binary sunset

Take what you can. Give nothing back. Words he lived by, punctuated by the shine of a million stars across a blanket of blue-black. A smile - curved at the edges, mirth dancing on the lips - and the gleam of too kind, too honest brown eyes. A snuffed-out fire in the wake of a tumultuous storm. Keith knows, intimately, what it means to hold on to what little he has left.

Orphan. Failure. Abandoned. One-time synonyms and chapter-titles of his entire life. He can only fool himself for so long.

Regret is a blown-out, dying star - one of the last - that still light his way.