Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Hope Springs Eternal

I cradle his head in my arms, like a child, until he stirs.

We just sit there, he & I, in this dark cavern, our quest at a standstill.

My blood has dried to a darkened rust color across his forehead. The boy blinks his dark eyes open, trying to find his bearings. Looking up at me, but not taking it all in...

-"Why?" he asks me. "You were gonna leave me before...you didn't even wanna help me...."

I look down at him, & pull him in a little closer to me.

-"Why are you fighting for me now? When it would be easier to leave me? When you see such horrible things...about me?..."

-"Because it's worth it." I tell him...ever so softly.

-"But why? I know what you saw...I see things too. HE shows me things. I'm gonna hurt you..."

-"No." I smile down at him. "You're not. HE wants you to believe that...he's trying to twist you. Twist you to his will. & that will be so much simpler if you've been broken first. HE wants to break your spirit....But I'm not going to let that happen."

-"But why not?" Tony is nothing if not persistant, even in a wounded & weary state, as he was.

-"Because you give me hope. & you've woken the magick inside me, once again. & there's magick in you, too...."

I leaned down to kiss his forehead, & then stumbled to my feet, hauling Tony with me.

-"Now c'mon--enough questions. There'll be plenty time for that on the way..."

-"On the way where?" Tony asked me.

-"We're crossing the Liar's Bridge...& we've already lost too much time..."

1 comment:

Shawn C. Baker said...

I've finally gone back and re-read the last couple to current - Your characters talk so well to one another in moments of difficult passage. I still love this blog. Continue when the spark returns and bring them across the Liar's Bridge (awesome name for a setting by the by)