“Ask me something only I would know.” You say this to your wife because you know you’re human. You can feel it in the familiar ache in your back, and the fear writhing in your guts. You feel it in the cold seeping into your bare feet from the kitchen floor. You know you’re real because you remember.

now, there is the shape...humanoid, but not / necessarily human

He came from a salt mine that used to be solid all the way through