Soothsayer Ch. 2, Pt. 1

Notes: On to Chapter Two, where we meet someone new. Kind of. I'm building to the first big thing, guys, never fear, we'll get to the jumping off point with the next part. Until then, enjoy Cillian and his way of looking at the world, and also the included picture of him because I can't resist and wouldn't want to anyway. Not my pic, no rights, not claiming it, etc.

Title: Soothsayer, Chapter Two, Part One

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“Whatever love laws have to be broken, the first few seconds suffice. After that everything is a matter of time and incident.” – Amruta Patil, Kari

The alley behind the store was just wide enough for a decent-sized truck to drive down its cracked concrete, tufted here and there with surprisingly green weeds—it had been a wet summer so far. I leaned against the brick wall, tapped a cigarette out of the pack and pulled my lighter out of my pocket. The burn of the smoke in my lungs soothed me a little, distracting my mind with nicotine and giving my hands something to do that wasn’t crawling after fistfuls of imaginary pennies. I smiled to myself and shut my eyes, tilted my head back and blew the smoke toward the sky. It could have been worse. Once I’d read a murderer who liked to decapitate his victims with a butcher knife; I hadn’t trusted myself in the kitchen for a fucking week after that, cutlery kept finding its way into my hands without me realizing it.