It is a reassuring shiver of horror that reminds me I'm alive. Swaying with the wind is the building, causing the insulation to rain down like soot. While the weather screams languid the room screams tense, and there is a pause to the air, a hope I do not wish to squander.
Stretched thin was his skin, the kiss of death on his brow, his mouth parched of stolen words.
"I'm sorry..."
Hanging there, my words dropped their brows and curled their fists, everyone in the room taking a staggered breath. Yet, the human heart will still pump once broken, unless you're Mama and it's shattered.
My backpack is here, in the hell-broken recesses of the room, black, like a panther's head it crouches in the corner. It is for four seconds that the room is silent, only the rustling of our garments heard.
By now I'm sure I shuffle confused, discouragement etched on my brows. Compassion is a perspective, lacking as the boy lives; but to them I am green, my words that of a salesman, meant only for gain. Having moved, Mary, non-understanding, sits upon the floor, pouring a canteen upon the dirt, letting it muddy, then dry. Just as deftly as a senior removes one's denture with their two foremost fingers, Kaiden rewraps Stix's feet.
Silence having risen, stands in the room with a presence much too large, until the contented sigh of a boy falling into sleep's comforting rhythm can be heard; the solid whirring of air moving through his lungs reassuring.
"Do you have someplace to go?" Kaiden asked, his voice gruff, like he had just aged eight years.
"..." Like a rebounding basketball, the word no bounced inside my head, never exiting through my mouth.
Odd, is how Kaiden stood, invisible strings pulling his shoulders upwards, as if to lead to an invisible master.
"If so, then get. We don't take strays."
Pride is what stopped me from saying no, and pride is what marched my feet towards the door. It is in my next step that his words leave me teetering.
"Otherwise ya can stay the night, we didn't grab you off the curb just to have to do it again. However, you stay over there." Accentuating his words was a skeletal finger, pointing towards a far wall decayed in age.
It is in silence that I shuffle over.
YOU ARE READING
The Ace of Spades
AdventureAfter running away from home Emrys encounters a group of street kids; unaware of how their threads of life entangle with hers Emrys joins them on a journey of self discovery, love, and loss. Slowly, as the criminal secrets of her town slink out of t...
