The hours breathing

Madeline, who Death also adores, is different. Her flesh is hard, her mind pure concrete, and she possesses a stomach in the place of her heart, hungry and insatiable. So when the end of her story comes, Death will embrace her like a little piece of her own body that has torn itself loose, roomed through the world, and is finally coming home, for she herself is the hungriest and most insatiable thing in the universe.The little piece doesn't want to come back: it wants to stroll alone forever, but that's not how things work.

Young Madeline thinks of Death often. And Death, even always so busy, tries to find a little time for her whenever she can.