FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER

Toivoaa is allowing people to read a portion of her writing, not just the completed thing... I hate hate hate having people read something of mine when its not finished, or at least you can see a sizeable amount of it and know the direction its going in. i'm very tentative with regards to my writing, even more so in it's unfinished stages. even if i think it's good, i worry that i have flawed judgement and so, anxiously await the critique of others; then think that they're just being nice coz they're friends... until i allow myself to be convinced, kind of. i'm probably overly critical of my writing, but ah well.
anyway this is completely unrefined, it's going to need some working over, plus i'm still turning over in my head different directions it could go. and it could go many different directions ^_^
i have to pick one, maybe two and go with that. once i have tried one thing, it stays in my head and i can't shake it while trying to go somewhere else with the same beginning...
sigh.
okay.
i'm nervous.
tell me if i should just can it now.

here goes...

[and yes it does finish mid sentence]

He read the letter one more time, carefully, before crumpling it in his hands. His hands, which were shaking, he noticed, absent-mindedly. It had been a long time. Ten years today, in fact. The old questions stirred to life once more, tumbling like the contents of a washing machine; yet never, it had seemed, to be hung out to dry. But now, finally, some had been laid to rest.
He turned from where he was standing still, suddenly, abruptly. His mind was no calmer than before, with these answers came yet more questions; more puzzles he may never know the answer to. The whirlwind had reawakened, and he was once more caught helplessly in the swirling turmoil it brought.

Sealing the envelope, she ignited the lighter. Holding it close to the paper, she watched the tiny flame flicker blue at the edges. So small, and yet contained unseen within its innocence and warmth, a terrible power lies. Power to destroy, to shatter lives, to take everything beautiful in