no.1 - offerings.
Soft feathers all white and shades of brown, the sparrow a child like the pair of boys on the bench above, twittering so happily and absently a song of nonsense. Bright eyes and one pair of feet touching the grass, following after the creature with so much wonder soaring in his heart, tugging the other down to the soundtrack of trivia and intrigue falling from small and smiling lips, the sound driving the animal off, a frown falling into silence. The lighter boy coaxed it back, and beamed as he snapped its neck. Handed it across, pride glowing aflush his face, anything to see his only friend smile.
"Here-!"
"Y-you've killed him…."
Trepidation edging into fairest features. " Only to make him stay..."
"No, but I didn't ask for that-!"
"I just wanted you happy, wus so wrong with that?"
Hesitation and horror fading to a half-flattered compliance, small fingers lacing in the twilight, and the shaping of a sigh.
"Nothing, I don't guess…"
"Good."
The sunlight grazed the water, suspended in droplets of salt and something purer grafted to their skin. Hands and feet and mouths and teenage fools tangled on the rocks, the ages held like starlight in their lungs, the days of slow secrets and bated breath.
"Stay with me."
"Always."
He was always punished for these sorts of things, and how it burned to watch him take the fall. Almost as bright as the thrill of evasion. But every midnight he thumbed over the beatings, murmurs in the dark and swallowing the sorrow buried in the echo of his heartbeat. "I'll make it stop. I'll get us away, m'promise…"
Giddy one morning, he jumped on the bed, tugged the other groggy to his feet, down the silent spiral of stairs, out of dormitories and under the arch of the chapel door.
Pews scattered with shapes, splattered on the ceiling, staining the walls, glass shattered from the windows, a shimmering massacre bathed in the whisper of dawn. Rosary beads and firecrackers shoved in their sockets, figures limp and wasted, gaped and carved out hollow of any notion of rule.
A sparrow on the altar, belly up and full of razors, he grinned and handed it like roses to the wasteland beside him.
Starved of syllables, the reception fell to bruised knees on wet stone, nausea and overwhelmed imagination. The other walked closer, nudged aside something like entrails wet against his shoe, and rubbed his back, voice all soothing and silver as he held him while he heaved.
"I promised you, and I kept it. It's just us now. Isn't that what you wanted?"
Car exhaust and chemistry seared across the sunset, rays slated through the creaking shutters of a forgotten inn, off to the side and under the highway. A lanky man, no name no age no home no face watched the ceiling fan rattle, shift, take the shape of a face leaning over. He turned away, hazy, bitter, needy as the only thing familiar clasped his hands, knuckles and the shiver of lips across his, sneered and forced his eyes to his, smiled, and forced him down to fuck the toxins out.
Rolled aside and inhaled the rest, empty bag and cloudy mirror.
"I'm doing this for you."
Tired eyes traced him the half-light over a grin so sardonic, absent. "I don't even know who that is …not anymore."
Train tracks stretched across the openness of the field, smoke from chimneys obscured by trees a few hours away. He stood on one side, he on the other, stalemate in the oxygen draining from the air, panic strung through the shouting, clutching of earthquake hands over a slaughterhouse heart, shoved away, into the dirt and the dust, always looking up.
"This is for you." Voice a shadow against the sun, expression eclipsed save the sick sound of the smile, spoken like a prayer as he pressed the barrel to his temple, hammer cocked. "My last and greatest gift."
"No-nononono, don't do this!" Launching to his feet, all filthy knees and frantic fingers, groping for the gun. "Just stop!"
Clear eyes took in the the man before him, pleading pathetic and ragged, scraped and hammered out to nothing by so much intention gone sour. The curse of a madman's affections.
My last and greatest gift. For once to
set
you
free.
Body dropped wooden to the railroad, eyes wide.
Heart stopped, mind open.
Sort of rushed, but done mostly for the concept of deranged gifts. It would have been so much easier to just invest in some flowers occasionally fff.
Anyway, I haven't written fanfiction in ages, so I'd like to know what you thought, AND i am currently taking prompt requests! :3
Next time,
-xo.
