04-10-2021, 05:52 PM
THESE DAYS I DON’T PRAY WHEN I CLOSE MY EYES
I JUST BITE MY TONGUE A BIT HARDER
I JUST BITE MY TONGUE A BIT HARDER
He is only a child and he cannot fault her for addressing him as such, but it makes him feel small. Insignificant and stupid. It makes the solemn heart twinge and spasm and his cheeks flush with the heat of embarrassment.
Are there others? Others like him, tucking themselves away in the darkest places, hoping to remain undetected so that they will not be told to leave.
He studies her a long moment and he wants to tell her that she can ask anything of him. He wants to tell her that he’ll gladly lay down his life for her, too, the same way she had for him. She does not need to ask such a simple thing of him. But he is only a child, he can see it in her face that she would never let him do such a thing, so he doesn’t say so. He only nods. Swallows thickly and agrees.
“Okay,” he says. He does not protest. He does not insist that, though he is only a child, he is capable of much bigger things. Not yet. “I will keep an ear out.”
Is this what she’d wanted him to tell his mother?
He almost asks but stops himself short.
Perhaps he can make himself useful. If she’s looking after Hyaline while Breach is away. He looks away briefly, staring off into the darkness, as if he can sense the monster lurking in the shadows. The thing that reaches into his chest and manipulates the heart there, the thing that will compound his suffering.
He does not feel it now, but he will.
He draws in a long breath before he returns his focus to her face, ringed in fire.
“I think I could be more useful to you,” he tells her finally, pausing for the space of a breath before continuing. “I knew it was coming. I knew you were going to die that day, I could smell it. Just like I can smell it on my sister, Este.” His throat constricts and his pulse accelerates but he does not allow himself any reprieve. “Maybe I could warn you when I know someone will die.”
Are there others? Others like him, tucking themselves away in the darkest places, hoping to remain undetected so that they will not be told to leave.
He studies her a long moment and he wants to tell her that she can ask anything of him. He wants to tell her that he’ll gladly lay down his life for her, too, the same way she had for him. She does not need to ask such a simple thing of him. But he is only a child, he can see it in her face that she would never let him do such a thing, so he doesn’t say so. He only nods. Swallows thickly and agrees.
“Okay,” he says. He does not protest. He does not insist that, though he is only a child, he is capable of much bigger things. Not yet. “I will keep an ear out.”
Is this what she’d wanted him to tell his mother?
He almost asks but stops himself short.
Perhaps he can make himself useful. If she’s looking after Hyaline while Breach is away. He looks away briefly, staring off into the darkness, as if he can sense the monster lurking in the shadows. The thing that reaches into his chest and manipulates the heart there, the thing that will compound his suffering.
He does not feel it now, but he will.
He draws in a long breath before he returns his focus to her face, ringed in fire.
“I think I could be more useful to you,” he tells her finally, pausing for the space of a breath before continuing. “I knew it was coming. I knew you were going to die that day, I could smell it. Just like I can smell it on my sister, Este.” His throat constricts and his pulse accelerates but he does not allow himself any reprieve. “Maybe I could warn you when I know someone will die.”
Selaphiel
@[Mazikeen]