A Monster Calls

by Patrick Ness

Many things that are true feel like a cheat.

And people began to live on the earth rather than within it.

Belief is half of all healing. Belief in the cure, belief in the future that awaits.

“We work so hard to get rid of them when sometimes they’re the very thing that saves us.”

He was inside the nightmare.

Stories are important, the monster said. They can be more important than anything. If they carry the truth.

There are worse things than being invisible, the monster had said, and it was right.

Conor was no longer invisible. They all saw him now. But he was further away than ever.

Conor’s grief was a physical thing, gripping him like a clamp, clenching him tight as a muscle. He could barely breathe from the sheer effort of it, and he sank to the ground again, wishing it would just take him, once and for all.

Your mind will believe comforting lies while also knowing the painful truths that make those lies necessary. And your mind will punish you for believing both.