"Is that what you want to hear? What he saw crouched back against the all in a dusty shaft of sunlight was not a rat but a great big black cat with the bushiest tail he had ever seen. Writing may be masturbatory, but God forbid it should be an act off autocannibalism. And every now and then I see a flicker in your eyes that tells me a part of you way back inside knows it too.
"Suddenly her face broke apart.
She drew in breath in one great convulsive gulp, re-starting her own heart, it seemed. That the latter had begun to look slightly more attractive than the former said all that probably needed to be said about the worsening state of his body, mind, and spirit.