The Scattered Bones

by Nicole Scarano

“I’ve never seen anyone as beautiful as you. I mean this in the most respectful way, but you are divinely lovely. I’m almost ashamed to share the same air as you.”

“I’ll even return when you’re old and grey and Hreinasta abandons you for another. It may take a while, but I’ll always come for you.”

“Every night I spend with you, I love you more,” he continued. “I’m filled with broken and jagged edges, but your softness and warmth fit perfectly between those sharp pieces. You make me whole. You’re what my life was missing, and the longer I stay at your side, the more I love you. Varas may be the god I’ve pledged to, but you’re who I want to swear my future to. You’re the altar I pray at, the deity I worship, and I would sacrifice my life for you, but you don’t belong to me. You never have, and you never will. You’ve belonged to Hreinasta since birth, and I can’t watch the person I treasure most in this world lose herself to a selfish goddess.”

You’ll sleep for decades, and I’ll have to watch Hreinasta parade around in the body of the woman I love. I can’t sit here and witness that happen. It’s too painful.”

“I love you, but I won’t come back. If I do, it’ll destroy me. I don’t want to live in a world without you, but I have to. I might as well get used to it.”