A Change in Perspective

“Do you want to know what power is?” He asked, his eyes wide, excited, and angry.
“Do you!?”

I jumped a little at the way he said it, as if he were trying to warn me that to accept his proposal would take me somewhere I would never want to go. The way his eyes searched mine made me feel so small, like this burden he carried with him was something that could wipe me away like autumn leaves in the wind. I met his eyes, and slowly nodded.


He paused for a moment, perhaps a little surprised that I had accepted, but it only lasted a moment, and the spark behind his eyes was back.

“Power” He began, “Is what gives us strength. I have it, and you have it buried deep within you” He pointed at my chest, and I swear I felt heat blossoming at the exact point he was pointing at. “it drives us, leads us. It is what makes us do things without thinking, we only feel it.” As he spoke he began to pace back and forth, his voice growing in volume and intensity. His arms swept the air like powerful whips as he gestured. Suddenly, he twisted around and grabbed my shirt, roughly pulling me up to his face, making me cry out before he said “Power is what makes us grab someone by their shirt and look them in the eye, it what makes us throw a punch, or pull a trigger, with barely a thought of the consequences.”
He tossed me backward, letting go of my shirt. I nearly fell, my knees were shaking so bad from just his touch.

“And finally,” He said. His voice growing quieter,”power is what gives us the ability to tell others everything we think about, when we think of them.”

He was silent after that. The only noise that disturbed the courtyard was the wind whistling through the trees, but it could have been cannon fire for how loud it sounded. He did not look at me. The power he had just spoke of in such fury seemed to abandon him, and he had eyes only for the ground at his feet, or the clouds in the sky, but not me.

Finally, after what felt like hours, but was only a few minutes I walked up to him. He was like a mountain, leaning against the post, and I was only a small climber, not even slightly aware of what I was getting myself into. I took a deep breath, and said. “So what is it that you have to say about me?”

He didn’t responded for a moment. He raised his head and met my eyes. The insanity that had been there was gone. His eyes were dark pools of light, and his mind seemed to be somewhere far away. Slowly though, I saw something click into place, and he shook his head. “I haven’t a damned thing to say to you.”

I took a step back, shocked. Of all the responses I’d expected from him, it hadn’t been something like that, so violent. “What do you me-“

He moved quicker than a flash of lightning, quicker than I could blink, and just like that I was in his arms, his lips pressing against mine hungrily, and I answered back with just as much hunger, if not more. I felt a weight in my chest, pressing, desperate to be free, and I wanted it to be. I swung my arms around him and crushed him against me, kissing him with more passion than any I had ever felt before.