White

As you get older, there is less padding between the world and your bones, so lying to yourself about the truths of existence becomes more difficult.

This is the source of the duality in the girl’s narrative. She needs the demon’s power and embodies it as a witch, and yet she flees it, knowing that being a demon is what alienates and destroys her.

“I see,” I said, and did understand—believed, in fact, that all worldviews were hybridized, that our brains were archaeological layers if not geologic strata, not only of belief but of instinct, so that at the surface we played at being rational, modern creatures while our viscera churned with primeval fears.

we are always more than one thing and must see ourselves as such. Faithful sinners, or men of reason who act in folly.