four || noah algernon ripley || cbd

The bonfire is blazing hot against my skin, singeing it with little runaway sparks. I suppose that's part of why my skin is darker nowadays. The cover of night used to protect me from that, but not any longer. My hands are blistered from shovels and fistfights, scared from battles gone wrong. The rest of me is the same. Dark hair falls into my face from above as I run my fingers across the close cut fuzz on the side. A smirk cuts open my lips, eyes glittering darkly. I'm looking for a fight and by God, I'll have one.

Fitz's face is before me, that sickening blankness of death spread across his corpse. The bastard got off too easy for what he'd done to me. I wish I could have killed him myself for taking Pen away from me. Even now, I'm caught too far down under her waves to get back up. I wake up drowning as she used to so many nights. No amount of digging up holes can fill in the gap she has left. No amount of brawls can ease the demand for payback. Nonetheless, I throw my fist hard by the light of fire.

I want her back more than anything. I want her water to wash across my seething soul and reduce me to a mere simmer. I want her to cleanse me like she did so many times of the boiling rage inside. But she can't because she lies cold in a box six feet under. Everything is bleeding, my life seeping out in fragmented moments. My tongue licks across my split lip as I crash through the door to our shack, shaking off the worried hands and storming up to my room. No, there is nothing left here. There is only war.