"Memories"
[April 2007 prompt :: pinch]
I remember it well.
No amount of time or circumstance I know of will ever erase that dark, dark day from my recollections.
I can still smell the tar- and oil-soaked wood; feel the sting of the smoke in my eyes; the restraints of the ropes biting into my flesh, despite what passed for clothes on my body. I try hardest to forget the sensations of feeling my legs blistering and burning.
There are still nights I wake up screaming from the nightmares, the memories, three centuries and more away. Robert is most solicitous when those nights occur. As I am for him when his own past returns to haunt him.
I've noticed a few incidents where the nightmares occur more frequently: the anniversary of my first death, when I've taken a Quickening, or when I've lost someone dear to a Quickening. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to hide myself away in the Sanctuary, hide myself away from the memories, the nightmares.
But that would be too easy, wouldn't it?
I remember it well.
No amount of time or circumstance I know of will ever erase that dark, dark day from my recollections.
I can still smell the tar- and oil-soaked wood; feel the sting of the smoke in my eyes; the restraints of the ropes biting into my flesh, despite what passed for clothes on my body. I try hardest to forget the sensations of feeling my legs blistering and burning.
There are still nights I wake up screaming from the nightmares, the memories, three centuries and more away. Robert is most solicitous when those nights occur. As I am for him when his own past returns to haunt him.
I've noticed a few incidents where the nightmares occur more frequently: the anniversary of my first death, when I've taken a Quickening, or when I've lost someone dear to a Quickening. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to hide myself away in the Sanctuary, hide myself away from the memories, the nightmares.
But that would be too easy, wouldn't it?