Cornucopia

[Lilith]

Michelle was unfairly pretty. Guys didn't acknowledge it. It made Seychelle mad. She was the one boys looked at when they went to the mall, or when they went to the arcade, or when they talked about the colors of the sky as it swirled down to the ocean on the beach. She was the one they looked at.

But Seychelle had her eyes on Michelle, and Michelle had her eyes on the horizon. She could feel the taste bubble up inside of her mouth.

Seychelle wasn't gay or anything. She wasn't a lesbian. She wasn't a-

Until one night, spent together at Michelle's quaint home. In bed, they talked. They were laughing, and they were drinking, and they were cackling. The neighbors threatened to call the police, so the two girls had giggled their way under the blankets. They talked down there, hidden from the gaze of others and God. They talked.

At one point, they stopped talking.

Seychelle wanted to make Michelle feel as pretty as she saw her. A diamond in the dark beneath blankets.

[The Honeless Beard]

Presses of teeth and lips, soft sounds and hard clacks.

Soft rasps of the pads of fingertips against skin, drawing patterns, little memorizations, tiny indentations committed to memory or long forgotten.

Puffs of air against stomachs, against chests, nails digging into palms and blankets. Little sounds swallowed by hungry, seeking mouths.

A feeling, fleeting, of shining bright, glittering in a rock face.

Taken too soon.

[Lilith]

"You're not real right?"

[The Honeless Beard]

A smile, a switchblade, a light.

Dancing, flickering.

Flickering.

"Why not?"

[Lilith]

"You're not here right?"

[The Honeless Beard]

Mr. Jacobson, could you please report to the central heating chamber?

There's something that has been left unattended and

It's getting colder.

Mr. Jacobson?

[Lilith]

"Please answer."

"Please tell me they didn't hurt you."

"Please tell me you're okay."

"Please tell me you're putting up posters of me."

"Please tell me you're not on this island."

"Please tell me you're on our island."

"Please tell me you're safe."

"Please tell me you're okay."

"Please tell me you'll find someone else."

"Please tell me you're not alone."

"Please tell me."

"Please tell me?"

[The Honeless Beard]

The heat, unattended, died.

[Lilith]

There was only the body of the man she had just murdered.

The fourth one.

She swallowed her pain in her throat. She closed her eyes again, and went back to sleep.

[Lilith]

((Thread closed))