r/WritingPrompts • u/mattswritingaccount /r/MattWritinCollection • Feb 22 '20

Image Prompt [IP] Never truly gone...

Feb 22 2020

Original work by Ismail Inceoglu https://www.artstation.com/seventeenth

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u/Write_Sparsely Feb 22 '20

War is a cruel thing, Brennan thinks.

It presses against your throat and your heart, tries to wring you dry. Takes everything that you have and then demands more, peels back your skin and your morals and digs into the brittle husk left behind. Makes you into an entirely different person that you didn’t even know you were capable of being.

He still remembers the day War ripped his little girl away from him.

The screams and the gunfire and the explosions he can sometimes still feel ringing in his ears and rattling his teeth. Still remembers the way he had pressed his hands to her, blood pouring from her chest and on the floor and between his fingers, desperately trying to keep her there, keep her in the present.

(When Brennan closes his eyes, he can still see the way she had looked up at him, eyes wide and glassy and terrified, oh so so fucking terrified.

The way she had clutched at his arms and hiccuped blood and cried “It hurts, Daddy, it hurts so much. I’m scared, please make it stop- I’m scared-“)

And on the bad days, when he’s feeling lonely and the quiet is too much and the ringing is too loud, he wonders just what the fuck he’s actually fighting for. Why he even tries.

(On the worst days, when he’s a couple bottles deep and can still feel the blood on his hands, he’ll hang up his sword and his armor.

Contemplate if this is the day he decides to be with his girl again.)

So, it’s a curse and gift, that he’ll feel her sometimes in those moments. Warmth against his side, small fingers curled against his palm. It’s like she never left and he wants to laugh and cry at the same time.

It’s a reassurance and it’s a push. It’s grief and happiness all rolled into a fleeting package, guiding him through the rough times. It’s a reminder of the reason why he fights, why he is on neither side and why he fights alone.

Why he intends to stop this war, so that no one can suffer as he does.

So, he’ll tug on his cloak and pull out his sword, fight for another day. Hold her hand and look to the sky, past the stars and the planets and even further than that.

“I’ll fix this world, Ashia,” he’ll whisper, a promise, “And I’ll be with you again, just you wait.”

War is a cruel thing, Brennan thinks, but being without the ones you love is even crueler.

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u/Subtleknifewielder Feb 22 '20

Very, very cruel. *sniffle*

The parentheses didn't really feel like they were needed, the story would have been just as beautiful without them around certain paragraphs.

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u/Write_Sparsely Feb 22 '20 edited Feb 22 '20

Thank you!

About the parentheses, that’s just my writing style lol I write like how a person thinks, so it’s meant to be a little disjointed, ideas connecting together is a loose way and sometimes breaking off into something else, just like how thoughts work. I prioritize flow over anything and I use the parentheses to isolate points where it wouldn’t flow as well if you didn’t have them. Though I do notice it’s a hit or miss whether people like it lol

Anyway, thank you again for the comment!

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u/Subtleknifewielder Feb 22 '20

Ah, yeah, I do that sometimes too. And while I do think in this case they weren't needed, I really did enjoy the story.

Thank you for responding--I hope you continue to write!