The abandonment of dark
****
The child's voice was soft, plagued by pain, weakened by hurt yet still strong, determined to win over all other foes. But he was not a foe to the boy, he was not the enemy or even the people who held him as an outcast.
He knew he should have left, turned on his heels with a swish of his clothing and click of his shoes yet he could not, he refused to give the boy his wish. He knew it to not be his real want and his real desire. He knew because he had felt it before. The desperate want for a comforting voice to sooth him, the need for arms to encircle him in a protective embrace.
He was not that voice nor was he the owner of those arms yet he was there and he was all the child had. He was all that was being offered, no one else had even tried. The darkness surrounding both of them didn't count, it offered no companionship, only an escape from reality that always came crashing back.
He moved from his watchful station, stepping towards the only other figure in the darkness, silently moving across the great divide that was between him and the child. His hand, almost of its own accord reached out and without hesitation, grasped the black clad shoulder. It was purely acting out a normal gesture if anyone was observing, yet to him, it was plunging into un-chartered water, headfirst into the murky waters of the foreign. By doing this, by helping this child, he was opening himself up for hurt…again.
But this time he was not afraid, he did not draw back for fear of rejection, the persistent screaming of denial of his own heart. He stayed fast, hand still present on the shoulder. And as he watched the boy turn slightly, peering over his shoulder, he recognized both the surprise and relief light up the emerald orbs of his being. He knew he'd done the same thing so long ago when he'd been offered the saving hand.
The boy didn't speak, thank him or even smile. No, smiling was a long way down the road but neither did he shrug of the offered hand but allowing it to remain and along with it, the other man. The man too stayed quiet, knowing that words were of little consolation as lying was to easy but also knowing that by just being here, staying here, it was enough.
It was enough to save the darkness from receiving another meal and for the light to slowly grace the once darkened land, illuminating to once darkened figures in its path.
