"She is leaning onto Death, which holds her back from falling, but he could also be taking her with him." "Care and malice have similar masks." ⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺ Indeed, indeed, I cannot tell, Though I ponder on it well, Which were easier to state, All my love or all my hate. Surely, surely, thou wilt trust me When I say thou dost disgust me. O, I hate thee with a hate That would fain annihilate; Yet sometimes against my will, My dear friend, I love thee still. It were treason to our love, And a sin to God above, One iota to abate Of a pure impartial hate. ~ Henry David Thoreau, to Ellen Sewall ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

❝Take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die I don't belong, and my beloved, neither do you Those Windermere peaks look like a perfect place to cry I'm setting off, but not without my muse❞ Henry always liked to take care of flowers, and Liliana Alarie was one flower that he would take care of for forever.

"he looked at her like he just realised what love is" As a student of Hampton College, it's easy to feel isolated, cut off from the rest of the world. This is only one of the reasons Henry Winter loves it. Ever since he's been able to form memories, Henry has felt... numb, in a way. The world around him has always appeared uneventful and dull. The one thing he finds a sort of comfort in is burying his head in studies of the ancient. Now, in his second year of college, he's planning to do just that. But suddenly, something shifts when he meets Odette, a young literature student with her heart on her cheek. Henry has never before been much interested in romance. Not that he was particularly against it, only that he had never met anyone who interested him enough for him to actually consider it and he didn't expect to. That's why he gets profusely confused when he can't seem to stay away from this seemingly ordinary, uncomplicated girl. Still, he feels like he's been throw into a play and given the role the lovestruck hero. And things don't often go well for love eyed boys in stories. Especially not when your story is a tragedy. Still, he cannot stop himself. Her touch is addictive, her kiss intoxicating, and now that he's felt her attention on him, he doesn't know how he'll ever survive without it. All characters except Odette are owned and created by the queen of literature, Donna Tartt. This story takes place the year before The Secret History and will later move onto the plot of the book with changes to fit the main character and her story. For anyone actually reading this, I am so sorry because I am in the habit of going back and editing, which could absolutely make it confusing. For anyone who's reading this years later, it will be so much better because of it.

It's the sophomore year of the Greek students at Hampden College. The year accelerates for Henry Winter when in the library, near his favorite Greek plays, he meets Elizabeth Wallace, an enigmatic girl who's just as fond of Homeric texts and Platonic philosophies. The anticipated performance of the Oresteia is approaching, and the two find themselves involved with things more ominous than just a Greek tragedy. In fact, it's no longer fiction. It's becoming reality.