Skins Unseen, Effy
She thought her heart to be precious like a domesticated animal that has been yours for years, but you're too afraid to let it go, let it slide past your fingertips into serenity, because your emotional needs, pitied and sought for, conquers vast nations with atomic dust endings. And even when her parents, friends and others told her she had to let go - to take this self hatred, that had enough strength to tear apart mountains into valleys, turn glaciers into melting ice caps that consumed green lands - she didn't think she could bear to cut the swan. If the swan died, opened up with a willing secret, then perhaps nothing would be beautiful again.
