Wrap your teeth around the pavement

M  A   E    A I talked to God to no avail Said, "If you won't save me, please don't waste my time." The quiet question was the last straw. Sunjata couldn't know where it came from, how much significance it held to her. It was a phrase she'd asked him once before, when he was down on his knees and looked a man drowning in his own darkness, lost and without a path. Now? He gave it back, in the same way her brother had used to. And gods, how sweet the pain of it was. Maea broke down, began to cry. It was the silent, painful kind. All that could be heard were her shuddering breaths, spaced between far too long intervals of fragile silence. Her shoulders convulsed more than shook, seizing up as all the anguish bottled up within her broke from her eyes and soaked into his shirt. Not a sound slipped from her, but by the way she clung to him, she might as well have been screaming. Long, drawn out howls of pain, refused by vocal cords gone numb. It was a long time coming, really. Had he asked, she would not have been able to tell him when she last cried for real. Not like this. A few tears rolling down a cheek did not really count.