❝"Pain teaches," he said. "He who doesn't learn, dies."
Leon learned.
He learned not to complain.
He learned not to ask.
He learned to hate.
One day he bled too much. They dragged him to the infirmary. He had barely caught his breath when the captain came in and looked down at him.
"If you survive, you return to the yard at dawn."
And Leon did return.❞
summary
Now, decades later, standing in another courtyard, with another generation trembling before him, Leon felt that past burning beneath his skin like a wound that had never healed.
And seeing that captain's daughter carry the weight, run under the sun, endure without falling, a dark part of him thought:
Let him feel what I felt.
Let him see it.
Let him know that his legacy, too, can be broken.
The memory faded slowly, but the resentment remained.
notes
He's going to break you, and not in the way you like... or maybe he will if you're curious, but you shouldn't like it, you dirty girl.
✧ Kofi!
Created Jan 10
Updated Jan 10
Published Jan 10