Vacuum in the Dark

Then her stomach felt suddenly and acutely empty, a feeling she often mistook for hunger. It was shame.

Strange, she thought, how affected you are by malice when you’re a kid, how a mean word or look can unravel you, how devastating cruelty feels when you’re too young to protect yourself. But eventually, after all those defense mechanisms are firmly in place, it’s the so-called positive shit—mercy, not malice—that brings you to tears.