Good morning one and all. I hope you had a fabulous weekend and are ready to get into the work week, diving in and getting all pruny with it. I am actually feeling pretty good about this week. The weather has my head stuffed with snot and I woke up early in order to breathe, but somehow I still have a good feeling. Weird, huh?
Still I am going to hold on to it. Ready for the first prompt of the week? Excellent! Let’s go.
Oh, I like this one. So many directions it could go. Not what i was expecting to write when I sat down, but that’s what makes it fun. This week is clearly off to a good start.
Monday, July 19th: It is a slippery slope.
“It is a slippery slope,” Michael said. He shook his head.
Kyle nodded “I know, but at the moment it is our best option. Someone has to watch him.”
But does it have to be you” Michael asked. “With your history…”
“You are afraid I’ll backslide? Return to my evil ways and join him in his mad quest?”
“I am not worried about you, I am worried for you. You left that life once. I know it must have been hard. Going back now, even for good reasons…”
“Is the only way we can keep an eye on him. I know what best to look for. I know the dangers.”
“He is persuasive,” Michael replied. He still looked worried but seemed to realize that his arguments weren’t going to convince Kyle to turn away. “Tricky.”
Kyle nodded, relaxing slightly as Michael bent to the inevitable. “I know. And I will be careful.”
Michael nodded. “I have faith in you,” he said. There was sadness in his eyes. “Just don’t trust him. Don’t let him drag you back down.”
“I won’t Michael promised. He half turned to where his open bag lay, only a few items having been placed inside. Michael picked up the hint.
“I’ll leave you to pack then,” he said. Michael turned and walked towards the door. He paused just in the doorway and looked back. “Good Luck,” he said. His eyes scanned Kyle as though committing him to memory. He then turned and walked away.
Kyle took a deep breath and let it out shakily. His bravado faded with it. His doubts were actually greater than Michael’s own. Michael was his closet friend here, but even he knew only the bare bones of the story. He never pressed for details. No one did. Most thought his past was his own business and left him to it. They assumed he fled, left what he knew to join them.
In a sense they were right. When he left, he cut himself off from his former life. Until this business arose, he assumed he was forgotten. That no one thought of him at all. There were few left who would remember him. The deaths had been what made it easy to leave in the first place.
Everyone assumed that he chose to change sides. Truthfully he never really saw the sides as in conflict with each other. They were different, but more in the way that two sides of a coin were different. Although he doubted anyone here saw it that way. Here things were black and white, right and wrong. They were right and the others were wrong. It was a core facet of their daily life and one that Kyle doubted anything could shake.
When he cut himself off, he cut off the pain that he could no longer deal with. He made a fresh start, a new beginning. It was easier to become someone else rather than to continue to be himself. The old man knew it. Understood it and let him go. Kyle didn’t fight to leave. He left with the old man’s blessing.
And now he was returning at his request.
The others could think of it how they liked. In truth the missive didn’t specifically request him. It asked for someone to be sent, using vague terms that could be interpreted in a multitude of ways. Kyle read it and knew it was designed for him. It was designed to give the others the idea of sending him. And at heart, it was a summons.
He was being called home.
Ten til Midnight 