𝐀𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐚 Marsden, beloved wife to the best man ever and soon to be mother wasn't expecting much. She finally had it made, and that's saying something for a former, poor introvert with a broken home. But there was one thing she didn't expect. In fa...
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ƬΉΣ ΉIDIПG PᄂΛᄃΣ
|ADARA|
The little boy puffs as he goes. His feet, olive-toned and bare, too soft and fragile even for the grassy knoll beneath speeds down the wide, natural clearing. He's fast, this little one. Every few minutes he skips and howls, his body springing with joy.
"Come on!" he shouts, his arms waving about with no care in the world. I giggle, my heart melting with warmth for reasons unknown to me. but my mind acknowledges that this is a precious little one. Clutching the layers of silk and organza I find draped on me, I hasten my step. The western sun sets east here and the wind blowssouth, changing directions every so often. Trees shine with threads of gossamer and it'sleaves shake residues of molten honey dew that lands on the silvery grass below. Near it, something flashes.
Mine, my heart echoes as I locate the flashing object. I trace my fingertips against the engravings I know like the back of my own hand on the cool silver. Almost instantly, rapid fire stings my hands and travels up my arm preventing me from picking it up. I go against my body's mutiny and warnings and clutch the jewellery against my chest. The once soothing breeze that was too gentle and too polite as it caressed my face welcoming me like a long lost friend has now taken a dispassionately cool turn. I know as the air freezes with my every gasp, as the peculiar flakes begin to fall; this Eden has finally decided to dispel it's inhabitants. My bracelet had become the apple.
I break my stride when sudden thunder booms above crackling down, vibrating an ominous staccato along the ground that makes my toes curl. This isn't good. I run as the sky begins to darken, chasing my every step.
Very soon it seems that we are running for two different reasons. His of elation and mine of desperation as my feet eat up the ground, as my choppy breath labours to outrun the ever approaching gloom behind me. The sky glistens ahead and the woods open with ease, as if dangling a prize to be won. And even with the deafening hollow the sudden forest around me shivers with anticipation. The boy so far ahead now dips down a steep mound until not even the tuffs of his dark hair can be seen.
"Wait!" I scream, as I weave past the birch, pine and the unknown silver trees as itblends into a dartboard of confusion. I stop as futility takes over me. I'm lost. The darkness is upon me now.
"Wait!" I holler again, but my words ricochet against the trees and the wind whispers it back like a mournful caress. Wait wait wait. It ripples around me until I'm shivering too and clasping my chest desperate for breath. One gnarled branch sweeps out and I'm toppled to the ground. I scream as the mud gives way and begins to suck it's surroundings, the roots, the bugs and leafy twigs twirling in the whirlpool until it is me being swallowed into the earth. I claw and claw at the ever falling grains but the branches entwine around my wrists to stop me. And as I dissolve with the impending darkness I look up and see the face of the boy. His amber eyes watch solemnly.
