3WW x 2

Since I was out of town last week, I used last week's three words and this week's three words for today's post. For more three worded fun head over to 3WW and see what everyone else is writing. Again, this is a continuation on the last two 3WWs.
Last weeks words were: burden, natural, ubiquitous. This weeks are: earnest, layer, and reactive.

The burden of finding the slaughterer of innocence rested heavy on his shoulders. His earnest search uncovered layers of hidden flotsam and jetsam and the ubiquitous fear that he would never avenge her haunted him. The fact that his life had become a reactive routine bothered him less than the reality of his liability in his sister’s death. The rage tearing at his guts night after night had become completely natural to him. The only thing that had pulled him out of his pattern in the last weeks had been his wife’s abandonment. She couldn’t live with the new hollow out version of the man she’d married. He couldn’t work up enough emotion to shed even a single tear when she’d taken the kids and gone to her mother’s. Let them live with the bitch for a few weeks. By the time they came back, he’d take care of the murdering trash that killed his sister. By then, there might not be anything left for them to come back to. If he didn’t find something to fill up the void left in his soul soon, the insanity he’d been holding back for weeks would take over and nothing would matter.