Challenge 290

[scenotaphs.livejournal.com]

Challenge: 290 - when love and hate collide
Title: set your world on fire
Wordcount: 551
Notes: Checked my LJ page after what felt like years -- lo and behold, a new challenge! I don't ... know if this ... makes the deadline. Uh.

There are things with which she is intimately acquainted.

Hatred comes easily to her – black and festering and pulsing under her skin, bitter bilious and biting and caustic. There are many things she hates about this world – those who are whole, those who still have their hearts, those who never bartered with witch-queens in exchange for another chance at life. She hates the worlds untouched by darkness, because they remind her too much of what she has lost, of the home she turned her back on when the prospect of living on meant more to her than having a will of her own.

She hates those who inhabit the bone-white Castle and its silent passages, hates the distant Superior who appraises her with the lazy gaze of a dozing cat, the sniper who labels her with saccharine endearments and sees nothing more than a slip of a girl filled with too much impotent rage at the world for betraying her youthful ideals.    

Most of all, she hates the wildfire boy who thinks he knows her inside and out.

So angry because you lost everything, so angry because everything went wrong, he says far too lightly, prodding at her with carefully sheathed claws, ready to leap clear lest she lashes out. We’re not too dissimilar, you and I.

She hates him for his easy arrogance and devilish disregard for the world around him. She hates him because unlike her, everybody takes him seriously – they’ve known him long enough to know what he is capable of, beneath the carelessness and reckless bluster.

.

When the power she was promised seeps into her livewire veins, it throws her out of her apathy; the rage which fuels her is instead clean and cold, a controlled burn. She learns to love the cold emptiness of the Dark City and the muted hum of Nothingness which surrounds their World.

With that, she learns to direct her hatred, fierce and blistering, outwards. She learns to love the sharp burning-ozone stench of the crackling power she send arcing towards the skies, leaving a trail of destruction in her wake.

She sees unease in their eyes now, edged with respect. Eleven gives her secret, one-sided smiles and whispers of alliances. Nine gives her a wide berth, and Two ceases his idle tittering.

Only Eight doesn’t change.

.

You’re something, he finally tells her. I like the way you think.

What do you want, she spits, the memory of his first words to her still smarting, a tangled snarl at the back of her mind.

Come with me. I’ve got something to show you.

He takes her to her old world, ravaged and ruined. Isn’t it beautiful? he asks, eyeing her sidelong.

He easily dodges the first blow she aims at him.

The old, vicious burn is back, settling into the cavity in her chest. She strikes this time with claws of pointed steel, sending lightning surging through dry air. Why?

He sweeps everything away with walls of hellfire and smiles crookedly. To remind you of what you forgot.

.

She imagines what he will feel like, under her fingertips – warm and brimming with life, perhaps.

She wonders what it will be like to break his bones, one by one.

.

Thank you, she remembers to say, years in the future.

Comments

[eternal-moonie.livejournal.com]

absolutely loved it! Hope you win!

[scenotaphs.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! Regardless of whether I win or not, it was nice to be writin again.

[iki-teru.livejournal.com]

(you are absolutely fine, I was sick so as long as the poll isn't posted everyone is free to slip under the wire)

This! This was lovely and aching and you did such a good job of showing us who is who without ever naming anyone!

(and welcome back)

[scenotaphs.livejournal.com]

(Haha, glad to know it. I hope you're feeling better.)

Thank you so much! When I saw this prompt, for me this was the first thought that sprung to mind and I just had to write it.

(Again, many thanks. It's great to get back into this!)

[kagome-angel.livejournal.com]

Oh my gosh, I can't quite put into words how much I love this. It's beautiful and is so them and it's great how you make it obvious who this story is about without ever naming anyone. Love it so, so much.

[scenotaphs.livejournal.com]

Ahhhh, thanks so much for reading and commenting, I appreciate it. Hohoho, the purpose was served.