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Like most of you, I was raised on a healthy diet of books, network television, and staying inside. And for the most part, it was pretty great. I spent countless hours in my bedroom immersing myself in the world of fiction and hissing whenever sunlight had the gall to freckle my pale epidermis. I had a good time. Until I experienced my first fictional loss, that is.<\/p>\n
I don’t actually remember the first one. It was probably Where the Red Fern Grows<\/i> or something similarly filled with cold-blooded puppy murder. But the one that ripped my heart out, stomped on it, set it on fire, and then danced on the ashes? I sure remember that one. I’ll remember it until the day I die, full of bitterness and regret as I stare down the business end of a broadsword.<\/p>\n
It was Sirius Black. I kid you not: I loved that man. He was the rakish murderer-turned-godfather I never had. I literally couldn’t believe it when he went through the veil. I think I cried for three whole days.<\/a> When did the sadness tome that was Order of the Phoenix<\/i> even come out? 2003? So I was ten. I was ten years old when I learned the ways of this callous, unforgiving world and vowed to never love again.<\/p>\n So I’ll put it to you guys: who hurt you? Which fictional mortality made you realize how terrible it is to love something that death can touch?<\/p>\n OMG WE HAD TOTALLY BLOCKED OUT \u00a0<\/em>WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS, but that book definitely did a number on us. And we will not even get INTO the heartbreak of Sirius Black. Which death haunts you to this day?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Like most of you, I was raised on a healthy diet of books, network television, and staying inside. And for the most part, it was pretty great. I spent countless hours in my bedroom immersing continue reading<\/span>