"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.