feet, a fire rose with and within him, and words sparked in his voice. He warned Amon, holding the ground firmly between them. A laugh echoed from his sinister mouth, and he shoved Zyn to the ground, turning back to the butterfly. But the fire was in his veins, shooting through his arm as he jumped up and struck Amon in the nose, a small splatter of blood sprinkling the pristine purple wildfires, and Amon fell to the ground, crying in the dirt.
The butterfly cringed above them, afraid of the fire in Zyn’s eyes as he turned to her smiling. His words of safety and assurance were drowned in Amon’s sobs. She turned her back on Zyn and fluttered downward to offer her pity and sympathy to the injured Amon.
Astonished, he dried his tears as she hovered in front of his face trying to kiss away his pain. Instead, they were extinguished on his cheeks by the eruption of his familiar smile. He slapped his hands together and stole her life straight out of the air. Her body tumbled limply to the ground between them.
Zyn cried out, and the fire instantly erupted throughout his soul. The flames became his movements and lava flowed in his mind as he looked down at Amon, his fist bent on beating every last drop of tears and blood from him. Amon scrambled, broke free and left wails in his wake as he ran up the hill to his house.
The fires still curling in his heart, Zyn looked down furiously at the broken butterfly. Weak and helpless, she twitched slightly hoping for his healing tears.
Zyn, however, had no more tears left. The loss of the butterfly and the memories of their happiness burned as embers in his heart that exploded outward and rose from his chest to engulf his whole body, wrapped every limb and sliver of skin in the blaze until he was completely consumed. He became a wild inferno determined to scorch the earth.
He left her in the dirt to wither away and set off to find more butterflies to destroy.
The grass and flowers of the pristine valley were set ablaze. Every tree and plant, every ant and butterfly and creature that crept in the once wondrous world he encountered was turned to cinder and ash. The meadow was reduced to a field of flame, and the black smoke of Zyn’s rage darkened the sky, obscuring the sun.
High on his hill, Amon witnessed the meadow being torn asunder within the flames of the unyielding blaze. Zyn’s fists still echoed pain within his body, and he held himself tight, trembling. Thoughts snuck from somewhere deep inside him, and they came in wave after wave, and each wave became a tiny fracture within his heart, until the cracks spread, and it completely
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