Quotes by Carolyn Lee Adams

I will not be a victim. I will not think like a victim. I am going to avenge all those little girls. I am going to win.

I dont know how the Wolfman knows all this, but hes not wrong. My warm cheeks turn scalding hot. Your shame is a good sign. You may break sooner than I thought. The breaking is good. It purifies.

When he unleashes on her everything falls together. Like a crick in the neck snapped into place, the boys brain pops and is put right. It is a beautiful undoing, a beautiful becoming. He doesnt stop to think about it when the punches follow her down to the ground. He doesnt stop to notice when she goes still or when the pool of blood under her head pillows out into a great, liquid heart. He doesnt stop until hes pulled off her and he doesnt start to think again until that night, when hes back at home. For hours and hours his brain stays beautifully popped into place.

Wolfman clears everything off the table except his gun. That he keeps close at hand. There is a sense of ceremony about his actions. My stomach tightens up. We are about to begin.

I know you, Ruth Ann Carver. I know you better than you know yourself. You think you do things right. You think youre a paragon of right living. This is a self-told lie, one bolstered by your coddling parents and grandparents.

Through the red haze of my blood I see a strange expression on his face. His eyes have come alive, and I dont like it at all. Hes getting off on this now in a way he wasnt before. My first thought is that my honesty is feeding him in a bad, bad way and my second thought is not to question my gut.These are going to be very good days, he says to me.

He looks up and up and up to get to her face. His mamas a tall lady, and hes only seven. Hes overwhelmed by red. Red heels, red nails, red lips, red hair, red eyes. So help him, the boy has always thought his mamas copper-colored eyes damn near shined red. He looks into those eyes and knows shes come home funny.

It was like a commercial for laundry detergent or tampons or a prescription medication with death listed as a possible side effect.

I shut up. I dont fight, I dont scream. Shame rides alongside my terror. But somewhere deep, deep inside, I hear Mom tell me to trust my gut. My gut tells me I am blind and I am lost, and if I fought for freedom now, it would end in my death. I listen to my gut. Because I want to live.

I have no idea what to do, and everything is starting to feel dangerously hopeless. Hopelessness is not an emotion to be indulged. On the heels of hopelessness comes defeat, and even though everything seems pointless and impossible, I still want to win. Underneath my confusion and utter, bone-crushing fatigue, even though I dont know much of anything at all, I still know I want to win.

And in the echo of that gladness, horror blooms within me. In its own strange way, its a horror as deep as any Ive experienced so far. Ive succeeded in taking another human hostage, in making him urinate on himself. I made a plan to torture someone, and then I carried it out, and it satisfied me to do so. As much hurt and hell as the Wolfman has caused, I dont want to be his judge and jury, his jailer and tormentor. I dont want to be that person. I want to be good. I dont want to fall into a big, black pit of darkness, because what if I cant get out?

As I squeeze, he turns his head, and there is the tiniest, slimmest of moments when he sees me. I look into those wolf eyes, and even though they are empty, theyre still alive. In that split second he is alive and looking at me. I am alive and looking at him. Then the moment is over, the trigger is pulled back, and the gun is empty.

Life isnt fair, comes the voice of Nana. She has told me that a thousand times. What matters is how you handle it. Im going to handle it by winning.

In this otherworldly moment I am profoundly grateful to be here, to be alone, to experience this thing that no one has ever experienced and that no one else ever will.

For a while theres nothing I can do but stand in the middle of the road, because going forward hurts too much. Going forward means continuing to try, when trying is so hard. The world is filled with idiots and assholes and monsters. Where are the guardian angels?

Im not going to be raped. Im not going to be murdered. Im going to bring him to justice so this never happens to anyone else. Im not going to think like a victim. Im going to think like a winner. Because thats what I am. Im Ruthless, by God, and I need to act like it.