Here's a scene based on a prompt to put my character in a graveyard in the snow: "Liam's hair, laden with splinters of ice and snow, stuck out from his low-slung cap. His words framed the brittle air as he spoke, the chill unrelenting, 'I never meant to return here. I know I--I promised I'd never look back. That I'd keep living with you as some memory on the edge of glory, but the world is round, after all, right? I ended up back here anyway.'" He dug his stiffened hands into his jeans, his boot striking a rock as his own murmur haunted him. 'Can't stay long, but I still remember what real sunsets looked like, the way the colors just bled for miles. I hope you haven't seen this magenta sky. I hope you never know it.' His acuity, melting into the atmosphere, left him with no other thoughts. 'You rest well, because I know that while I'm standing here talking to the silence, its better that hen facing it alone--' He laughed in spite of his raw sense of sorrow and turned away from the plot, dusting his knuckles across the slot of cremated ashes in a lingering fist bump. 'Again, sometime, brother.' Falling leaves swirled in his mind as he was transported to an autumn gone. 'But before I go, there's something I know you've heard me singing in my sleep,' he said in a low tone. "I came here to leave it with you, along with something of yours I've been carrying around. Keeping you close, but--if I lost it, well, you know I couldn't live with that." An entire moment passed before Liam fumbled a thin, metal guitar fret from his pocket, a perfect fit between his index finger and thumb. He then unrolled a small piece of paper with a scrawled transcription and wrapped it around the fret. In a swift gesture, he drove it deep into a crack between two bricks in the wall. "The ninth fret was always the richest, no harmonies sounded as perfect without it." Liam's faint smile rested on the glimmer of the fret , visible in the crevice beside Mason's ashes, along with his notes. "I... still... I. Just. You can't imagine the things... or the times I've wanted to say. Mace could have played you that one while I ruined the lyrics. Still have the rest of your rosewood, too, with all of your fingerprints intact. Damned if I had known you'd find me where you did--or when, and yet I wasn't there to--but hell, you'd never let me take it all on my own shoulders. And I won't--for you. It's never gonna be... all right, but--I'll try to fill a void or two with your songs. You'll never know this damn world but, its gonna be changed by what you left in me. You walked into the darkest corner of my life and you -" Without raising his eyes from his fist, his memories hid between his fingers, slipping away as he flexed his palm. "I only hope you can't see me now, with all this all this hell in my eyes, with the shadows. I still remember the light in yours, don't you worry. 'Cause I keep my promises, and you're still my oldest friend. First, and the last. Don't you forget it. Just... don't ever forget that." As Liam turned away, trudging along the icy path that wound through the cemetery, it could have been hours. Days. Months. Or just a few seconds. And it could have been anywhere. Grief only changed shape as he confronted the infused December sky, its witness the only one in sight. As Liam slid down onto the curb, only a few miles from where he'd last seen Ethan, he glanced up at the approaching figure. "Hey, Lara, I haven't seen Eth since... maybe three hours ago." She dropped to his side, grasping his freezing hand in her own. "Liam, it's cold out here; you're like ice... wait, did you visit Mas--" Her eyes, filled with a silent understanding, flitted to his and back to his hand as she placed it in his lap. "We've both been looking for you, Ethan and I--but I'll tell him you're alright, okay?" Liam, his eyes reddened but dried out from the temperature, nodded. "Yeah, I-it's... Well, you know how long it's been," he said, his gaze finding solace somewhere in Lara's dark hair, averting her gaze. "Yeah, too long. Ethan was worried you'd freeze, so you'd better get back to civilization soon..." she said, offering a smile and a hand on his jacketed shoulder. "Thanks, you've both been feeding me way too long as it is--and I'm not the most stable guest." She laughed as she let her hand slide from his shoulder. "Ethan could out-eat us all, so don't worry about that. Just take care out here." And as she walked away, he rested his head against the flesh of his palm, the solitude granting him a moment of clarity--one that he could never share. A melody in the corner of his mind, one that he could hum, roughly, in the back of his dry throat. "Yeah, Mason, you're everywhere, and nowhere, buddy. How many years has it been and you'll always be omnipresent. But at least I can live with that." -- Liam glared into the darkness, the dust in his eyes unforgiving. The melody sank in a haunting tune through the night. "Cause there's a place deep inside of me where my dreams have a hold of me...and soon my soul will start to bleed..." Liam's voice broke off as he raked a tremor through his hair. "I still miss him," Liam said, uncertain if Ryan could hear his musings. "Hey, Ry...how long have we been lying in this hell hole?" He asked, the silence torn by Ryan's answer, "Too long. And yeah, I heard you saying something about 'if you play Wonderwall, you'll look like a total tool' in your sleep, presumably to someone who could play music." Ryan smiled, but it never reached his eyes as he added, "He really was a brother to you, huh? And don't lie because I'll know...and then I'll feel bad about giving ya this." As Liam dismissed a tear at the corner of his eye, he reached over to where Ryan lay, holding a piece of paper. "Music? You wrote music. What is this, Ry? You never told me you could--" Liam said, his eyes adjusting to the dark with a vulnerability that settled between them. Ryan, smiling with a broadness that reached his eyes, glanced at the paper with a nod. "Ah, I might have written down that song you insist on humming in your damned sleep. I knew it had some meaning, although I don't know what...least I could do for you, Li'." As his irises shone with another sheen of tears, Liam said quietly, "Mason could have played this--while I ruined the lyrics." Looking up from his boots, Ryan held a somber smile. "If I'd have known you way back then, I'm damned sure I'd have held you both to that." As Liam returned the nod, he folded the paper and tucked it into his duffel bag, magenta particles stirring in the air. "I know...He really was a huge chunk of my adolescence just...gone like...well, anyway, the music, when we get our hands on a guitar..." Ryan shook his head, angling his jaw in his hand. "Nah, we're in the middle of nowhere, and it'll never happen. But you got me, brother." Liam, smiling faintly, replied, "I know. We've seen so much that , well , does it make me an asshole for being happy that Mason died young, unaffected by the trauma that has screwed us up?. I mean he could've lived a different life from us -and maybe I'm wrong to hope he's in a better -" As Ryan leaned back against the filth-stained wall , his voice contemplated the environment . "It's not wrong to want him to have a peace we may never find. It's human. " As Liam gazed back, conflict in his eyes as he said "Y'know , there's something I had back home. And it's likely I'll never see it again, I was carrying a part of it with me for years , but just knowing I kept it safe...I chose to leave it with him and--". Words eluded Liam in the darkness, as Ryan's features , found by the moonlight, left him unable to deflect his gaze . "I feel as though, he wasn't a friend-he wasn't a comrade-he was a sibling, blood was all we didn't share . And even then when he needed a transfusion... I was the first to roll up my damned sleeve. And I wasnt the Ab neg he was-" In a hushed tone Ryan asked , "You think not being compatible was somehow a fault -but Li' , have you heard-well yourself? He could play better than Van Halen I'm guessing', and you could've ruined more than just his lyrics with those pipes . Don't make me say it again." Liam fell silent, and Ryan flopped backwards onto his makeshift bed. "It's alright Li'. Just get some sleep, and don't--" It was almost automatic as Liam replied, "Yeah, yeah, don't 'thank you.' I know, I'm welcome, huh? Yeah, goodnight, Ry." As Ryan's muttering hit the wall, Liam's mind sifted through the catalog of melodies Mason had played. And, amongst the static, a distinct composition of chords found their way back to him. "And if I fall beneath the cracks, if I find you in the darkness, brother, will you still have the heart to see? When I close my eyes and my memories start to fade, when the filter falls away, will you find the strength to stay?"

Is it worth retaining in a novel ?

What's some similar prompts that Coukd offer insight to Ryan's background ?

Any other ideas?

His eyes were bloodshot, and there was already an unfamiliar anger swirling through him. Almost begging him towards its flames as the voice grew irritating in his ears. "Don't talk to me about where I've been , or how long , you would only notice because-" . As the impact left a razing burn across Liam's jaw, he stumbled backwards, seeking purchase in the bricks of the wall. His legs found leverage in the hedge of the lawn, three am suburbia surrounding him. "Ryan, the hell I won't interrogate you son, and think twice about setting your feet on my property drunk again. " Ryan's jaw, set crooked as he wrested with the rage in his veins , popped to the right. His dimpled grin, lopsided and defiant, betrayed his inebriation. "But, your property, I live here..." "Maybe not tonight , Ryan, maybe tonight you live somewhere the hell else, get walking boy, it's warm out, be thankful for that." The sarcasm of the challenge scraped through his rough end voice as he staggered forward, ceasing his bruised cheek. "Yeah, well it's not as if I did anything half worth mentioning. Yeah me an Damon might have hitched a ride back... here, cause I didn't wanna drive drunk and y'know , kill somebody , but ah hell, I think I'm doing the right thing, and now I'm sleeping in the gutter. " . Then he heard his mother's voice, smothered by the sound of a disturbed German Shepard barking. "Ryan, you're going to sober up , take a long walk . Then when you get back , we can discuss the inappropriate behaviour of your father..." As Ryan straggled toward the pavement , the house blurring away along with the male figure shrinking into the background he shouted . "He's got a hell of a problem, I'm out of here anyway. ." Ryan's shoulders sank under the mounting defeat as he dragged his filthy shoes down the immaculate sidewalk, the air of the night heating his boiling skin. "That asshole won't notice if I'm still missing in three days-" . He'd made it halfway down the street , as his mind flipped through his grim options. "Well Ry', looks like you'll be drinking alone ...for days. " Random dogs barked as he hedged towards a trash can, kneeing its lid onto the road and the echo disrupting the night. He cursed, and came to a final stop on a bench, its rigid surface absorbing the disappointment in his fingers. Driving his palms into his jeans, he released a stuttered breath, and embraced the familiar dread sinking through his gut.

What moments stand out

Or is this moment more resonant : Ryan crashed up against the window, glass shattering around his shoulders and landing on his jacket. "Oh, shit, that's not the door huh ?" He said, a laugh escaping him as he messily drove his key into the lock , and staggered over the threshold to his apartment. As his eyes adjusted to the dark , his landline nearly jumped off the wall, as he reached for the receiver . "Yeah, it's the one and only, and how may I help you, sweet lady?". Ryan answered, albeit recognising the voice and feeling a sense of dread creeping around his earlobes. "No ma'am, not a chance of that-well alright I mean, yeah alright ..three...six? I don't know...A lot. Too many? Yeah let's uh go with that. " Ryan laughed, mostly to himself and the unkept room , with strewn soda cans and a make of generic filth. "Mom , I have a secret for ya' . I'm totally fucking pissed-and three people lifted me up so I could reach the- No shit you know I'm drunk ? Lindsey , what do you mean ? Oh no... I was supposed to..." Ryan's blood ran cold, juxtaposing with the warmth of the alcohol pulsing through his veins. "I left the poor kid in front of the bleachers , I forgot all about- no , I'm sorry , is she okay, please don't tell me some sick pervert-" His heartbeat kept to his throat , as he fell to the bed, the receiver wedged between his jaw and shoulder . "She didn't come home ? Oh God I-" Ryan dropped the phone, his mother's panic screaming into his lap as he ran a shaking hand through his hair. As Ryan fell to he knees , he pulled Lindsey into a desperate embrace of relief, his own tears hidden as she cried. With all the reckless abandon only a three year old could harbor, she mumbled . "Ite ok uncle Ry', I love you..." . The scent of her fresh, shampooed hair lingered as he maintained his hold on her frame. "It was a stupid frat party -I -Oh God -I shouldn't have gone" . As Ryan finally pulled back she gazed at him, her matching hazel irises confused but content. "I missed you and I want you to have this-" As she pulled a crumpled dandelion from the pocket of her pajamas, its limp petals reflected the orange shades in her eyes. "You just go inside, we can play if I -well your Mom might -yeah just go play okay? " . He whispered out of earshot as she ran away into the house. "If your mother and my own don't kill me before I -"

So what about this scene but for Liam : His eyes were bloodshot, and there was already an unfamiliar anger swirling through him. Almost begging him towards its flames as the voice grew irritating in his ears. "Don't talk to me about where I've been , or how long , you would only notice because-" . As the impact left a razing burn across Liam's jaw, he stumbled backwards, seeking purchase in the bricks of the wall. His legs found leverage in the hedge of the lawn, three am suburbia surrounding him. "Liam, the hell I won't interrogate you son, and think twice about setting your feet on my property drunk again. " Liam's jaw, set crooked as he wrested with the rage in his veins , popped to the right. His dimpled grin, lopsided and defiant, betrayed his inebriation. "But, your property, I live here..." "Maybe not tonight , Liam, maybe tonight you live somewhere the hell else, get walking boy, it's warm out, be thankful for that." The sarcasm of the challenge scraped through his rough end voice as he staggered forward, ceasing his bruised cheek. "Yeah, well it's not as if I did anything half worth mentioning. Yeah me an Damon might have hitched a ride back... here, cause I didn't wanna drive drunk and y'know , kill somebody , but ah hell, I think I'm doing the right thing, and now I'm sleeping in the gutter. " . Then he heard his mother's voice, smothered by the sound of a disturbed German Shepard barking. "Liam, you're going to sober up , take a long walk . Then when you get back , we can discuss the inappropriate behaviour of your father..." As Liam straggled toward the pavement , the house blurring away along with the male figure shrinking into the background he shouted . "He's got a hell of a problem, I'm out of here anyway. ." Liam's shoulders sank under the mounting defeat as he dragged his filthy shoes down the immaculate sidewalk, the air of the night heating his boiling skin. "That asshole won't notice if I'm still missing in three days-" . He'd made it halfway down the street , as his mind flipped through his grim options. "Well Li', looks like you'll be drinking alone ...for days. " Random dogs barked as he hedged towards a trash can, kneeing its lid onto the road and the echo disrupting the night. He cursed, and came to a final stop on a bench, its rigid surface absorbing the disappointment in his fingers. Driving his palms into his jeans, he released a stuttered breath, and embraced the familiar dread sinking through his gut. "Give it 30 minutes..." he said, if only to himself. The next hour drained slowly, taking his measured guilt and transforming it into fear as the figure approached. His blue eyes were met an enraged , but matching shaded stare, the glower as usual as his amble down the street. "Liam, last time it was -and met me remind you -it was "a blunt-that you just wanted to smoke, and what happened ? Tell me . Start talking son , I don't hear anything " . As he elevated his eyes , his irises darkening with shame he said, "yeah I got high. And I vomited in my own mouth. And you had to come to triage at three am -" . As his father joined him on the bench , placing a steady hand in the back of his grime laden hair, he said nothing. Liam fingered his jeans, awaiting what would come , a loose thread encircling his finger. "You know what happens -to people like me, Liam. People who won't back off until your body washes up on the banks of a river -" Liams answered was a weak stab in the encompassing darkness . "Yeah, they end up-" . As the hand cradling his head fell away , all he heard was . "They end up signing off bodies in a morgue. You'll think about that son, and you'll think about your mother and you'll sober up . Then , you'll remember not where you live , but why you live there. " and again, he was alone, his defiant grin gone in the night.

It this story , I wanted it to be a side story in my novel too but , it is too long to be a subplot? Ryan hauled his torso through the splinters of glass, blood saturating his shirt as he crawled on his elbows, his bound legs dragging behind. Finally , as his ankle was freed by the sharp jag of a split window pane beneath him , he kicked away the rope from his feet. As he scanned the horizon, his eyes raw and throbbing with his pulse , the distinct sound haunted him. It rained through the air from a thousand directions , its distress weaving through his clenching jaw. Willing the noise to anchor itself , he grabbed at his searing temple , its faint persistence causing his head to ache. An unrelenting glare marred his vision, striking his eyes with scintillating hues of green and white as he rested his gaze behind his hand. "Liam, I can't see , I don't know how long we've been out here or why I can't pinpoint the crying-" . .Then , as the deep magenta particles cleared, his heartbeat screamed to a halt. As his eyes froze on the distant figure, her outline framed with the fading daylight, his disgust burned across his tongue as cursed into his forearm . "Liam ... I thought I'd seen my share of hell but ...those bastards don't-the things I'm guessing' she's seen-" Liam , catching up to Ryan in the haze of desolation, ran a hand over his eyes , his weathered stare haunted as she stood crying into blackened hands. "God , I don't know what I expected , but she can't be older than say, five? Assuming she had parents , the father , A, Dead, or B, pleading for the status through his teeth. And the mother-I can't even visit that twisted scenario-And in front of her- is there nothing those bastards won't pervert- " he said, the anger seeping through his teeth as his curse trailed into the heat of the arid air. "We need to move fast, if she moves-" Liam said, his hand finding its way to his nape as he balanced his stiffened neck, unable to find a space uncovered by shattered windows to rest his chin. Ryan braced a hand over Liam's chest, as he said "It's ok Li' ... I've got this." As her face emerged from the heavy clouds of dust, Ryan pulled himself to feet and approached her , his bloodied elbows behind his back as he winced in the dusk, as her crying ceased and she lifted her eyes. " Hey, where's your mom and dad , huh? " Ryan asked, the girl's tiny amber irises , with her large pupils -loaded with trauma , gazed into his... "I -I don't know. I miss them. But why did they-why-why they m-make Daddy take off his shoes . He-says you-get-cut without your shoes. And then they told him to s-say Good-by-goodbye? " Ryan dropped to his knees , her face peering up into his unwavering gaze as he said evenly . "We're gonna find him , ok, but you'll be safe with me and uncle Liam for now. What's your name ? You can call me Ry'" Clutching the remains of a stuffed bear, albeit its left eye handing by a thread , she offered a stammered reply "I-m I'm Lily" . She then brandished four fingers in Ryan's smiling face as she announced , " I'm four years old...how old are you?" . Liam's laugh came from somewhere behind Ryan's head as he answered her. "He's a big number , hold up both hands Ry, " Ryan's smile broadened for the first time in days as he laughed , offering his hand to the child as she entrusted her hand to his grasp. "Uncle Ry' is -ah it doesn't matter. You're gorgeous ain't ya?" She blushed with a crystalline laugh, as her eyes darted and she wound her shoe into the dust. "That's what Daddy always says-but he told not to move no matter what-" she said, her eyes glistening with tears. "But I don't know why Daddy is gone , to the -um -other heaven?" The magenta skies bled behind her fragile silhouette , as Liam bent down beside her. "We think we know-about this other heaven , and we are gonna find mommy too huh?" Her face lit up , the pink hues melting into her glassy stare as she said "Yeah, I wanna see mommy , too ." Liam , smiling despite the uncertain twist of agony in his chest, gestured towards the dilapidated toy in her hand. "Who's this , huh, I bet he's pretty special? We have to make sure that no matter what, we don't lose him. " As he winked , she held up the dust infested bear as it were an earned prize . "He's Sam, he's smaller now... but I still love him ." Liam leaned behind Ryan's head as he said, in a low tone. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" . As Liam's eyes landed on a pair of boots , placed eerily close together , perfect and stripped of their laces , Ryan's gaze followed. "Yeah Li' , I'm guessin' those are the father's . It's a calling card if I ever saw it. I don't know what she means by this other heaven but, yeah I'm not liking anything about this picture..." The sky echoed the sentiment of despair infused with a faint hope as Lily's hand fluted Ryan's thumb and forefinger with a shaking inquisition. "Uncle Ry-I-I-I don't know where I am....i got left behind ... it's cause I let go of mommy's hand . I'm -I'm sorry-" Liam , deftly grasping her wrist , pulled her into the crux of his elbow. "No , Lily, it's not you fault. You keep Sam safe , so he's lucky you were hanging on tight to him huh?" The light flew back to her eyes as she nodded. "Yeah-but Uncle...um" she said , already disoriented by the encounter., and the dust streaked faces of two men kneeling in the remains of suburbia. "You can call me Uncle Li'- you've made two new friends today huh? How about that?"Her eyes faltered a moment, then she gazed directly into Liam's blue stare, as she lowered her voice to a whisper . "Uncle Li" , don't tell anybody , but I have a secret. I -it's -um-" She leaned closer, whispering into Liam's ear as she said "I found this and I wanted to give it to Daddy but-it's the same color as your eyes". As she produced a wilted morning glory from her pocket , she perched it on Liam's grease laden hair, behind his earlobe. "Oh , you're too -" he said , the gesture unbalancing his compose as he encircled his arm around her waist . "I bet you're tired huh, if you can't walk , do you think you can fit up here?" Liam, patting his shoulders , watched as she nodded , dust falling in her light hair. Hoisting her up , her knees falling either side of his jaw , he guided her hands to his hair. "Hold on tight , I got you. And up we go". Liam rose to his feet , with the aid of Ryan's firm grip hauling him off the ground. Lily was quick to reach out Ryan's hand, grabbing his pinky and swaying it back and forth as he walked alongside Liam. "You're so high up there , is the sky pretty? "He asked, as their footsteps fell in line with the jagged lashings of debris. Through a yawn she said, "yeah, it's red, I like it...but I'm so tired...I can't sleep till mommy and daddy-umm -I'm scared now ..." Her fingers twisted against Liam's scalp and her chest shook with oncoming tears. He quickly halted , assuring her she could sleep. "You can take a nap up there , we will keep walking so even while you sleep we'll be getting closer to your parents, it's gonna be ok-" . Ryan , reaching up to stroke her hair said quietly "when you wake up we'll still be here , because that's what uncles are for right? And you are stuck with two of us so you're double safe ...but you'd better hug Sam tight so he doesn't fall huh?" . Lily stuffed the bear down her oversized shirt, and rested her chin in Liam's unkept bed of hair. "He's safe now..." she said , her voice travelling over Liam's head as her eyes slid closed. Ryan glanced out at the horizon, the sun slipping lower, and he nudged Liam. "I'm guessin' that it's been about two miles , and we still don't have an iota of a clue where to start lookin' , and you know the pattern up to this point has been , traffic with the men...torture and kill the women for pure sadistic pleasure. Maybe he even trafficked a few of them two... but I don't know how we tell this kid she might not see either of her folks again-" . As his expression flickered with worry and a foreboding guilt, Liam sighed , pulling the small of Lily's back closer to his neck, her stomach flush against his skin. "I don't think we do- I think she's gonna put two and two together -kids just know this shit right? And we might have to ask ourselves something worse, for instance, how do we deal with her total sense of abandonment, the survivors guilt, she's us in a smaller , vulnerable body-" . Ryan slowed his gait, the wear in his voice as he said "Well, not in the sense that she can understand it. We might find them alive yet, and I suspect that the boots mean they want us to find these people. Lily herself is a calling card. I know better than to assume they were disposed of so fast." Liam's eyes were dark with the notion , as the concrete pavement wound its way into an unpromising nowhere. As the night carried a soothing breeze , taking the searing edge from the heat out of the arid air, Lily began to stir. "Daddy-it's cold-I don't wanna sleep yet, I wanna play with Kai-no, I -" . Her shoes kicked against Liam's collarbones as her fists coiled in his strands of textured hair. "Daddy? " Her voice was met by the silence of Ryan's downcast stare as he placed a palm against the back of Lily's head. "You remember me? Uncle Ry' . We found you and Sam, because you got lost , yeah? But you're safe now-" he said, her hair gritty against his skin. Liam , adjusting his neck as she twisted around in his hands yaw