Scars
The reflection in the mirror looked foreign, unnatural. Somehow between the time he had fallen into ’slumber’ and the present, the glass had warped in on itself, creating an image he no longer recognized, but was surely himself. Behind, she stood stalwart, unchanged within the traitorous glass.
Silence reigned.
A hand rose slowly, tracing the stark blemish that streaked from one temple and through an eye that had gone milky with blindness, ending on the other side of his nose. The last time he had seen himself, his face had been whole–his eyes clear. His fingers lingered on the skin, still burning with its arrival, then abruptly dropped away. Closing his eyes, he rose slowly and turned away, looking at her instead.
She smiled. For him, blood staining her cheeks, dirt smudging her clothes, exhaustion seeping through the core of her after a hard-fought battle… for him, she smiled through it all. Upon hearing of his waking, he knew she had all but plowed through the hallways to his chambers, arriving out-of-breath and wide-eyed as though he were a ghost. She had not blinked twice at the sight of him, her eyes finding his even in a reflection she no longer knew. And she smiled.
“Welcome home.”
He smiled back and felt his face tingle in acknowledgement, his blind eye filling the picture of her: tousled, injured, worn, but there.
The sight of her running towards him, the feel of her in his arms, made up for any scar he could bear.
Heya,
I’m sorry for taking so long to comment, but I was in exams and had little time to enjoy a nice read… And what a nice read this was! ^_~
You expressed greatly how no one can come unscarred from the battles life pitches us in, but that friendship and love stand way beyond all of them and that, for them, all is worth it (for them, we can even accept death with a smile on the face). Also, the progression you took from start to finish was well thought out and executed just as well.
Will check out your next blurb right away,
- César