Talyndre Ama'thas

Micro Story Prompt: #6 "Illusion"

Talyn liked drawing faces. If one were to flip through his sketchbook, among the few pieces involving wildlife and a handful of more abstract shapes, the faces of those around him were what they’d see most of all. 

He especially liked that unguarded expression people tended to wear when they felt nobody was looking; a blacksmith hard at work, or a mother watching her children at play- couples lost in the moment with one another during a stroll through the gardens, or arguing with a heat that only lovers can wield. Free from the everyday illusions people wore in place of their real feelings, it was the kind of thing charcoal and paper were made for. Just as it was the kind of thing he couldn’t really grasp beyond the marks on his page.

He often wondered what he might look like to an outside observer in his place- but something told him it would be nothing like what he saw. Those feelings, the things that shone on each of their faces, simply didn’t live inside of him. He feigned almost all of it with ease these days, but it was always empty. False. A neon heart buzzing in a dark-alley ribcage, where the real thing died long ago- or else was never born. The details always were a bit muddy.