The Bones Beneath My Skin

by T.J. Klune

“I’m sure your parents wouldn’t mind if you became someone you liked instead of the person you are. It’s better to be happy a little bit than to not be happy at all.”

I just think it’s important sometimes to be remembered for what you lived for rather than what you died for.”

“Sometimes you need to take things on faith,” she said quietly. “Even if you think you have no faith left, I promise you, you do. All of you do. It’s easier, I think, to stay lost. But when you’re found, when you open your eyes, you can finally see the truth for what it is.”

He thought one of them was called

Green Creek, really nothing more than a village.

“You think yourself alone. You think yourself lost. We wanted to show you that there was so much more than this place. We didn’t come to hurt you. We didn’t come to save you.

Only you can do that. We came to be your friend. To make you understand that, in the end, you are never alone.”

“I know now,” she said. “What it means to be human.” He wiped away her tears. “What?” “It means having your heart broken. There is nothing more human than a broken heart. How am I supposed to leave you both?”

She said, “I wondered what you would be like. Humans. What you would be capable of. How your minds

would work. How your hearts would beat. You are animals. Fierce and wild. You are harsh and brutal and beautiful. There is no one like you in all the universe. You have the power for such destruction within you. And such joy. It’s a dichotomy that shouldn’t exist, and yet here it is. Within you. Within all of

you.” She leaned forward and kissed his forehead. Each cheek. The tip of his nose. “I’m glad we found you. I’m glad he has you. Remembe...

You may not see their purpose, but I have seen their hearts. I have seen their souls. They are stars. They are dust.

And I will remember them. Always.”