017

Fleeting

Warmth is fleeting. Years spent suspended in a cold prison, counting the passage of time by the atrophy of his limbs, has taught Stephen that there is nothing that cannot be endured because nothing is everlasting.

Not even this... thing... with Bry. This unacceptable quickening of Stephen's breath, this wander lust swelling in his hands like a broken sieve, this urgency in his gut that insists on taking precedence over objectives that have taken a lifetime to plan.

Bry is a means to an end. Stephen recalls the cold silence of his cell and holds this truth in his heart.