These Fleeting Shadows

by Kate Alice Marshall

Something so beautiful deserved to be transformed, not thrown out like waste.

Change isn’t easy. But it’s possible. At least I have to believe so.”

At least when people hated me from the start, I knew what to expect. It was the ones who loved me I couldn’t bear.

“Don’t fight it. Don’t dismiss the truth simply because it cannot be true.”

“You have no idea what a relief it is to be hated because of something I understand,”

“Maybe a certain enemy is better than an untrustworthy friend,”

“Everyone is grieving, Sandra. It doesn’t give you license to act like a complete bitch,”

but then, she didn’t want sympathy, and she couldn’t be comforted. Her scars and her grief were all she had left.

set. “I’m not her. She’s not me. We all get to decide who we are, and I’ve made my choice.

My mother didn’t love me. Her love was a delusion I’d forced on her.

You did what you had to so that you could survive. Never, ever feel bad for that.”

“Whoever you choose to be, I love you. You are the stars, and I choose you. All of you.”

You have to believe that you deserve to be saved, Helen. Because you are the only one who can do it.”