's news. Your fifteen minutes are up, Gerry. And they've passed without impact." They'll remember this," Gerry said. "Believe me." Gerry clamped back on the trigger. When he met my finger, he looked at me and then clamped down so hard that my finger broke. I depressed the trigger on the one-shot and nothing happened. Gerry shrieked louder, and the razor came out of my flesh, then swung back immediately, and I clenched my eyes shut and depressed the trigger frantically three times. And Gerry's hand exploded. And so did mine. The razor hit the ice by my knee as I dropped the one shot and fire roared up the electrical tape and gasoline on Gerry's arm and caught the wisps of Danielle's hair. Gerry threw his head back and opened his mouth wide and bellowed in ecstasy. I grabbed the razor, could barely feel it because the nerves in my hand seemed to have stopped working. I slashed into the electric tape at the end of the shotgun barrel, and Danielle dropped away toward the ice and rolled her head into the frozen sand. My broken finger came back out of the shotgun and Gerry swung the barrels toward my head. The twin shotgun bores arced through the darkness like eyes without mercy or soul, and I raised my head to meet them, and Gerry's wail filled my ears as the fire licked at his neck. Good-bye, I thought. Everyone. It's been nice. Oscar's first two shots entered the back of Gerry's head and exited through the center of his forehead and a third punched into his back. The shotgun jerked upward in Gerry's flaming arm and then the shots came from the front, several at once, and Gerry spun like a marionette and pitched toward the ground. The shotgun boomed twice and punched holes through the ice in front of him as he fell. He landed on his knees and, for a moment, I wasn't sure if he was dead or not. His rusty hair was afire and his head lolled to the left as one eye disappeared in flames but the other shimmered at me through waves of heat, and an amused derision shone in the pupil. Patrick, the eye said through the gathering smoke, you still know nothing. Oscar rose up on the other side of Gerry's corpse, Campbell Rawson clutched tight to his massive chest as it rose and fell with great heaving breaths. The sight of it-something so soft and gentle in the arms of something so thick and mountaineous-made me laugh. Oscar came out of the darkness toward me, stepped around Gerry's burning body, and I felt the waves of heat rise toward me as the circle of gasoline around Gerry caught fire. Burn, I thought. Burn. God help me, but burn. Just after Oscar stepped over the outer edge of the circle, it erupted in yellow flame, and I found myself laughing harder as he looked at it, not remotely impressed. I felt cool lips smack against my ear, and by the time I looked her way, Danielle was already past me, rushing to take her child from Oscar. His huge shadow loomed over me as he approached, and I looked up at him and he held the look for a long moment. How you doing, Patrick?" he said and smiled broadly. And, behind him, Gerry burned on the ice. And everything was so goddamned funny for some reason, even though I knew it wasn't. I knew it wasn't. I did. But I was still laughing when they put me in the ambulance.