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Have you even been in love? Horrible, isn't it? It makes
you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens
your heart and it means someone can get inside you
and mess you up. You build up all these defenses. You
build up this whole armor, for years, so nothing can
hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from
any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid
life...

You give them a piece of you. They don't ask for it.
They do something dumb one day like kiss you, or
smile at you, and then your life isn't your own
anymore. Love takes hostages.
It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you
crying in the darkness, so a simple phrase like "maybe
we should just be friends" or "how very perceptive" turns
into a glass splinter working its way into your heart.

It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the
mind. It's a soul-hurt, a body-hurt, a real
gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain.
I hate love.



Rose Walker, in Sandman: The Kindly Ones by NeilGaiman