Sanctuary

Sanctuary means different things to different people. To some, an animal's rehabilitation center, to others a church hall, but to all it's a place of comfort. My sanctuary is Andy. My comfort is in his dark voice, in the faint scent of cologne and cigarette smoke so familiar to him.. My sanctuary is the man I love more than anything. Andy and I have been together since we were the sandbox age. Maybe 4 we were giving innocent little kisses to each other, and exclaiming to our parents we were boyfriend and girlfriend. I don't have many memories before him. In our younger, elementary years we looked at each other with the puppy love, our hands glued together. A special place on the cheek for kisses from each other. Then, in middle school, when we both went through puberty, curious about sex, we still had the same puppy love but also had a good amount of lust for each other. Exploring what was fun, what was awkward, what was painful, and also exploring and gaining a sense of secrecy. Despite the lust, we've never regained that amount and sense of innocence. All that changed when we entered Cathedral. Through a distant aunt of mine, we were suddenly at the young age of 14 thrown into military style training, training to become what Cathedral calls Peace Keepers, but what is really spies and assassins. The only time we were split in out training is when Andy showed exceptional progression in archery, and where I showed an exceptional progress throwing daggers. With hard training we soon became experts and very deadly with our weapons of choice.
I was snapped out of my reminiscing as I heard our pastor say, "Let us pray," and I came back to reality, and remembered we were still in our morning church service. It was a small church, with only about 30 people, mostly older adults and very young children, all who adored us. The children all wanted to sit with us during the regular Sunday service, and all the older people always thought we were the sweetest couple. Very accepting people there were here. The people around me and I bowed our heads, closed our eyes, and listened for our closing prayer. Andy had been stroking my hair and running his fingers through my long dark hair when suddenly his fingers had caught the pink bow holding my bangs back, pulling some of my hair. I instinctively winced and pushed his hand off my head, and in response I felt him kiss my cheek. When we heard the collective "Amen," Andy and I both stood up, leaving our seats, and very ready to head home.

-- Jayelle.

Notes

Sorry for the long ass chapter, wanted to get all the background stuff out of the way. Next one will be better, and will start to introduce characters. Please leave feedback!