The Spark

The Sage and The Cloak

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The Ink Spots - I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire

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I don't want to set the world on fire,

I just want to start a flame in your heart

The ocean glimmered on the horizon, and I made a beeline for it. Unbuttoning my shirt, I knelt by the shore and pulled it over my head. Then I submerged it in the salty water, swishing it around. Luckily for me, the blood was still wet and fresh and came out more easily than I anticipated, but that didn't mean that I was there for nearly half an hour, scrubbing at the sleeves ferociously. The sun beat down on my back, stabbing me with its white-hot rays as I worked. Sweat dripped down the back of my neck, and I longed for a nice, cool bubble bath. Most of all, I wanted to be off this island. It was turning everyone into something else, and I didn't like it.

Get out of my clothes, you damned spot. Get out, damn you!

I lifted my shirt out of the water, which hung limply in my hands and dripping wet with salt water. The stain was mostly gone, except that it left a light, rusty brown residue that I would never be able to wash out, no matter how much I scrubbed it.

As long as no one ever knew what I was up to, I would probably be okay. I squeezed the water out of my shirt and buttoned it back up. The wet material clung to my skin, but there was not much I could do about it. There was not much I could do about anything right now, but that didn't mean I couldn't try, even if my attempts were falling deaf on everyone's ears.

I caught a glimpse of my reflection in a small pond as I washed my shirt. I was dirty, tired, and extremely woebegone. If I didn't know it was me, I wouldn't have recognized her.

Maybe that was what I was afraid of.

Losing so much of myself that I completely forgot who I was.

I heaved a tired sigh and sat down on a rock. How I longed to be home right now. How I longed.

~

"Nice crown, Y/n!" Ralph said that evening as we sat around the fire, eating the pig that Jack and his hunters had killed. Or, rather, Ralph was eating it, and I was trying to talk myself into eating it. It was already dead, how could I harm it further?

"Thank you, Ralph," I said, smiling at the attractive boy. "Some of the littluns made it for me."

"They also gave you that flower, then?" he asked, pointing to the yellow and white flower Jack had tucked behind my ear.

"Nope, that was Jack," I said, touching the flower. I couldn't believe it had stayed there as long as it did.

"Oh, nice," Ralph said as he took a bite of his meat. "Is that what you were doing all day? Hanging out with Jack and the littluns?"

"Well...yes, I suppose that's what I was doing." It wasn't lying if I told the truth but not the whole truth, right?

"Oh, okay," Ralph said. "Because we wanted to play Marco Polo but we couldn't find you. Percival got worried that you got captured by the beast or something."

"Nope, that's definitely not it," I said shakily, managing a smile. I tried to get the image of the bloodied pig out of my head, but I was finding that hard to do, especially with a chunk of meat in my hands. "I could always play with all of you tomorrow, though."