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Newborn life replacing all of us Changing this fable we live in No longer needed here So where do we go? Will you take a journey tonight... Follow me past the walls of death? But girl, what if there is no eternal life? ________________________________________________ Good lord, when Elden spun on him, he could have sworn he was looking into his own wild-eyed gaze of youth. How many times had his own dark eyes exhibited that very same look when he was young? He had a feeling that he and the boy shared a great deal more personality traits than either of them might fully know. This first lesson of parenthood was hard, he realized. To have to stand and watch your child fight some internal that you didn't fully understand was enough to make a man feel helpless. Even worse, to know your child was hurting and you didn't know how to fix it felt like a knife to the gut. He finally was beginning to realize that no matter how old your kids got, no matter what they'd seen or done in life--you'd always worry. Always care...and even in a hardass ex-con--always want to shelter them from the bad things in life. Elden struggled with his answer, and Sphinx felt for the boy. The kid was quiet...always had been when he was young. He knew it was taking a lot for him to talk about whatever it was that had gone down. Now, it wasn't easy to shock him. But the words that his son spoke damn near floored him, the hot heat of anger all but erupting from the surface just harshly and as instantly as it always had in his younger years. Des was not his daughter, but he'd viewed the girl as a niece her whole life. The idea of some bastard putting his hands on her enraged him, fed the murderous rage he'd used to welcome so fully into his life. He'd thrived on that rage in his youth...age had never tamed it, but instead, developed his control. Even so, he was having a hard time masking that rage--though he knew he had to--showing it would not be of any help to El. His son retrieved a pack of smokes from his truck, and Sphinx thought that was a goddamn good idea. He reached to the pocket of his leather jacket, drawing one and lighting it with the flick of a zippo. If only he had brought his flask--he'd be set. He breathed deep of the cancerous vapor, listening as his son finished out the story. The boy blamed himself for not monitoring Des. Fact was, the kid took too goddamn much on himself--hadn't he been the same way at that age? Out to save (or fuck up, in necessary) the world? It had taken him a long time to realize some things just couldn't be controlled...sometimes, you couldn't always keep the people you loved safe, no matter how hard you tried. A good 30 seconds passed as he studied the dark patches in the earth and fought the lethal anger from his voice. When he felt he could speak efficiently without upsetting the boy further, he rose his dark gaze, smoke billowing from between tightened lips. "I trust you made the bastard pray he'd never been born?" A funny thing for a father to encourage...but Sphinx was no regular father. Nor was Elden the regular son. They'd both been cursed with a fierce protectiveness for those they cared for. "You should talk Des into letting you warn Angelina." He hadn't been asked for advice, but he sure didn't wanna see the bar owner surprised with a black and blue daughter. The poor woman might just lose it, with all she'd been through. "Might fall on deaf ears, but it's worth a shot. Girl needs her family." He wasn't gonna say nothin'...wasn't his place to. He took another long drag from his smoke, contemplating his next words. "You know, El, I was a lot like you once. Thinkin' I could keep everyone I loved safe from all the bad shit in the world. Fact is, you can't. And you can't blame yourself when it happens. Girl coulda been killed, for all you know. You stopped it. It's horrible she was hurt at all, but it ain't your fault, not a part of it. I don't care how much training the military gave ya. If a woman reallydoesn't want you to know somethin'...you just ain't gonna know it." It wasn't lost on him that his son was still avoiding his original question. And in the brightening light of day, he could see marks across the boy's face, as well. Oh, lord, what he'd do if he could find the name of the person who'd done this. "You still haven't answered my question. What happened to you?" |