drink with me to days gone by

The first time it happened, the thrill of breaking the rules blinded him to the fact that it was wrong. Any repercussions that were sure to follow seemed insignificant. The warmth that flooded his body made him feel feverish, and as if the Earth had tilted on its axis. It left Luke numb and it left him wanting more.

The second time it happened, it was an accident, unplanned, the result of the inability to curb this new appetite. A week of remorse, of sideways glances, and self-reprimanding had left him certain that he would never again succumb to that temptation. His certainty lasted only one week…

( The cabinet which housed the television loomed in front of him like the shadow of death... )

Sunlight streamed through a crack in the drawn curtains and into Jack’s closed eyes. He squeezed them shut tighter and turned his head, but the light followed as if it had a vendetta against him. He cringed and opened his eyes, blinking into the malicious sunlight. An arm was draped across his chest, the fingers of the small hand digging into his skin as if they were afraid Jack might slip away in the night. He closed his eyes again and imagined instead that they belonged to big nicked hands, reaching out because they needed to feel him there. The thought brought warmth to his cheeks and caused him to stir below the waist. But rather than wake the sleeping figure beside him, Jack slipped out of his grasp, his bare feet swinging over the edge of the bed until they rested on the cool and dingy wooden floor.

( He rose and pulled the curtains shut tight... )

The tavern was nigh on dark now, no life stirring within its walls, the stillness serving as an aide memoire to the empty sacrifice laid down at its doorstep. A motionless figure sat bent over a corner table, the small candle below him flickering in its last moments. His heart beat, and the loneliness and defeat that hung in the air passed through his lungs, but Marius had ceased to live since that night.

( The weathered building settled, cracking like gunfire... )