knox :: one (fin - cb)

KNOX

At seven he is skin and bones and everything in between, with blistering feet and bruised skin. No one asks where it came from. No one cares. He stands on the streets in the summer heat, watching humanity pass him by and rubbing the callouses on his hands, pretending that they are gemstones that sprout from his skin. Riches, rags, the man on the corner lets him work for his money. At such a young age he realizes humanity is nothing more than longing for what one may never have, pretending that one holds diamonds in their soul, oblivious to the fact that they are no more than coal.

-

He sees her on the night of his tenth birthday, her hair burning through the darkness and her eyes twinkling in the streetlight. He knows she is lost, like him, but when he offers her his hand and her fingertips brush against his-

she is not cold, not like him. Yes, her soul burns with something that sparks contentment in his heart. Fleeting, yes- a soulmate? No, he does not believe in those, not since his father slid silver into his mother's heart and stained it red, since men in white forced roses to bloom from his chest. Soulmates do not exist to him, but the perfect counter does. She is the holy water for the venom that courses through his veins, absolving every sin that he could ever commit. 

He doesn't even ask her name- only swears to protect her heart.

-

"She has your heart, doesn't she?"

At fifteen he is a protege of Asura Momen, plucked like a flower from the streets and drowned in diamonds. But his heart has long since turned to ice, his interests dwindling and humanity faltering. He is but the skin of a snake, shedding himself over and over and starting anew. Each time a little colder, each heartbeat a little slower.  He rubs the 2 branded on his skin, feeling the poison bubble beneath it. He is gifted, a career if there ever was one, but he still remembers the way her hair burned in the night.

He realized, at fourteen-

When one is covered in poison, the only way to protect anyone is to abandon them.

"So, a soulmate?"

"No. Just a stranger."