HL100 challenge #79
*clears throat* Almost Happy Birthday to me, almost Happy Birthday to me...
Yeah. Guess I'll have to try that again tomorrow and get rid of the "almost". All I want is for my family to call me. Don't know if anyone here in Volgograd will remember, since it was only mentioned once a month or two ago. But I'll be home in two weeks!! *So* excited!!!
#79 Freedom: The Hard Way
The first sensation was pain. The reflex which followed - grasping his now throbbing head with both hands - brought several more. The stench of death (his own), the total darkness, the cramped quarters...
God, but he hated when this happened.
And the worst part was, the mortals kept making things harder for him. A winding sheet, a bit of soil, no problem. He’d even grown nostalgic for the days of simple pine boxes...the thick wood and tight seal of today’s modern coffins meant a lot more dying - and pain - before he could claw his way through the earth to freedom.
*****
#79 Freedom: Knowing
Sometimes, the ever-revolving set of Immortals he met when around MacLeod made him feel constricted, bound. He was becoming involved again. Did he never learn? Surely disaster would follow...surely some of what had already happened counted as disaster.
But he couldn’t make himself leave, not permanently. Because at other times he felt a perfect, glowing freedom: the knowledge that he was known, and still accepted. He tempered the feeling with caution; protected himself with evasions, half-truths, and wild tales; with sarcasm. And this, too, was both known and accepted.
He was himself, finally learning to like the feeling again.
*****
#79 Freedom: Choice
Sleep refused, again, to take him, and Methos found himself watching Amanda’s steady breathing in the faint moonlight, absently stroking his fingers along the length of her thigh.
She was a beautiful, bewitching creature...utterly infuriating, as well, but he recognized that as one of her more endearing qualities despite himself.
Sometimes he wondered if she stayed out of pity, or duty, or transferred affection. But they were both free to choose, and those weren’t his reasons for staying, either.
He just wished he didn’t remember the words spoken years earlier...
“If you die, Amanda will be free to date.”
*****
Yeah. Guess I'll have to try that again tomorrow and get rid of the "almost". All I want is for my family to call me. Don't know if anyone here in Volgograd will remember, since it was only mentioned once a month or two ago. But I'll be home in two weeks!! *So* excited!!!
#79 Freedom: The Hard Way
The first sensation was pain. The reflex which followed - grasping his now throbbing head with both hands - brought several more. The stench of death (his own), the total darkness, the cramped quarters...
God, but he hated when this happened.
And the worst part was, the mortals kept making things harder for him. A winding sheet, a bit of soil, no problem. He’d even grown nostalgic for the days of simple pine boxes...the thick wood and tight seal of today’s modern coffins meant a lot more dying - and pain - before he could claw his way through the earth to freedom.
*****
#79 Freedom: Knowing
Sometimes, the ever-revolving set of Immortals he met when around MacLeod made him feel constricted, bound. He was becoming involved again. Did he never learn? Surely disaster would follow...surely some of what had already happened counted as disaster.
But he couldn’t make himself leave, not permanently. Because at other times he felt a perfect, glowing freedom: the knowledge that he was known, and still accepted. He tempered the feeling with caution; protected himself with evasions, half-truths, and wild tales; with sarcasm. And this, too, was both known and accepted.
He was himself, finally learning to like the feeling again.
*****
#79 Freedom: Choice
Sleep refused, again, to take him, and Methos found himself watching Amanda’s steady breathing in the faint moonlight, absently stroking his fingers along the length of her thigh.
She was a beautiful, bewitching creature...utterly infuriating, as well, but he recognized that as one of her more endearing qualities despite himself.
Sometimes he wondered if she stayed out of pity, or duty, or transferred affection. But they were both free to choose, and those weren’t his reasons for staying, either.
He just wished he didn’t remember the words spoken years earlier...
“If you die, Amanda will be free to date.”
*****