Why not? I could use the cheering up...

The I'D HIT IT Meme


xposted to makemethe_hero

[TM] 302. Collection

There are ten of them looped together on a chain and resting in his vanity case. Some are worn with time, the metal darkened to the point that no amount of polishing in the world could get it clean. Some are simple, plain bands with little ornamentation around them to make them stand out save some scrollwork etched into them in an attempt at beauty, or the engraving one bears on the inside that hasn't worn away no matter how often he's rubbed his thumb over it to call her face back to mind. Two are highly ornate, with jewels embedded in the gold, a piece of art from a time of artifice. Three still gleam, a century or less old. One has flakes of salt and blood in the groove he's never bothered to clean--a permanent reminder of the price of trust and the pain of treachery. The newest bears dents from the concrete wall it hit again and again and again as he screamed for them to let him out.

Sometimes he lets them fall through his fingers, each one bringing to mind a memory, a face, a smell, a laugh, a time in his life that will never come back. The people he's loved, the loves he has lost.

Other times he stares at them, and sees only the absence. The ring that isn't there. The hole that wasn't filled. The vow that wasn't made. The road that wasn't taken.

That there will eventually be another added to the chain, he has no doubt. Life goes on. He goes on, forever and ever, amen.

But no matter how many other rings are added, he knows he'll always look at the chain and see the one that's missing.