Virtual Ink February//March//April 2014 | Page 10

Butterfly Wings , Thorned Roses BY TIFFANY FAULKNER W ’ ith the sound of tapping fingers, droplets of rain hit the window of the dimly lit room, interrupted by rumbles of distant thunder. Lightning cracked, something that made Weller flinch almost every time it sounded nearby. At the desk he wrote in a journal, messy and loopy font hard to decipher by anyone but him. Typical doctor’s scrawl, but it was just an added bonus in his eyes. That just meant nobody could read his journal entries. A coffee cup sat forgotten, chilled as an arctic wind after at least an hour of sitting untouched. He got lost in his ponderings too easily, and at the worst times; like when he’d be in the midst of a conversation with Sull and cut it off, silence engulfing the two, although he never seemed to mind it. And like now, where he couldn’t sleep for the thoughts that fought off his tired haze. It was sometime past midnight, and Weller needed to bleed onto the paper some more before he ever thought of dreaming. 21 ’ ’ ’ Outside’s cacophony had been so loud he hadn’t caught the quiet shuffling until it stopped at the doorway, and caught mid-word the medic looked up, graphite making a straying trail from the letter he’d been meaning to write. He’d wondered how the other could sleep with the raging storm, seeing as he hardly slept at all. Weller grinned at him with a bit of H