I tried to sell my soul last night
Funny, he wouldn't even take a bite
Illuminated by that soft angelic glow, she appears so genuinely confused even as concern shadows it. He wishes like hell he hadn’t noticed. Wishes even more that he didn’t care. He’s not certain why now she would choose to withdraw her previous words when there is so clearly nothing to be gained by it. He tells himself it doesn’t matter. But underneath it all, he knows it does.
He had driven her away, just as he had all the rest who ever tried to get close to him. But this is the first time he has hated himself for it.
His jaw clenches tight as he glares at her, but the bright intensity of his rage fades quickly, waning along with the energy that had fueled it. He collapses back once more, only then realizing he had still been struggling to rise, and as the fury drains from him, so too do all vestiges of the fire that had filled the hollow he tried so hard to hide. Behind it lie only the wretchedness of a soul stretched too thin and the echoes of memories of a life worth living.
“Why do you still try?” he grunts, his voice curiously empty now. But he does not decline her aid. For whatever ungodly reason, he could never seem to bring himself to be truly horrible to her. To do the things that would ensure she would never again seek him out.
He might have found that galling not so very long ago. But now, he finally understands. She had given him something he has never truly had before: hope. And he had been loath to banish the one decent thing in his life even as the thought of knowing a world without it again terrified him. What a fool she must believe him.
“Or is it just that it pleases you to see me brought so low,” his voice grows cutting again, eyes deadening into a flat black, “knowing it was you who sent me here?”
Perhaps she had managed to avoid bitterness, but it seems he had been unable to.
@[Ryatah]