“I know you. You aren’t this terrible person people see you as and made you become. There’s still some light within you. I see it…”
“ -- Cute. But... you’re wrong.”
He couldn’t hold her gaze, dropping his eyes away from hers to stare down at his hands. Through the callouses and scars, he could see the DIRT that coated them -- grime and ash from the things he’d done, the things he had wanted to do. No one... not often had anyone forced him to do any of it. He’d CHOSEN his own actions, and the reason behind it... well. He didn’t really see how it EXCUSED any of what he’d done.
“This is.. what I am, now. WHO I am. Probably... who I was always gonna be.” With his father’s temper and his own useless nature, who else could he ever have been destined to become? Running one hand through his already unruly hair, raking his fingers along his scalp, he shrugged.
“ -- And there ain’t no light in any of that.”














