Ella

I run through the forest, run and the nightmare that has been this past week can’t catch up, run and maybe I’ll forget. Tears streak down my red cheeks, out of my puffy eyes. My legs are pounding, I want to keep running but I can’t. I just can’t. I sit down, leaning my back against the bark and let my heart spill open. Ugly sobs shake me, they rack my chest. I cry, for my mother, my mother who died in a shooting. I cry, for my father. The same one who drove a car right after drinking all his pain away in the form of whiskey. I was going to be a sister. I was going to have a baby sister. But now she’s gone too.

Caleb

I’m worried about Ella. She’s not spoken to anybody in days. Not answered any texts or calls. She’s gone silent. I know it’s only been two weeks, but without a parent… I’m worried in case she harms herself, physically or mentally.

So I walk through the forest, which she once mentioned as her favourite place. The leaves crunch underfoot, the wind rushes past me, and I see her. Sitting at the base of a tree, arms wrapped around her knees. Her long brown hair falls to either side of her face. She’s wearing a short sleeved t-shirt, but she doesn’t flinch or shiver as the wind slams into her. I step closer to her, but she doesn’t look up. “Ella,” I say softly. I hear her sniff but she doesn’t respond. I sit down next to her.

Ella

I hear the leaves crunch as Caleb sits down. “Oh Ella,” he whispers as he wraps his arms around me. I release my knees and melt into his embrace. I cry into his shoulder. My arms are wrapped around his neck but he doesn’t complain, he just strokes my hair and hugs me. I don’t want to leave. Everyone I love is dead. Except Caleb. I have loved him for years.

Caleb

“Thank you,” she whispers against my shoulder. I know this is a terrible time. I know I shouldn’t say this now. But I can’t help myself. “I love you, Ella. I am in love with you. I know it’s not a good time to say it, but I have kept it in long enough. I love you. I’m not asking you to reply, but I need to tell you.” She stays silent and I think all my fears are confirmed I think she doesn’t like me back or I’ve scared her off. “I love you too,” she says, so soft, barely a whisper, but that whisper has made me happier than I have ever felt. I feel her lift her head from my shoulder, she readjusts herself and smiles through her tears. I lean down and kiss her. The leaves rain down around us as a shaft of light reaches through the canopy and places an ethereal halo around Ella’s head. I kiss her again. We stay like that for a while.

Jack has always seen art in death. The splash of red that always leaves behind that familiar jolt. That euphoric sense of madness. He was always looking for more work but something whispered on the wind. Something about a grand masterpiece.

Leave your tools behind.

But his tools-knives, guns, swords-they were like his children. How could he possibly…

It will never be yours, then. __ __ Jack was getting more and more annoyed with these voices. Why couldn’t they show themselves? Why the tricks?__ __ Leave them behind and the dream you desperately cling to? Will be yours. Don’t? Your chance will be gone.

He reluctantly left his children behind.

Time passed and he saw nothing that could be considered art. Until he walked out to the forest. Blood red leaves littered the canvas, shining just right as the sun was just overhead.

He noticed wandering through the forest, a woman.

It’s not like he hasn’t seen one before. No he used many for his “paintings”. But this particular one was different. She seemed to scream perfection. With his babies? He could resume his work but he would have to use his hands this time. He got closer to her perfect body, perfect skin, eyes of blue pools, hair that glistened off the wind.

He never met someone so perfect in his life. Then she spoke:

“Something told me that I could come here to die.”

She said those words like it was a fleeting thought and strangely enough? It surprised him.

“Why do you want to die?” He asked like he hasn’t caused so many himself.

“Oh…just my parents died, my pet just recently passed, no one in my family is around, I have no friends or any relationship with anyone, I’m quite alone.” She said calmly.

Jack couldn’t believe that she was so calm after all that has happened to her. To accept death so willingly? It seemed wrong.

“Oh, you need more? Let’s see…I lost my job, twice. I now live in a box where people walk by as if you’re already dead already. So? I’m taking there advice.”

The warm wind basked through.

“Are you my reaper?”

Jack embraced her, the smell of lilies hung in the air as he began to cry. But he was smiling. For after all this time his masterpiece wasn’t what he wanted. It was something else entirely.

My first love was a child of scorpions— Stuck his stinger in my heart And poisoned me into submission.

I got on my hands and knees And begged him not to leave.

But when the first frost crystallized us in our farewell embrace, I took a mental picture And stored it in my memory’s vault.

They keep me warm at night When I become hyper-aware of how empty my bed is.

I pretend that October is a blanket That envelopes me like my mother’s womb. Keeping me safe and warm As the loneliness grows a backbone And confronts me for living in the past.

They shared exclaimated glances at the wood surrounding them. Jamie, the boy, had the power to create hallucinations. He couldn’t control when they came or went, or even what they looked like, just like he wasn’t able to choose who saw them when he did. They were always too real to be fake. You could reach out and touch the red leafs on the forest floor, feel their texture. If you wanted to, you could even take something from them—an item—and once the hallucination was over, you’d still possess it.

A warm breeze that smelled strongly of honey and roses blew through the draping branches of great trees. The sky above, they coundn’t catch a glimpse of, but everything was lit in a hazy peachy pink. So he imagined the sky was like strawberry juice streaked across a white surface.

“Have you ever seen so much red?” Amela shivered. He understood why. They’d seen so much of it over the past five years—an endless river of despair that they’d yet to escape. So seeing such a color has to be the last thing they wanted to encounter.

Imagine being fearful of a shade?

But this great ruby forest is different. It symbolizes something other than death or pain. And no matter how much his mind told him to escape, there was also this sense of…peace.

He grabbed Amela’s hand. “This is a safe place.”

“Where are we?”

It took him more than a moment to answer this. The girl watched him patiently, and stayed quiet, letting him think. “We’re in…my head.” he concluded with a sure survey over the area.

“Every hallucination is in your head, Jamie. What makes this one any different?” she asked—in a polite way of course.

Jamie met her eyes. Everytime he looked into them he saw a great river of chocolate. They were always so deep and understanding, no matter where they were. And her hair was the same dark brown color. It was right then, that he got it. He finally had an idea on what this place really was. If he was correct on this, this gave him a clear shot at telling Amela…

“This is a reflection of one of my emotions.” he answered.

She paused. “I don’t think I understand…”

Jamie never let his gaze stray away. “Why would you ever be allowed to see one of my hallucinations?”

“Because…they want me to?”

“—Because the emotion of this place is love.” he said bluntly.

“You—I—”

“I didn’t ask for you to see this. I— was never going to tell you because I knew it would ruin us—”

“You love me?” the intensity of her soft tone made him pause in his tracks. The boy was beginning to walk away in lost hope. He could practically feel the color of the leafs changing into a gray despair, until he heard the sound of her voice. It wasn’t as though she were asking in a disgusted way. She spoke in a way that hoped his answer would be—

“Of course.”

There was a space between them that Amela slowly filled, with ten steps. She stared into him, searching. “I…love you too, Jamie.”

She laid a gentle hand on his chest, just over his heart. He dipped his head down and she slowly rose on her feet. They were mere inches away from the one thing he’d longed for for so long. Just a kiss. He didn’t wish for anything more. Just a sign she truly loved him and wanted him as much he he wanted her.

But before their lips could meet, the forest melted away in a hurry.

Jamie sucked in a heap of air as Amela shook him awake. “Jamie! Thank the skies, you were passed out for so long!”

It was all fake…

“What?” he touched a hand to his damp hair. When he removed it there was blood on his palm.

“I thought you were dead. Looks like one of your hallucinations just saved your damn life. I’ll answer questions along the way. We need to go!” Amela turned around just in times to stop an arrow from flying into her skull. “Get up Jamie!”

He rose and she grabbed his hand, pulling him along behind her as they maneuvered around the broken walls of an old mansion.

They jumped over a grand clock that had fallen on the floor. “You were standing under an unstable ceiling. The thing was about to collapse on top of you so I pulled you away, but not fast enough before part of the thing fell atop your big head.”

He would’ve laughed at that last part if he wasn’t still so shocked. Never had a hallucination ever created a person. He’d seen animals and rivers, animated clouds and shooting stars—villages that flickered with hues of orange, but never an actual, living human. Never Amela.

And he’d been healed by it? There was nothing on his forehead but the absence of a great wound—and the blood, of course, that was still warm on his face.

He wanted to ram his head into a wall over and over again just because of how stupid the whole thing was. He’d been healed by something that didn’t exist between them. How absurd is that? A delusion of Jamie’s, saved his life. And he could never tell Amela what he saw. If she knew, they really would never be the same. Because this Amela, he knew for sure, did not love him. At least not in the way he wanted.

She pulled them out of a doorway. The sun blinded him and he had to shield his eyes. How long had they been in there for? He remembered they were retrieving a precious power item. Had they gotten it?

They ran clumsily down a hillside, half tripping on the way, before climbing onto the back of a great white horse. Amela held the reigns and road them away, while Jamie wrapped his arms gently around her waste.

“You might wanna hold on tighter unless you hope to fall and be cought by our perusers.”

He looked past the feeling of stickiness above his brow. “Where is it?”

She laughed victoriously. “Check the bag!” she called back.

Once he opened the satchel wrapped around Amela’s neck, a sense of relief overpowered any other feeling he was trying to avoid at the moment. Jamie let out a sigh.

We did it.

That’s all there was to think about. Nothing more.

I wrap my arms around a work of fiction Me, alone, in a sea of red decay Rotting pumpkins Seasonal depression Still beautiful just the same

There’s something romantic about Autum. The plants that blossomed in spring and thrived in the warm summer breeze, slowly decay. But in that decay is a canvas of warm auburn, burnt orange and red hues. It’s a warm glow, lighting up the trees and forest floor. It might be the end for the plants, but for love, it’s the start of something warm, cozy and epic. In this haze of autumnal glow, we find our two lovers. This isn’t a story about a quick summer love, but the slow burn of passion. As the leaves die, our lovers inhale their scent, cozying up in each other’s arms, surrendering to the forest.

I take his hand and run through the trees.

"Woah! Melody! Wait, where are we going?"

I don't stop running and keep quiet. He will love this, I know he will. We've always had our best moments in the most amazing places. Our first kiss was at a beautiful park in our hometown, our best kiss was out on an arctic pier, and now here will be... who knows?

"Here," I pant and put my hands on my knees. I lean down and breath hard, and Zach puts a hand on my back. I look up at his georgeous brown eyes, almost black, and he pulls me in a hug. He whispers sweet words in my ear and kisses it gently. I gleam in his embrace, and he must tell.

"First time you haven't cried on a sort of date," he mutters under his breath.

"I heard that!" I exclaim.

I push out of our hug to look at him. There's a hint of laughter, but a bit of playfulness. I fluff his messy dark brown hair, until it looks just right.

"There."

He laughs and holds my face. A delightful kiss follows, and I wrap my hands around his neck, pulling him closer. He puts his hands around my waist, and our bodies are the closest they've ever been. His usual smile isn't there once we release.

"What Zach?"

"Nothing." he says with his eyes distracted on a thought.

I find a solid rock and sit on it, and tell him to sit with me. I have to repeat myself so he can hear me, and he finally, slowly, sits with me.

"Zach. What's wrong?"

He sighs and strokes my cheek, avoiding the question.

"You know that job I applied for?"

"Yeah... what about it?"

"Well, I got it-"

"Oh my gosh! Zach! That's amazing!"

He smiles sadly but I don't notice. I kiss his face until the tears become salty. I realize he's crying. Zach is... crying?

"Zach?"

"Oh Melody," he hugs me tight, like this is our last moment.

"Melody, it's in Utah."

We both are crying into eachother, holding tighter by the seconds. He kisses my lips a thousand times, sad kisses. The wind blows, adding onto the harsh emotions.

"So," I start to say.

"So." he cries.

"When... when do you-"

"Tuesday."

"But that's tomorrow!"

His cries turn into sobs and I don't know how to react. I've never seen him cry like this, and I don't know what to do. Even though we're best friends, dating, I just sit there stunned. So I kiss his tears, each one falling down at there own pace.

Once they settle down, he looks up at me, and hold my face. He kisses my forehead, and we walk back. Our last kiss is shared in the red tree medow, tears streaming down our face.

A morbid fascination with autumn of death’s season; rotting leaves, hearts broken. With her, with lovers I came here seldom a place of Anubis. screamed bad omen. Bodies, bodies, atop one another Dancing red embers, once evergreen green fall. Aided by death’s wind, greed. Shake, shudder. Through barren branches… the apple of Eve Gorging itself on decomposing life Giving way to life, not death, temptation, Love. Passionate spark. Someone to call wife My all, sacred temple. Soul salvation. Within this culmination; death’s domain, Life’s living. It is here we shall remain.

** sadly not a Shakespearean sonnet. I got lost somewhere along the iambic pentameter. **

Ugh. Another one of these prompts. Well, there’s a couple in a wood where there are a lot of red leaves on the ground. Stylized autumnal shit. Someone’s fantasy of what fall in Maine is supposed to look like except of course it looks totally fake and computer generated. It’s so uncanny valley. It’s a canned idealized version of something that in real life is precious and specific. Local and authentic. Now it’s been cheapened flattened out and made all cheesy and fake. Someone who isn’t very imaginative’s imagination.Someone who can’t think for himself’s thoughts. Someone’s creative vision that is based on canned wisdom, received judgments, and genetic crap. There is no hint of any human behind this. It’s just derivative cliche. It’s like the pastries in the Soviet shops. You’d see beautiful meringues in the window but when you went in to buy one you discovered they were all fake. The only difference here is the fact that the meringues in the window don’t even look real. It’s like designer imposter perfume but somehow worse because there is no original to push back against. There is just no there there at all. It’s hollow and empty in the creepiest way. Not a real wood. Not a real couple.

If you don’t know the characters yet, that’s on you…

(I know this has been second person this whole time, bc I’m really bad at 2nd so I thought I would try, but for this I feel like it would be better to do first. Youll see why)

Finn

“I want to take you somewhere.” I say, our fingers laced as we walk the halls of the bunker. We have only been openly together for about two months, but it felt like I had known her for an eternity.

Her nose scrunched and she looked at me skeptically, and In that moment I tried to commit every detail of her face to memory. The freckles on her cheeks, the shape of her lips, the mixed shades of dark in her hair, all of it.

“Where…?” she smiled while keeping her face scrunched up. She looked at me skeptically through the side of her eye.

“It’s a surprise, you will see.”

“Oh absolutely not, I hate surprises more than cockroaches. I hate roaches.”

“Don’t you trust me?” I ask as Innocently as a man can.

“No, no I don’t.” She sad mocking my attempt at sweetness. I couldn’t help but laugh. Smiling with my teeth and eyes.

“Smart girl.” I say pulling her a little closer, dropping her hand from mine, I wrap my arm around her waist.

Making my way towards one of the exits less popular to my employees, leading out to a large hill.

“We have just got to walk a little, less than a mile I promise.” She tried to stand still, arms crossed, promising not to move until I told her where we were going. Me having no choice, I picked her up, holding her by the backs of her knees as she wrapped her arms around my neck, piggy back style.

It wasn’t a long walk to our destination, and the feel of her talking in my ear seemed to give me the extra energy I needed. When we got close I made her walk, so I could make sure her eyes were closed.

“Okay, you can open them.” I say hesitatingly, starting to second guess myself.

She practically ripped her hands off her eyes and looked around. Her mouth fell open when she saw the orange, yellow, and red trees, all slowly dropping their leaves.

“Please tell me you’re going to make a leaf pile and then you are going to jump in it…”

“Look May, you’re amazing, but not enough to make me jump into a pile of leaves.”

-.-

I lied.

She was amazing. Perfect even. So I found myself with my head on Mays lap, while she picked the broken leaf bits from my hair. She was talking. I didn’t really care about what though. The sound of her voice was like silk. Soothing and soft and absolutely perfect. I stared into her eyes while she tried to do the impossible.

“Ugh I give up.” She throws her hands in the air before they slap against the grassy floor.

“I told you. Now it’s never coming out, it’s a part of me now I guess.” I shrug my shoulders.

“You didn’t even jump into the pile, you tripped and look me down with you like the jerk you are.” She didn’t lie.

I stumbled on a branch after helping May construct her leaf pile, and in my attempt to stay on my feet, I grabbed Mays hand, and pulled her right on top of me.

But I would not change the way things happened, because after we stopped laughing and giggling, she kissed me silly. The kind of kiss that makes you feel like you are one too many drinks in. The kiss that makes a giggle bubble out of you, and makes your head turn to fuzz that can’t seem to stop spinning.

Short and sweet, but what had to have been hundreds of them. On my lips on my nose and cheeks, on my forehead and neck and ears. But I was still left wanting for more.

I stood up and extended a hand towards May, she hesitated but took my hand as I helped her up, both of us with a large grin taking over our face.

Even though we had done much more Then hold hands, when she took mine, my stomach bubbled and fluttered as if I had a moth in my stomach just now leaving the cocoon. I wrapped my arm around her waist, pulling her close to me. We fit together like pieces of a puzzle. Meant for each other, meant to be together. She put her hands on my chest clearly confused on what we were doing.

“Dancing? You know? Moving to music with a partner…” I teased.

“First of all,” May pointed a finger at me, “there is absolutely zero music out here, and second of all, I am completely and utterly horrible when it comes to dancing.”

“We don’t need music, and I can teach you”

We tried a basic box step dance, but after my toes were brutally abused my her clumsiness, I had her stand on my shoes and I moved for the two of us. Slowly but steadily dancing through the fallen leaves.

—

May

I like to listen to his breathing, with every intake of air and exhales feel just a little bit more relaxed. We stared at each other in silence, while my heart tried to hammer out of my chest.

He stared into my eyes and I drowned in his. Each blink made my knees want to give out. They probably would have already if it weren’t for Finn holding me to him, while unknowingly, keeping me from crashing to the ground.

Such a pretty name, Finn.

Finn, Finn, Finn.

I really like Finn. Maybe even love Finn.

I put my head against his chest, listening to each and every heartbeat. And sure enough, Finn’s heart was pounding just as fast as mine was. A small smile spread across my lips as I closed my eyes. This place was beautiful, he was beautiful, and what we had, was beautiful.

He suddenly went stiff however, rigid and tight around me. I froze, our dancing stopped.

“Duck.” He whispered frantically in my ear, practically pushing me to the ground. My right arm hit the ground hard and a sharp pain sliced through it. My head hit one of the trees and my vision went white, a ringing pounding in my ears for what seemed like forever. But by the rate Finn was falling, I knew time was passing quicker than I felt it was.

I snapped back to it, quickly getting to my feet before seeing someone running just out of her view in the maze of trees. I whipped my body around, tripping over myself as I run up to him laying on the floor.

“No. No nonononono no!” I picked up his face in my hand as his beautiful smokey eyes looked into mine lazily.

He was bleeding. He was bleeding a lot.

“Please.” I screamed. My whole body shaking, my hair falling onto his chest as I inspect the wound. A bullet hole resting permanently in his chest.

“May…” my head shot up looking him in the eyes once more.

“I’m here. Shhhhh I’m here! You’re gonna be okay.” I hate the way my voice breaks as sobs rack my body. My insides feel broken. Jumbled up and inflamed, as if I might explode at any moment.

“You’re hurt,” I can barely hear his voice at all. He reaches up and brushes his finger along my cheek. When he pulled his hand back to inspect it, deep red coated his thumb.

I’ve never felt like I might explode, but also feel so incredibly empty at the same time.

“I think yours is worse.” I try not to look as the blood pools.

“Have I ever told you,” his voice is raspy and quiet, “how much I love your eyes.”

I laugh a little despite the tears carving trails down my face.

“Or how magical your laugh is…”

He closed his eyes then before I practically forced him to keep them open for me.

“Please… please don’t die.” I almost can’t say the words as my throat goes sandpaper dry as I realize that that is, in fact, a likely outcome.

“Hey.” He slowed this word down, trying to comfort me as I clung to him. “It’s okay May. You are going to be okay… you just need to… need to remember how to breathe like this…” he tried to demonstrate, but a cruel cough jolted his body as blood started to fill his mouth.

“No…” my voice stopped working. My heart stopped working. My brain, my gut, my soul. I was broken without him. I didn’t realize how much I needed him until the possibility of him not being there anymore was thrown at me.

My life before him wasn’t right. I thought it was perfect but being with him, fixed the deep cracks and dents I didn’t notice before. Looking back on it now, I see the cracks reopening, and the dents digging deeper.

“May…”

“Finn.” I couldn’t even think his name.

“May will you stay here with me. Will you lay here and hold me while I drift off for a minute. It’s always so cold without you.”

“Always.”

That was the last thing I heard from him. I held him and cried over his slowing body. He held me back, like he wasn’t bleeding, like we wasn’t shivering and blood wasn’t starting to fill his mouth.

I wouldn’t let go. I screamed until my vocal cords broke and bled when I stopped hearing his breathing. I tried to scream even if no sound came out. His heartbeat, so happy and fast a few minutes ago, was gone. No longer able to be heard. Crying tears that burned my face. Begging and pleading for him to come back to me. But he didn’t listen. When it came to a complete standstill and his grip loosened. I wanted to rip my own skin off of my face and body. Whatever he didn’t touch felt like stab wounds that I didn’t want anymore. All of the words I didn’t speak, would go unheard my his ears forever.

She made Finn one last promise. That whoever did this, would pay a painful price.

THE END.