Habel Quotes & Sayings

I could wear color again now. I could dance again, sit in the front row of church again, visit friends again, all with the approval of Those Who Supposedly Knew Better. — Lia Habel

I ran this through my "girl talk" translator and said, "I could eat him, if either of you'd like. Seems like it might be the easiest thing to do."
-Bram to Nora & Pamela — Lia Habel

Chalk one up to ingenuity. — Lia Habel

I was jealous of [Nora] at first, because she had prettier dresses and the naturally curly hair that had been my ultimate worldly desire at that age. In fact, when our mothers initially introduced us, i had chosen to greet her by yanking on a fistful of her hair to see if it was real. Her response was to deck me in the nose.
It had been love at first fight. — Lia Habel

Griswold!" a voice bellowed.
"We'll talk about this later," he said, then climbed to his feet and stood at attention. "Sir!"
I turned around, only to be confronted with the largest man I had ever seen in my life.
The end was nigh. — Lia Habel

I took a moment to savor the sensation of impending disastor before telling it to get lost.
"Things are pretty messed up right about now," I began. "What started as a weird phenomenon, something rare, is quickly building into what we might affectionately call 'the Apocalypse. — Lia Habel

As he puts it, he was reborn in a coal chute, so he can't look down on anyone now. — Lia Habel

So, could there be a cure?' Nora looked at me out of the corner of her eye. I found myself looking at the floor. I knew the answer to that one.
'No,' Beryl said. 'Prions essentially cannot be destroyed. We've tried antibiotics, antiretrovirals, acid ... '
'Freezing flesh, burning it ... ' Samedi ticked off.
'Autoclaving works some of the time, but not enough to be thoroughly trusted. Um ... industrial cleaners of all kinds ... '
'Your mother's cooking ... — Lia Habel

Michael gave her the five-sentence rundown. "A fluid-borne disease made the dead come back to life. They like to attack the living. There are hundreds of them out there. The only way to kill them is to get them in the head with a weapon. There's a good chance we're all going to die."
Vespertine was quiet for a moment before saying, with her usual coolness, "That will be engraved on a plaque someday, sir.I vote you Poet Laureate of the Undebuted Set. — Lia Habel

She tried to compose herself then, with several deep breaths. I gave her as long as she needed, all the while mentally designing my tombstone. R.I.P, Captain Abraham R. Griswold. He was completely useless and made girls cry. — Lia Habel

She nodded and reached out to take my hand again. I turned to look at her fully, I didnt want to say it, but I felt I should. I'd never had a chance to say it to my sisters, to my mother and I'd always regretted it. "Just in case", I said, leaning down. For once the Laz remained respectful. It didn't want her. I wanted her. Knitting my fingers into her curls, I kissed her forehead. I limited myself to one word this time. "Goodbye. — Lia Habel

Probably the easiest way to explain [the situation] is to simply say that your proteins refuse to bend [to the zombie protein's command].
'My mother was right,' Nora muttered. 'Even my genes are stubborn. — Lia Habel

I held up a book, one Renfield had grabbed from my bedside table in his haste to pack for me. I'd found it in the bottom of my valise, one of the first things he threw in. Underwear and books - the fellow clearly had his priorities straight. — Lia Habel

Oh, goody," Chas whispered. "I hate going to the doctor. I'd rather be back underground in the water playing Ophelia. — Lia Habel

I'm her boyfriend. She really only have to listen to what I say."
She moved closer to him. "I am gonna kill you today, Tom. I can smell it on the air."
"Really?" he asked. "I would've thought the cigs'd taken care of your sense of smell by now. — Lia Habel

All of our lives suck right now, okay? You might think yours is an extra special sparkly rainbow unicorn fart type of suck, but it's not. Just get on with it! — Lia Habel

You get the back of a truck or a blind date with a bullet. — Lia Habel

Later that evening, back at the airship, I cut a hole in a ribbon Beryl had given me and attached the cuff link, before tying it around my neck.
Symbols are powerful.
When he saw this, my father finally decided to ask after the extent of my loss. "I feel," he said, glancing across the rain-speckled deck of the ship, "like I have lost a on." His hand was trembling, a it always had whenever he admitted to great emotion. "I take it that you'd grown fond of him as well? He was such a noble young man."
"Something like that," I confessed brokenly/ — Lia Habel

If you're going to need me, even if it's just to yell at, I'm going to stay right here."
"No, I want to take a shower. I'm not about to if you stay out there."
"Excuse me, but-huh? Then there will be two doors between you and me."
Some of the blood stayed in my cheeks as I found myself spluttering, "But you'll know I'm taking a shower!"
"You just told me you were going to! — Lia Habel

If I never see you again, I shall die happy. — Lia Habel

I want him to explain a few things to me, before I beat the prion-whatevers out of him. — Lia Habel

Those were the most tortuous two months of my short and uninteresting life. — Lia Habel

Bram was staring at me in dibelief, as if I were trying to persuade him that his entire existencce as a dead man was simply an incredibly realistic dream. — Lia Habel

What might not be there are the chances you have right now. If you can hold on another hour, another day - if you can live one more good, honorable minute - those are the victories. And they open up the whole world. — Lia Habel

The girl was a walking garden. Flowers and vines had sprouted from within her very flesh, and were looped through hundreds of buttonholes and slits made in — Lia Habel

It was five minutes of screaming, slamming myself against the door, and stamping my feet-and a minute of contemplating the cold, horrible idea that I might have to leave the room to find anyone, and maybe this had been their plan all along, and Oh God, Oh God-before I heard Dr. Elpinoy's nervous voice. — Lia Habel

I killed one! I stabbed it in the head with a parasol."
Even Nora couldn't find words for this revelation. Renfield was the first to comment. "I can't tell if that's the most inspiring thing I've ever heard of the most horrifying. — Lia Habel

Miss Dearly: I'll be outside, if you don't want to open the door. But when you're ready, I'd like to play a game with you. Ask me any question you like, and I'll answer truthfully. If the answer makes you feel a little safer, reward me by undoing one of the locks. I play to get my room back, you play for the confidence to be able to leave it.
Oh, by the way: Could you wind my alarm clock?
-Captain Abraham Griswold — Lia Habel

Stay away from us!" Michael ordered. He was looking at Nora in horror, as if he couldn't believe what she was saying.
"No one's trying to get near you," Chas snorted. "I don't do living guys. Call me prejudiced. — Lia Habel

Something that chemistry supplies are very good for." When he gave me an odd look, I unwrapped a Bunsen burner and twirled it in the light. "Making bombs. — Lia Habel

We adhere to the principle 'what they don't know won't hurt them. — Lia Habel

On the last page he'd written simply, She's so beautiful. — Lia Habel

Nora, I just don't want you to become so obsessed with the present that you can't see the future. — Lia Habel

When either one of us gets an order from Wolfe that isn't mind-bleedingly stupid there will be no way you will miss it, as we will both be leaping up and down and screaming uncontrollably, like adolescent monkeys, in our shock. — Lia Habel

Ready to meet my best friend, then?"
I clipped my vest together in front and smiled tightly. "Should I bring a bottle of wine? Any taboo topics? Politics, life after death?"
"Yeah, just stay away from that one entirely. — Lia Habel

I had my father again.I had Bram back. We were a newly fashioned crew of soldiers and inventors and cheeky teenagers, armed with an airship and plenty or guns. We could, in theory, pack it all in if we wanted to, and strike out for part unknown. Colonize some little forgotten island, somewhere, and continue our adventures. Live generously; die gloriously. — Lia Habel

I broke away from Samedi and sprinted down the gangplank, screaming out Bram's name. His head turned, and he started limping toward me.
"Nora!" I heard someone yell.
Bram met me halfway. He scooped me up with one arm and pulled my head toward his. I didn't fight it in the least. He kissed me harshly, and I returned it, leaping up on my toes, seeking out his chapped, broken lips with my own, inexpertly, needfully. And then he just held me as I cried, soaking his dirty T-shirt with my tears, his cheek on my head.
"I thought you were gone," I managed to get out. "I thought you were really gone ... "
"I thought I was, too," he said, laughing weakly. "But I'd never leave you if I had the choice. I was going to get back to you, or grind to dust trying. — Lia Habel

See, they say it's 'survival of the fittest', but you and I really know that it's 'survival of the most heavily armed — Lia Habel

No. No more surprises. No more secrets. Or so help me, I will rip off your own leg and beat you with it. — Lia Habel

I know I won't be there for every part of your life, but I'd like you to be there for every part of mine. I do. — Lia Habel

Besides, if you're sick, I'm on life support. As wrong as that joke is. — Lia Habel

I want to go home," she whispered to me. "Forget that last speech, I want to go home. — Lia Habel

What makes us the strongest tribe on the continent is the fact that a group that opposes these values
a group that would have mankind remain in the new dark ages
is permitted to grow, permitted to exist ... and, after it becomes a violent terrorist organization, is allowed to live on it own lands, taken out of the lands of those it has attacked and continues to attack!" He had to stop speaking then
the applause was louder than even his amplified voice. "They expect that fear will drive us to become like them ... closed-minded, blind, angry. Our society will remain open and free so long as I am standing upright," he continued, once the applause died down. — Lia Habel

Vespertine Mink? Is that you?"
The girl on the roof opposite lowered her lanterns and called back, "Pamela Roe?"
"Yeah, let's both let that sink in for a minute, it's a doozy! — Lia Habel

Seriously,let me talk to her when she wakes up. Girl-to-girl."
"No offense, Chas, but you'd scare the crap out of her."
"Want to say that to my face, Coalhouse?"
"What's left of it. — Lia Habel

Love's like a cigarette..
You know you had my heart aglow, Between you fingertips.
And, just like a cigarette, I never knew the thrill of life
Until you touched my lips.
Then just like a cigarette, Love seemed to fade away and Leave behind ashes of regret..
And, with a flick of your fingertips, It was easy for you to forget ... — Lia Habel

In a seperate cloth pouch I found little bottles of shampoo and soap and a toothbrush and the like,as well as a tiny brown glass vial of perfumed oil. It smelled of violets and chocolate.
Yeah,like I needed the zombies to find me any more delicious.That'd be like a cow wearing eau de gravy. — Lia Habel

Care to apologize to the lady scumbag?" Bram asked angrily.
"Shut up, deadmeat. Turn on the screen — Lia Habel

You think so,hmm? It's on, then. Verbal pistols at dawn. — Lia Habel

Now, feel free to call me what I am-call me a corpse, call me dead, call me a killer if you want. I've killed people in battle, I'll admit. But don't call me what I'm not. I am not a freak, and I am not a cannibal, and-
I would have adeed, I'm not a monster, if it hadn't at that moment hit me that I was going all self-righteous on a girl whose world I had just turned upside down.
Smooth, Bram. When will you learn to shut up? — Lia Habel

Never again would I let that foul woman trick me into a carriage. — Lia Habel

We were all quiet for a few moments before I broke the silence by saying, in my best upper-crust-girls'-school voice, "I am sure that all of you are really just suffering from some horrible disease, and that I should feel nothing but pity for you. If you let me go, I will organize a charity function that you will not believe. It will be, as our ancestors used to say, 'epic.'"
There was some furious whispering before Bram responded with, "Ah, thank you, Miss, but we're already dead."
I bit my lip. I was starting to crumble. — Lia Habel

Merry Christmas, Medication for all! — Lia Habel

But ... ah ... not that I'm on your side now or anything, but you haven't exactly got a lot of time for drama of this quality. — Lia Habel

The fact that she made this beeline for me both warmed my soul and made me want to turn around, walk out the door, and find a cliff to fling myself off of. — Lia Habel

Boy, I am going to feed you to the infected myself, Michael growled. I think he almost made my brother cry. Good. — Lia Habel

Real ladies can give orders, Real gentlemen can take them, and Real zombies don't eat brains. — Lia Habel

Keep this in mind, though: one false move and the teddy gets it! — Lia Habel

I decided that my initial survival strategy would involve declaring my complete ignorance of what was going on. This would not,naturally, be terribly hard to do. — Lia Habel

You know, that bishop strategy you often use is incredibly devious, and I was just about to try a new way to block it before we were so rudely interrupted by the end of the world. — Lia Habel

Once more Isambard looked completely terrified. Twice in one night! This was going to be a diary entry for the ages. — Lia Habel

I felt like crawling off and finding a way to kick myself in the rear. One twist of the leg, might not be too hard. — Lia Habel

Returning my voice to a conversational level, I called back, "Nora, I'm not
attempting to embarrass you or single you out. I know you're capable. But stay behind Chas, okay? You die, you d i e permanently, and for various reasons that we've already gotten angsty about together, I don't want that to happen."
"Okay, okay," she sighed.
"Angsty?" Chas asked. "Ooh! Later, details!"
"Yes, later." With that, I waved the team forward. — Lia Habel

You killed me! That's not something you can ever apologize for!"
"Well,then,I'm not sorry."
"You son of a-"
"Hey, you leave her out of this. — Lia Habel

Marked." My face was on fire, my limbs shaking. "All of you. I will take all of you out with my own bare hands!"
There was laughter building in Bram's voice as he responded. "As cute as I'm sure that would be, your attempt ... if we thought the people who might try to trace that chip could make you absolutely, one hundred percent safe, I would carry you to them and hand you over myself."
I gingerly rested my fingertips against my forehead, breathing deeply, trying to calm myself down.
"There are some very bad men out to get you, Miss Dearly."
"You have got to be kidding me."
"By the way, you have quite the vocabulary, for a princess." He still sounded amused.
This statement was random enough to get my attention. "Princess?" I asked, confused.
"You know, a princess. A New Victorian girl."
My lips parted to fire off another question before it clicked. "You're a Punk."
"Born and bred."
"Fantastic. — Lia Habel

I'd never had the chance to experiment before, but it seemed that irrational screaming was enough to make most people scram. Whodathunk? — Lia Habel

If anyone should talk to her," Renfield piped up, "it should be me. We're the most compatible, culturewise. I'm sure that on top of feeling as if she's been thrust into one of the many levels of Hades, with all of its attendant demons, she feels like a lady wandering, lost, amongst the mannerless cads of the slums."
We were all silent for a moment before Tom asked, "You do realize that we're sitting right here, right?"
"Oh, I am horribly aware of this fact."
"Just checking. — Lia Habel

I hope there are zombie sharks in there and they bite you and you die! — Lia Habel

You're ... very resilient, for someone who's dead." Her voice was a little steadier.
"And I think you're far stronger than any of us were prepared to give you credit for." I kept shooting my mouth off like an idiot, telling her things I'd been ordered not to, and she kept going with it. I was impressed, honestly. — Lia Habel

Why didn't you go with your parents?" I shouted at Michael.
"Because I knew they were all right!" he shouted back, fixing his eyes on me. "I wasn't so sure about you! I couldn't call on you after your arrest. All I could do was vouch for you."
I blinked. "You vouched for me?" New Victorians charged with crimes could get out of paying bail or remaining imprisoned if they had someone powerful and aristocratic enough to speak on their behalf.
"Yes! Didn't you parents tell you? I met them at the courthouse the day your counsel summoned them."
I shook my head, and committed a note to memory: If parents survive, kill them. — Lia Habel

You have got to be kidding. Where'd they find it?"
"I like to think it was Santa finally coming through on years of passionate but ignored childhood letters. — Lia Habel

You're a zombie. If you're not missing body parts, you're doing it wrong! — Lia Habel

I was surprised by the growl that wanted to well up in my throat ... I told myself it was stress, not my illness's way of saying, Get your own take-out. — Lia Habel

Tell him what I told the others-that I'm happy to have you watch me, and serve as my assistant, but only on my terms. Or,if you're feeling lucky ... you can tell him that Dearly said he can go to hell. — Lia Habel

The doc watched her go, and then said, very softly, "don't let it happen."
"Sorry?"
Samedi yanked his head back on, and once it was in place, looked at me very seriously. "Just ... don't let it happen."
He shuffled off into the other lab then, leaving me to stew in his words. — Lia Habel

Pamela clearly saw how torn I was. Her eyes broadcast and somehow amplified every argument her mouth could have made if she let it. It worked. "Do you want me to stay here, too?" I asked her, feeling my shoulders rising. Pam nodded, guilt creasing her features. "Yes," she said. She might have felt guilty, but she sounded relieved. "Stay here with me. — Lia Habel

I wondered if there was a crazy person's license you had to apply for, some seminar you had to attend, or if you could just walk out of the house one day and get started. — Lia Habel

I love you, Nora. I will think you beautiful when I have no eyes left to see. I will remember your voice when my ears go. You can't hold on to me forever, but I will hold on to you until I am nothing but dirt. — Lia Habel

What about mold," Tom reminded her. "Fuzziness on a girl is never attractive. — Lia Habel

Besides that, she's a fine young lady."
"I'll be sure to remind her of that next time she starts yelling at us. — Lia Habel

I was going to have to kill him. It was a crying shame, but I was going to have to. It was a matter of principle. — Lia Habel

That would have been the end of it, book Z in the series, nothing left to do but mourn, or curse her into the afterlife. — Lia Habel

Pam," Issy attempted, voice high with fear. "I can tell you, from this side of the fence..you really need to calm down."
"I will shoot you in the face if you say one more word to me," I fumed.
"So noted."
"I am so glad that I am an only child," Coalhouse remarked quietly. — Lia Habel

We just had to keep going and hope that whoever was in charge up top got his act together or started receiving pro-zombie messages from a higher power-living or divine.It really didn't matter at this point. — Lia Habel

You're about the stupidest thing on two legs. — Lia Habel

Far more powerful than religion, far more powerful than money, or even land or violence, are symbols. Symbols are stories. Symbols are pictures, or items, or ideas that represent something else. Human beings attach such meaning and importance to symbols that they can inspire hope, stand in for gods, or convince someone that he or she is dying. These symbols are everywhere around you. — Lia Habel

All the while I rattled off a long list of curses in the soundproofed room of my mind. — Lia Habel

As a youth I got my jollies by confronting my professors with facts that ran completely contrary to what they were trying to ram into our thick skulls. His expressions of bafflement and anger had never failed to amuse me. — Lia Habel

[after Bram bit Nora at her request] It hit me then that she wasn't half as disgusted as she should be. '[Nora, a]re you ... sure you're okay with it?'
She pulled her sleeve back up and shrugged. She was quiet for a minute before asking, '[Bram. ]Did you enjoy it?'
I decided to tell the truth. 'Yes. You wouldn't believe how good you taste. I don't think i could even describe it.'
She laughed. 'Good? Like filet mignon good? Or like ... candy good? — Lia Habel

Anyway, the sickness kick-starts the brain, reanimates the body after death. I could go into more detail,but you know, we have these great visual aids out here, which would really help me out ... "
"Nice try."
I heard him chuckle. I willed myself not to like the sound.
And I undid one of the locks. — Lia Habel

I walked to the table and picked it up, doing as he asked. And then it struck me that I was setting a so-called zombie's alarm clock for him, and I swear I heard something snap in my ears. I started laughing uproariously.
I heard the monster's bemused voice outside, asking me if I was alright, but that just made it funnier. — Lia Habel

Parasols with miniature electric gas lamps atop them were all the rage. Hers had a pink light in it, which meant she belonged to a family that allowed its children to follow the quaint old practice of dating. White indicated that a girl's family would arrange a courtship for her, and blue identified a married woman. Green stood for a woman who wasn't keen on men at all, but whose head could be turned by the sight of a pretty skirt. — Lia Habel

I let her ask the questions. Predictably, the main questions she had were 'What?' and 'Am I going to be on the menu?' Oh, and 'What? — Lia Habel

Trying, trying, always trying. Trying was my life. I was guaranteed nothing. — Lia Habel

Now. Bram, you are a good friend and an uptanding young man, but I'm afraid that tradition dictates I now attempt to scare you within an inch of your unlife."
"Understood," Bram said, taking his arm back as I got myself under control.
My father is a gentle-looking man. Thus, why I started laughing again as he attempted to look stern. "What are your intentions concerning my daughter?"
Bram cast a look my way, laughing himself, before clearing his throat and doing his best to look scared. "Why, to care for and protect her until I rot away, sir. — Lia Habel

First,' Dad said, giving me a stern look, 'Captain Griswold and you [Nora] and i must have a little chat.'
I batted my eyelashes at him, even as my cheeks heated. Chas choked, and scrawled out, You stil ow me detales! Detales!!! — Lia Habel

Stop it!" Chas shrieked, stomping her foot. "I will not have my boyfriend fighting if it's not over me! Stop it!"
"Let's say it's over you!" Tom grunted as he and Coalhouse wrestled with one another. "If he thinks he's gonna finally get a girl, he might grow balls enough to beat me! — Lia Habel

Nora was the only thing that made sense. She was the only unchanging thing in my universe. She was my lodestar. No matter which way my emotions and circumstances and the impulses of my dead, dying, trying body pulled me, no matter how many mistakes I made, she was always true north. Sometimes I'd side with the dead, sometimes with the living, but always with her. — Lia Habel

Geez, woman, you're gonna dislocate my jaw."
"Well, don't do that in public, you brute!"
"Wow." Renfield adjusted his glasses. He was sitting across the table from them with a book. "I feel so privileged, being an audience to this-"
"Shut up, Ren," the other two said simultaneously. — Lia Habel

You know he's full of crap, right?" Chas spoke up.
"Grade A, gourmet crap," Coalhouse agreed. — Lia Habel