The Spark of an Angel

Chapter 30 - All Returns to Silence

The entire crew of the Primary Saviors reunited at their victory over the Dark Legion. Welt stared off into the distance at the goddess who spoke to him very briefly after the climax of the battle, a hand tapped his shoulder, he turned and saw it was Kenny, "Mr. Matthews, where's Patrick?" He asked with concern in his voice.

Welt reached into his pocket and pulled a cigarette out of the metal tin, lighting it, "I don't know. In the heat of the battle he just disappeared, same with Koda," he sighed a trail of smoke following that exhale, "I do suppose they're probably fighting somewhere."

"Koda... the guy who captured everyone else?"

"You weren't with them?" He asked, looking at Kenny with a rather odd expression on his face, "then where were you?"

"With Jett and Nova on top of that-" He pointed towards the large hill, "mountain, or hill... or whatever you want to call it."

Welt held the cigarette between his teeth, the dragon's snores were loud, "Patrick and I joined the party late, but we were still on time if you consider the fact that we saved all the people in the crew from a possible death."

"Mr. Matthews." Marv tapped Welt's shoulder, the blind man turned around, facing Marv, "yes, Marv."

"When Koda loaded the bullet into the gun, after Nico had given up hope on you and Patrick, he thought you just left us to die."

"As long I'm alive and still breathing, hope fucking survives." Welt placed the cigarette in his mouth again.

Marv held his hand out, "so even before you formed this group when you were alive, hope was still surviving?"

"Hope survives everywhere I go, Marv. Everywhere I go, I bring a trail of hope behind me. No matter where. No matter when." Welt knit his lips into a straight line and exhaled, "if I didn't give up to the people, what could they possibly live for?"

"Love... freedom... wisdom... hope isn't just the only thing people live for, Mr. Matthews." He stuck his thumb in the space in between his waist and the belt of pants, "you can have hope for freedom, love and wisdom... but they can exist on their own too. You've given up hope in everything else, except for your own that you created, but it's not for you, now. Is it?" He took a breath as Welt exhaled a line of smoke following with the exhaled breath, "it's for them. For many people you've saved." Welt silently listened to Marv's words, inhaling and exhaling every so often, "that's all you are for the many people you've saved... just a hope."

"If my life is this work... and yours is being safe. My life has always been do this Welt, do that Welt. And safety just feels like another prison. And I will not trade one prison for another. I've spent a decade building all of this. I've lost all of it too. Then rebuilt it again. I can't leave my work for what seems like another prison."

"How is being safe another prison?"

Welt raised the cigarette to his mouth and took a draw from it, "every single damn time I think I'm safe... well, I've found out I'm not! That's why I give everyone the option, carry the weight of the curse with me or live safely and happily somewhere else."

"Well maybe safety's overrated then. Is that the reason you can't stay in one place for too long?"

"For Christ's sake, Marv!" Welt exclaimed, raising the hand with the cigarette up, "for once in your life I wish you'd see me for who I am and not what you want me to be! Sometimes... I don't think you even know me at all, you'd realize I'm not like you at all!" He screamed, pulling his glasses from his face, "look at me!" He pointed to his eyes, "did you ever think it was easy doing it all on my own? I've lost everything, twice over, each time I had to pick myself up on my own. I can't afford to be reckless... I wasn't raised in a world of peace and quiet where everyone was friends with each other. I have decades of work leaning on my shoulders." He lowered his arm from his eyes and used that arm to point at Marv, "ever since I was a young child, it's always ever been work, Welt Matthews, work... you can fix the entire planet's issues. If only you didn't make that mistake, that killed all the people you damn well cared about. You were wondering why I never let people in, it's because all the people I've let in across my life, die! To mistakes of mine. I can not and will not lose you too. I learn from my mistakes and they are permanently implanted in my mind. I never forget them, I can't sleep at night because I know I'll just be haunted by memories of the past, places where I should be able to change the outcome, but never can." He sighed, running his free hand through his hand, "the past is no longer my damn concern and I sure as hell wish that were true, but I learn from my mistakes, the many of them I've made over the many years, they're all stored in here," he tapped the right side of his head right above his ear, feeling the thin jutted line, "I do not wish to mean you any harm, but you'll have to carry this curse with me until we take down the Dark Legion once and for all."