I remember the day with clarity. Yet, I remember it with an ancient feel of age and a deep ache. I don't quite remember what she looked like in those last moments, but I do remember how her blood stained the earth a beautiful crimson.
We were playing in a field, she was ranting on about how beautiful the day was, while I merely tried to walk nonchalantly back to the house so I could hopefully get out of the blistering heat. She would spastically tug on my arm, trying to get me to move faster towards the long grass, while I simply walked in the opposite direction, pulling her with me. She would did her heels into the soft earth, gouging it and leaving trenches behind, exposing the deep rich soil of the underground.
We would always hang out in the tall grass together, but today, on this muggy, July day, I was just not in the romantic mood. Still, I let myself be led sideways, towards the tall grass. The grass swooshed around our legs, coating our clothes with pointy burrs and causing our legs to tickle. The sun bounced off of the blades causing them to reflect a bright white color, while the wind caused them to shiver.
We reached our destination; a small circle-like clearing in the middle of the grass. She immediately plopped down on the dusty, russet ground, dragging my arm- and me down with her.
I un-gracefully fell down next to her, causing the dust from the ground to poof up around us in a brown haze. It seemed to sparkle as it fell in a swirling mass.
She fell onto the ground as well, giggling as her tawny brown hair fanned out around her head like an angelic halo. While she stared at the clear blue sky, I too stared, but not at the sky, but instead into her honey eyes. They glimmered with love and warmth. I smiled.
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...g waterfalls, the place was magnificent.
Paradise.
We walked further into the oasis, my palms, damp and clammy with sweat twitched nervously inside of my pant pockets. Glancing around nervously, my heart swelled with joy when I saw the object of my desires sitting on a rock in the middle of a reflecting pool. Its elegant golden curves and pure white strings reflected in the light, causing it to glimmer.
I went to take a step forward when a horrible rotting stench filled the air. Abruptly, I turned away from the harp and looked behind me. I felt a pain in my chest and looked down to see that I was bleeding.
Then everything warped, just as it did that day so many years ago.
I looked up at Sho to see his teary twisted smile looking down at me. Then, I heard the distant clicking of bullets hit the ground.
Click.
Click.
Click.
The blue water turned red.
Once upon a time, very long ago, there was a beautiful, blue eyed princess who daily visited a small village near her huge, and glossy castle. The princesses name was Paisley, and she was crazy for daisies! All she wanted to find were some daisies, and that’s exactly what she found in the small village. A handsome prince was selling talking daisies and Paisley couldn't wait to buy them!
‘Whoa’ this feeling overcame me, first my feet were reaching a warm light, then the air turned me around and I was tasting the yellow with my tongue, still falling. I felt ‘lovely’, as if the dog’s breath had acted as an anesthetic, a natural high and I landed with a dumb smile on my face. I turned around dreamily; everything was so abstract and yellow.
Sunlight seeps through the gap between the curtains and falls upon my eyes. The birds outside the window sing their sweet melodic tune and I sigh at the peacefulness of it all. Although the curse The Kindly Ones bestowed upon us has been broken for over a month now, I still, along with everyone else in the kingdom, smile with delight when the radiant heat of the fire that hangs in the sky like a Hermetic lamp, hits my face. I roll over and find Lux still deep in his dreams. As I watch the rise and fall of his chest, I realize how simple and tranquil my life is now.
How strange and awful it seemed to stand naked under the sky! how delicious! She felt like some new-born creature, opening its eyes in a familiar world that it had never known.
And then, neutraling gravity with love and pure will, I remained with her suspended in air, inches below the ceiling. Nothing could hold me back now. Leaning in, we kissed each other for a long, long time.
My fingers ran in a blur over the black and white keys, hitting the right notes at the exact moment—it was mindless work. The chords struck true until the end of the piece; once I finished, it was time for me to repeat.
I landed with a thud on the ground, the Scolopendra’s body landing dangerously close to me. I staggered up, stick and dripping with both my own blood and the Scolopendra’s. I looked over at Rissa’s broken body, I looked back at Alida’s retreating back as she ran into the thick of the battle. I looked at Rissa again.
I was still reeling with so many questions, but she started to hum, soft and sweet, and I laid back on the sand, my eyes stinging from the salt. And after a few bars of Gentle on My Mind, I was
The air sings with the fragrance of freshly cut grass. As a backdrop to other things, children are at play, swinging too and fro, running and skipping; there are toddlers who toddle and mindful mothers who watch on in painful and patient distraction. The sun is everywhere: in the corners of the pavilion, bearing down on the tennis courts, caressing the flower beds, the convection of its heat pulling at the carpet-like lawns, dragging out bodily its scent.
Standing on the balcony, I gazed at the darkened and starry sky above. Silence surrounded me as I took a glimpse at the deserted park before me. Memories bombarded my mind. As a young girl, the park was my favourite place to go. One cold winter’s night just like tonight as I looked upon the dark sky, I had decided to go for a walk. Wrapped up in my elegant scarlet red winter coat with gleaming black buttons descending down the front keeping away the winter chill. Wearing thick leggings as black as coal, leather boots lined with fur which kept my feet cozy.
As I regained my consciousness, my face was throbbing with pain and my nose was bleeding. I tried to clean the blood off my face, but realized my hands and legs were tied up. I sat upright and looked around me. My house was a mess; everything was either broken, or gone. . . . I had been robbed.
We took off down a path covered softly with moss and tiny pink flowers. Off to the side of the path were endless green trees and pants all nestled together to make one beautiful piece of art. After a while, we reached a sparkling, clear brook. It was about twelve feet deep and nearly three feet deep. The path wound right along side the water. Down the brook a ways, we came to a deep water hole where the fish danced in the swirling current. I noticed the brook was beginning to flow a little faster now, and I could hear the steady, rushing noise of the water falling over the cliffs that lied ahead. We walked to the cliff's edge to look over at the crystal clear lagoon that lay below us. The falls dropped about thirty feet down before it met the pool of water below. To the sides of the waterfall were moss-covered rocks, ferns and other green plants, growing from the crevices of the cliffs.
OUCH! My leg crippled with pain. I tried to shuffle my way to the window, but it was excruciating. As my senses kicked back in, I felt pains shooting up and down my body. Peering down at my hands I screamed. My hands were covered in cold, congealed blood.
The sunset was not spectacular that day. The vivid ruby and tangerine streaks that so often caressed the blue brow of the sky were sleeping, hidden behind the heavy mists. There are some days when the sunlight seems to dance, to weave and frolic with tongues of fire between the blades of grass. Not on that day. That evening, the yellow light was sickly. It diffused softly through the gray curtains with a shrouded light that just failed to illuminate. High up in the treetops, the leaves swayed, but on the ground, the grass was silent, limp and unmoving. The sun set and the earth waited.