Standing Storms

“Are you ready?”

It was a shout over the winds. Clarity cutting through the chaos of the wind, the rain.

The thunder.

It rocked the sky. Bellowing a challenge above us. Barking through waves of lightning—dangerous, sparking smiles that made the hairs on my legs stand up. Clouds coming together, forming a mutiny above us. Cackling at the open ground below.

At the terrified people.

Cowering beneath the dark, bruised skies.

Looking up, I felt that fear. Felt the wicked grin of the storm pressing on me, pushing me. Urging me to roll over. To lay down and die.

But.

That wasn’t what I came here to do.

So.

As the wind roared, and the thunder croaked, and the lightning tickled the earth—tagging the earth’s surface—I nodded.

“I’m ready,” I yelled back.

Unafraid of the storm.

Thorny Fate

I am not here of my own accord.

Fate was set. Pulled into motion. Gears of time and space and virtue, all meshing together to tick down. To continue counting the seconds until the bell would toll. Until the hammer would strike.

I am not here of my own accord, I can promise you that.

However.

I am here.

And I am no fool.

And so:

I must do what it is that I was destined to do. Regardless of how I feel, of what I want, I know what I must do, and I will do it.

Pave the way.

Dive

This place is so cruel.

Light shining only through darkness. Day only reaching out after the light. Beauty only existing because ugly things take root here.

This world is so cruel.

And I’ve known that. For so long—all my life in fact—I’ve known it. Lived it. Experienced it.

So why?

Why did I think I’d get away from it?

That I could outrun this, my greatest fear, and still reach the light?

Kind of stupid, really.

What a dunce.

Catching the Sunset

I have never been a fan of the sunrise.

New beginnings…

They suck.

Just speaking realistically. They’re scary, chaotic. You never know what you’re truly in for until you’re in it, and by then it’s too late. You can’t change your mind at that point. The new beginning has already begun. You’re a train on a track heading toward something—whether it’s a station, or a town, or a cliff with tracks dangling off the edge—and you just can’t stop.

Yeah.

Sunrises suck.

They’re blinding and brilliant, and I’m always too tired for that. Too tired to wake up, to take part. By the time I rise, the sun is already up there, doing its thing.

And that’s fine by me.

I’m not into sunrises.

I’m more of a sunsets kind of person.

Because there’s always time for a sunset. Always.

I can always catch a sunset.

Always.

Royal Lies

We believed our kings to be gods. Creatures sent from heaven, born of man, made to guide us. Give us light, and hope, and prosperity. Made for us, to aid us. To be an example of what gods are like.

And we were wrong.

So very wrong.

Demi-Reach

Within reach.

I’m not a big person. I don’t have long limbs. I don’t have height. I don’t have weight. I’m average in all those things. I don’t stand out in a crowd in any way.

Which should disappoint me. Should discourage me.

Should be a driving factor in deciding when I quit.

And I should quit all the time, really.

But I don’t.

Being short, or being “less-than” in something else?

It just means you have to learn how to reach harder.

Reach farther.