Strangers

Life is sometimes an unbearable thing.

A frame of a moment in time when shame had been the only thing you felt; no quick-snatched emotion could hide it, despite regular efforts to disguise it.

Something shattered, and when I went to gather the pieces He was suddenly there, like a retort. I didn’t know if he was what I was expecting, or what indeed I was expecting…

Pretenders in society stand out like a shrieking woman. His suit was the color of arson; his tie and vest underneath were black, and soft too, like the underbelly of a raven. The energy was very similar to that of something burning, the nonstop combustion and rising heat, sweltering us both as he came too close. He pressed his fingertips under my chin, gently so I would stand. We knew each other as kids, but life had transformed him into a man. Beneath the veneer of conviviality, he was hardened and sharpened like a dagger. Crisp and clean and deadly.

He chuckled a devastating couple of notes, like something Beethoven might’ve wrote… and I was bare.

-LM

(Authors Note: Not quite the usual.)