Topic Response: Betrayal
Betrayal
He was there when I got home.
I’d been out, walking in the forest. It had been time for a walk in the dark for me, but I had come back. I always came back. I’d even thought to pick flowers, even though I almost dropped them when Callie jumped into my arms.
We lived in the forest, me and Callie, you see. In a house. It was a good house.
Jude had been by and dropped him off. Darkly. Darkly Noon. Weird name but the boy couldn’t help that.
In reality, I’m not sure the story of Darkly and how he tried to kill us - kill me - fits what the story here is supposed to be about. Not properly, anyways.
I mean - if you have to betray someone, you have to have pretended to be different than the case is? To fool them?
I’m not sure Darkly ever did that.
And it has to be something you do because you want to. I think. That may not be the way you’re supposed to think, I don’t know anything about that. But in my mind, the way I see it, to betray someone you have to make a decision to do so. You have to want it.
Callie didn’t want to deceive me. She just couldn’t help loving him. Them. So she didn’t, because she didn’t plan on it. She didn’t mean it. Not really.
Anyway, I came back home and there was this kid there. Or - young man I guess I should say. He’d been hurt pretty bad and he seemed confused and alone and when Callie asked me if he could stay, I let him. Of course I did. You do that.
Only - I shouldn’t have. Or - I should have seen where it was headed.
The way he looked at her.
The darkness madness in his eyes.
He met my Ma out in the forest. Listened to her lies. Wrapped himself in barbed wire like one of her dumb and dead birds.
Maybe the story should be about her? About Ma. She was the one who betrayed us by telling lies. Turning the towns folk against us. Saying that Callie was a witch, that she’d murdered Pa and put me under her spell and other crazy stuff.
Maybe it should be about Pa? Who took a girl home to us, just so he could try and have his way with her. And she didn’t want it. She was just this little scared thing that I wanted to pick up and hold - and I did. After he’d died.
Maybe it should be about Callie. About saying ‘I love you’ to another man. About seeing the darkness in someone’s eyes and not doing anything about it …
Maybe - maybe the story should be about me.
I swore I’d love her always. Always. That I’d protect her and take care of her and bring her flowers and pretty things. That I’d dance with her in the kitchen and eat all the butter beans, even though I hated them - because she had cooked them for my dinner. For us. I swore that I’d make the house beautiful for her and get her pretty things from town, those summer dresses that are soft to touch and billows out when a girl spins.
And I do love her. But the house burned down and Darkly almost killed us - and I left and went away in the night. Because she’d said -
I betrayed her. By promising something and not keeping it.
In my mind, that’s betrayal. Because you know that what you do is wrong - and yet you do it anyhow. Because it seems easier.
I don’t think it was ever easy on Darkly. Or Ma, for that matter. She’d cry so hard when she saw me. When I told her to go away.
Maybe it was easy for Pa. I don’t know.
It wasn’t easy leaving. I am not saying that. But it was easier than staying. Than lying awake at night, thinking about what Jude had said.
Maybe we all betray trust. Maybe we have to. But I still think that you can’t really blame someone who doesn’t know that they do that. So I can’t say that Darkly betrayed me. Because he just did what he believed was right.
I’d still kill him if I saw him though.
Slowly.
Count: 727 words
Muse: Clay
Fandom: Passion of Darkly Noon (Misc. Movies)
He was there when I got home.
I’d been out, walking in the forest. It had been time for a walk in the dark for me, but I had come back. I always came back. I’d even thought to pick flowers, even though I almost dropped them when Callie jumped into my arms.
We lived in the forest, me and Callie, you see. In a house. It was a good house.
Jude had been by and dropped him off. Darkly. Darkly Noon. Weird name but the boy couldn’t help that.
In reality, I’m not sure the story of Darkly and how he tried to kill us - kill me - fits what the story here is supposed to be about. Not properly, anyways.
I mean - if you have to betray someone, you have to have pretended to be different than the case is? To fool them?
I’m not sure Darkly ever did that.
And it has to be something you do because you want to. I think. That may not be the way you’re supposed to think, I don’t know anything about that. But in my mind, the way I see it, to betray someone you have to make a decision to do so. You have to want it.
Callie didn’t want to deceive me. She just couldn’t help loving him. Them. So she didn’t, because she didn’t plan on it. She didn’t mean it. Not really.
Anyway, I came back home and there was this kid there. Or - young man I guess I should say. He’d been hurt pretty bad and he seemed confused and alone and when Callie asked me if he could stay, I let him. Of course I did. You do that.
Only - I shouldn’t have. Or - I should have seen where it was headed.
The way he looked at her.
The darkness madness in his eyes.
He met my Ma out in the forest. Listened to her lies. Wrapped himself in barbed wire like one of her dumb and dead birds.
Maybe the story should be about her? About Ma. She was the one who betrayed us by telling lies. Turning the towns folk against us. Saying that Callie was a witch, that she’d murdered Pa and put me under her spell and other crazy stuff.
Maybe it should be about Pa? Who took a girl home to us, just so he could try and have his way with her. And she didn’t want it. She was just this little scared thing that I wanted to pick up and hold - and I did. After he’d died.
Maybe it should be about Callie. About saying ‘I love you’ to another man. About seeing the darkness in someone’s eyes and not doing anything about it …
Maybe - maybe the story should be about me.
I swore I’d love her always. Always. That I’d protect her and take care of her and bring her flowers and pretty things. That I’d dance with her in the kitchen and eat all the butter beans, even though I hated them - because she had cooked them for my dinner. For us. I swore that I’d make the house beautiful for her and get her pretty things from town, those summer dresses that are soft to touch and billows out when a girl spins.
And I do love her. But the house burned down and Darkly almost killed us - and I left and went away in the night. Because she’d said -
I betrayed her. By promising something and not keeping it.
In my mind, that’s betrayal. Because you know that what you do is wrong - and yet you do it anyhow. Because it seems easier.
I don’t think it was ever easy on Darkly. Or Ma, for that matter. She’d cry so hard when she saw me. When I told her to go away.
Maybe it was easy for Pa. I don’t know.
It wasn’t easy leaving. I am not saying that. But it was easier than staying. Than lying awake at night, thinking about what Jude had said.
Maybe we all betray trust. Maybe we have to. But I still think that you can’t really blame someone who doesn’t know that they do that. So I can’t say that Darkly betrayed me. Because he just did what he believed was right.
I’d still kill him if I saw him though.
Slowly.
Count: 727 words
Muse: Clay
Fandom: Passion of Darkly Noon (Misc. Movies)