Excerpts from the series

1

For months the dreams continued.  Eventually, the baby’s screams blended into my own and I awakened my parents almost every night.  My father would come rushing into my room first, with a look of panicked concern on his face and my mother would immediately follow with a look of stern attentiveness on hers.  I knew better than to disobey her command and said nothing of my recurring nightmares. - RI

2

“You are very lucky, my dear Anna,” she mused.  “You are lucky because you came to see me and you are lucky because your predicament is an easy one to fix.  I, however, am the only one who knows how to fix it.” - RI   

3

The lights from the street and the closed shop windows made playful shadows against the designs on the stone walls.  The bizarre shapes formed by the corners between bridges and alleyways were snarling mouths with jagged teeth, waiting to swallow her further into the maze with no escape.  As she walked faster through throngs of contented Italians, full after their late supper, her demeanor became more enveloped in a culture that was not hers.  At this hour, the tourists had long since disappeared back into their hotel rooms and the only people left were the ones that know the city; the ones that belonged here.  I could be one of them, Faye thought; I could take one of the masks from the shop windows, solder the ribbons around my head and disappear.  - FI