Here is the beginning of a very short fiction piece. I've been wanting to try some different writing styles in search of my favorite way to share story. This was a fun exercise and though I have yet to write Parts Two and Three, I have enjoyed the perspective of waiting and receiving what the end of this adventure will be as it intersects with my real life.
He laughed in his hurry. Despite a pounding heart and anxious sweat, the thought struck him. Pleasure he denied of himself crept in, and he stopped to catch his breath. Leaning against the wall in the moonlight, the small town silent, he wondered if… He knew. God, he thought, no doubt—no, he felt—how else to explain the wonder of this moment? It wasn’t like something he now realized. It was. He, a religious leader, was scurrying the streets to meet the substance of dreams. He covered his mouth with his robe to muffle the sound and presently the mirth intertwined with tears upon his face. A gentle breeze traveled the alley and carried his mind away.
He remembered the longings, as a boy. The parts of himself that would devour his whole being with fire and ache; nowhere to go, with no one to confide in he would battle his soul and drown from the inside. He did not understand. Bound for service from a young age and surrounded by bearded men, their lifeless faces embodied wisdom, he was told. So what did he do with desire? Slowly, observing somber and repetition, he took the fiery life within and learned to sacrifice. His mind a continuous altar building and burning thoughts, dreams, wants, and hopes. He learned to consume the longing to be surrounded, to be satisfied, to be pursued, with the weight of holiness, honor, and duty: the path to righteousness. He grew.
They were pleased.
The force of his youth buried and laid to rest within his heart. He hoped someone had received from his offering, but never felt anything.
And now here it was. In pursuit, flooded again by a long dormant memory. The whisper of fullness and its insatiable power was driving him to risk everything he had laid down his life for. It was almost blasphemous, but he didn’t know what to believe, because everything… Everything. Everything was changing.
He had stopped too long to think. Quickening his step, he was just a few short minutes away from the house where they would meet on the roof. A midnight tryst, the thought that had stopped him before now even his beard couldn’t hide the grin that spread across his wrinkled face. How defiant a description! It contradicted law in humor and truth. Shaking his head, he forgot himself and broke into a run.