• Winter chills had just rolled in behind intense storms. There was a lull somewhere between snow and silence, like the sky was stubbornly unyielding and the ground was simply hardening. Everything was still, and for a moment, the only warmth came from the flowing red in my chest and glowing orange between my fingers. “I’m almost afraid that chasing my own perfection, isolatedly training all the time, will make me alien to others.” Thunder limps off, barely audible in the distance as wind silently presses in, sharpening its fangs. With a small flick, the ember arcs out, exploding upon impact. Coat-tails step aside for hands to find places among pockets, chunks of concrete grinding under the pivot of heel; the frigid bite won’t sink into these bones tonight.