literature

Scars - A Short Piece

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TakadaSaiko's avatar
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Literature Text

Scars



It had been a long time since he'd had a chance to look in a mirror. He couldn't tell how long, exactly, but enough time had passed that he had a difficult time recognizing the reflection that peered back at him. It was strange how a man could appear so different in a relatively short amount of time.

His skin was still about the same shade of pale that it had been most of his life, his eyes the same shade of blue, and his hair remained, unchangingly, the same dark mousey brown. Glasses still perched slightly askewer on his pointed, straight nose.  He hadn't grown, nor had he shrunk, and he maintained all of his limbs through the battles that he fought.

But there was a change that he could see. Pale skin was littered with scars from the long, slender cuts along his cheekbone to the holes left by enemy bullets. His eyes proved him older, possibly wiser, but certainly more haunted than when he'd last taken a moment to peer into a mirror. They hid behind glasses, shiny and new, as the others had been trampled on some battlefield that he could not put a date to. The circles under his eyes were darker and he thought that the skin on his face might have been tugged a little tighter across the bones than it once was.

Dog tags hung from his neck.

He straightened his shoulders, ignoring the ragged scar that snaked across his left collarbone, and tilted his head high. It had been a long time since he'd had a chance to look in the mirror, but he didn't regret what he saw. The image that peered back at him was a constant reminder of what had been asked of him, and a constant reminder of what had been gained.

After all, freedom had never been free.
Just a little flash fiction piece on a character of mine out of my novel.
© 2011 - 2024 TakadaSaiko
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silent-and-invalid's avatar
Another awesome little piece! I just have one question though:
"It had been a long time since he'd had a chance to look in a mirror" is the first line but then, in the same paragraph it says: "It was strange how a man could appear so different in a relatively short amount of time. "
I'm just kind of confused about the tense/timeline?

But I like the piece, you described him really well!