"I could burn this town to the ground, baby."
The words seeped from his lips
Like tobacco smoke crawls
From yellowed teeth
During slow, living death rattles.
She peered outward into darkness,
The orange glow of sanctuary
Nearly alien in her eyes.
She had come from nowhere,
Nothing,
Yet he had saved her.
Those old knobbed hands,
Callused by tough truths,
Had drawn her from beneath
The rubble of human pettiness,
Their supposed needs,
Shallow as the grave
These hot, human-less ashes laid in to rest.
Her life was his to preserve,
His to keep,
Yet she wanted nothing more
Than for him to destroy her.
They watched on.
The foundation of precious metals crumbled,
Stained grey and black with guilt.
Red embers burst from its body,
Dancing half-heartedly in the air
And vanished without a partner
Into the biting winds that fueled their inferno.
With every second,
The flames within her
Blazed in white-hot intensity,
Cooled only for moments
By the smoky haze of nothings
Whispered, smiling in her ear.
She watched the fire burn,
Longing to reach a fever pitch
That would set their entire world ablaze,
Hoping, too, that they would dance in fading redness,
Bright for only an instant,
But in purity.
She had come from nowhere,
Nothing at all,
And he had made her whole.
But it was her turn to save him now.
In a whirlwind of blue flame,
She would consume him,
And return him
To the one burning passion
That sparked his revolution.