Sea of Embers

Fuck Manners

Free (Ft. SVRCINA)

Sarcasm is the body's natural defense against stupidity.

-Unknown

The dust on my seat gusted up in small, puffy clouds as I sat down, my right leg stretched out and resting on its heel. The ankle boots I wore were black, and covered with a thin sheet of dust...my dark brown leggings eased easily into my white tank top hem, that eventually was covered by my black long sleeve shirt. My fingers remained snuggly fit into black leather gloves... so as to make tracing me almost impossible.

My entire outfit screamed foreign in this town. Although drafted, I was not treated poorly, and had many nice things to be grateful for. An outfit choice was one of those things.

He sat across from me, Toni's older brother, looking like a demon supermodel in his equally black long sleeve shirt. Although the sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, displaying an array of ink symbols and calligraphy lining each arm. Just a swift glance at him, and I knew right away that his whole body must have been littered with ink. I could just make out a swirling design of black and white peeking out of the top of his shirt. The tattoo caressed his neck and collarbone before disappearing underneath his shirt once more.

I couldn't help but allow some curiosity to swirl around in my mind once again. The more I observed about Toni's kin, the less I seemed to understand... and it frustrated endlessly.

A scoff left my lips before I uttered a sarcastic remark, "Clever."

He didn't hesitate to respond, "Adequate. I would expect no lesser observation."

His deep voice irked me. I watched him watch me, my muscles tense and readying me to pounce at any given moment. So he was overconfident, eh? My eyes narrowed, we will see who wins this war.

I made myself relax, taking slow breaths in through my nose. In, Out, In, Out. Showing stiff posture made intimidation hardly successful. The more comfortable I appeared around him, the less he knew. He could see me on the outside, but my mind was my own. I also had many lessons on appearing unreadable to the enemy from Toni. My eyes appeared as stone, yet I could never master the art of concealing the fire behind them. A burning rage was aflame inside me, and anyone who took the time to look could tell if they searched hard enough.

Something told me that the man opposite of me figured that out.

I waited for several minutes, patiently watching him as he stared back at me. His eyes reminded me of a violent lightning strike, surrounded by dark clouds of black and deep sea blue. The only thing they brought me was fear.

Silence echoed in my ears.

I waited.

More silence.

I watched him.

Nothing.

The more I watched and waited, the quieter it became. He just stared back, or observed the townsfolk outside the ancient glass window.

Deciding I couldn't handle the quiet any longer, I spoke.

"You requested my presence?"

His eyes lingered on the window a second longer, watching the movement and life outside... before he turned his head and trained his gaze on mine.