Take A Stand
"What do you believe in?"
"I believe we don't come back. I believe we don't go anywhere... but what I believe..."
"It matters."
"No it doesn't." Taif looked down grimly at his hands as he clenched his fists. His knuckles were just beginning to scab. He hated the feeling of his skin pulling back together, so he began to pick at the rough patches as they formed.
"You've always got to be so negative. Why can't you just hope? How can you be so pessimistic?"
"Val, I'm not a pessimist." He pulled off a thick part of the scabbed area and flinched ever so slightly as blood began to crawl between his fingers. "I do what I do so others can hope."
Valerie let out a sigh as she smiled in admiration at his words. She then cupped the left side of the young man's face and began to trace the valley of scars that indented his cheek. "You bring me hope. I am thankful for that, but I still pray for your salvation." The old woman let out a single tear.
"No tears." Taif flicked the tear away with his clean hand as Valerie began to wash the blood off his other. "For a tough old bird, you sure can get misty." He picked up her chin and beamed a smile to lighten the mood.
"...I'm... I am going to miss that smile." Valerie's eyes welled, but the tears stayed in place as if to honor his request. "When the lord comes for me, I will tell him of your valiant efforts. I will let him know that your bloodshed was not for vanity."
"Don't." Taif got up from his seat and put on his armor, loaded his pistols and placed them in their holsters, sheathed his daggers and went for the door. "Don't spend a breath in heaven on me, for even if the next world exists..."
"You'll never make it." She dropped her head and began running her rosary beads through her fingers. "And I will find no rest in the next life, knowing that."
"That is not your cross to bear, sister." Taif stood before his exit, gripped the door handle, and looked back one last time. "Immortality is my penance. It is only your place to hope that the world no longer needs me one day."
"Then I shall pray for peace."
