3The Bird and The Worm
The air was moist with a slight chill; the suns warmth had abandoned the land to night some time ago. The light breeze, tainted with the beginnings of spring, rustled her blonde hair. She was kneeling in an open field. The moonlight reflecting off her pale skin, giving her a luminescent quality, the grass rippled causing it to wave like the sea. Only the crickets dared to break her silent vigil. She had sat there for uncountable minutes, waiting. Her bright eyes, scanning the hill before her, searched for a glimpse of him. Sneaking out had been the easy part, now the anxious and stressful wait drove shots of fear and doubt through her heart. Where is he? She began to fiddle with the blades of grass at her knees. Tearing them into strips and weaving a basket with quick, nimble fingers. If he hasn't come by the time I'm finished, she decided, I will go home. The small basket took shape, thankful for a task to keep her mind busy. She worked quickly, but continued to subconsciously slow her progress, giving him the best chance she could muster for him to show. All too soon the woven basket was complete. Glancing up with a sigh, she found him a few yards off. A mixture of fear, dread, excitement and longing made her heart pound in an irregular pattern.
She shivered from cold. Taking a deep breath to try to steady herself, she stood, grass basket, long forgotten, fell to the ground. His footprints disrupted the grassy sea, leaving impressions not only on the ground but in her memories. Impressions that would last longer in the latter, the ground would recover, but would she?
As the snapshot continued, she stayed in place, allowing him to advance and close the space between them. The wind picked up her hair and tore at their clothing, exposing the fragile bone outlines under her thin t-shirt. She attempted to smooth her hair, a self-conscious gesture but in the end gave up and let it float freely on the whims of the breeze. He stopped an arm's length before her, giving them both an equal opportunity to ask the other first. Neither could meet each other's eye. Looking at the ground he noticed the small basket she had constructed earlier. He knelt to pick it up, studied it for a moment, and then placed it upside down on his head like a hat.
A long overdue smile settled on their lips, her laughter and his mixing to form the perfect melody. A Laughter that they had both had heard so many times before, in that faraway place of the past. Without hesitation they fell into each other's arms. The tight tensions that had made their meeting awkward fell away. Familiarity and strength radiated from his chest, seeping into her very soul. Waving away the pain and sadness that covered her world like cobwebs from unseen corners. The light smell of his soap brought back years of memories, every part of him did. His touch, his rhythmic breathing, the steady beat of his heart, and the comfortable weight of his arms around her, so much love, so much love that now had to be hidden. Even from her.
His thumb lightly tracing a rib as he held her, back and forth slowly along its ridge, lulling her into deeper serenity, he made her feel alive again. Her fingers twining with his silky dark hair, cheek to cheek, eyes closed they simply enjoyed the moment. She wished it could last forever, like it had at one point. Pain and longing caused her throat to tighten and her small frame to shake lightly, he hated it when she cried, but keeping it in was getting easier.
He attributed her shaking to the cool night and responded by wrapping his black hoodie around her more, engulfing her further into the land that was him. Swallowing her feelings she pulled her face away to look at him. His eyes, his beautiful eyes, warm and filled with love, met hers. Her liquid green eyes searched for the truth in them. His sincerity was impossible to doubt, but she knew better. She stretched to her tip toes to plant a testing kiss on his lips, he responded immediately.
The kiss, like so many others was sweet, gentle, and formed especially for her, lasting as long as she needed it. She drank in as much of him as she could, and then ended the kiss. Breathless their foreheads came to rest agents the others, eyes closed. She listened to the night all was quiet and still, as if the world was watching them, the only humans on earth. Of course they were not the last, but the way the moment felt, they may as well have been. Their hands roamed freely, but not in a demanding sexual way as with most men, just a recap, of the only bodies that knew the other as well as their own. His fingers tracing the lines from her ribs that connected to her spine, following its path to her shoulders. Lightly rubbing them on his way around them, continuing down to her elbows, delicate wrists, tracing the scars on her knuckles, finally lacing his fingers through hers, squeezing gently.
A violent, bloody, pain filled scream broke the air. Chilling the two teens to the bone, the scream was alien and inhuman, loud enough to make their ears ring. They clutched to each other in fear. Her eyes darting to find the source of the demonic wail, minds reeling, the first thought that came to mind was that her parents had found her. Then it sounded again, definitely not a sound even her short-tempered mother could produce. So what was it that had interrupted the moment that had brought her back to life? She didn't know.
The hair on their arms stood on end, and breath came shallow and fast. The boy spotted a light on the ground about twenty yards to his right. In a gestural fashion he indicated to the girl that he was going to investigate the light. Her fear kept her rooted to the spot but she clung to him and with her eyes told him not to go. Cupping her face in his hand, he kissed her forehead and went anyway. She watched him stride toward the light, cautiously at first, but growing confident as the night remained undisturbed. The light was bright and flashed from white to red every five seconds or so. Had someone left a recording device with that horrible noise out here? Or worse, had someone seen them out here? A list formed in her mind, all the people who would benefit from learning of this secret meeting, mentally scratching out the names of those who lived to far away, or where too heavy footed to have suck out so close without her hearing them. The list was still too long to decide on a culprit.
As the boy reached the light it darted away, as if it were a strange animal fleeing capture. He looked confused and followed it, all the while unaware of how far he was traveling from the girl. He caught the light by leaping onto it; he held it over his head in triumph showing his hard earned prize to her. Suddenly something hit her, something was wrong; it was too quiet, even the crickets no longer dared to so much as whisper their song. The air was deathly still. Fear filled her brain, everything told her to run, far away, and never look back. She called out to the boy, but he was too far away from her to understand her desperate warnings. He looked up at her to try and understand when a large black bird swooped down on silent wings. It gripped him in one clawed foot and took off as quickly as it had landed. The boy screamed in surprise, and his scream gained shrillness as he saw what was lifting him off the ground. Its powerful wings beat the air downwards and it rose quickly. The birds' wings erased the moonlight causing it to flash back on its down stroke.
Coming to her senses she began to sprint in the direction the bird carried him, guided by the sound of his ever-increasing volume of screaming. Her bare feet pounding on the thinning grass. She ran many miles, but no matter how quickly she ran she could not keep up with the black bird, she couldn't give up. Her legs burned and her lungs stung, there didn't seem to be enough oxygen to sustain her. Her pace began to slow, exhaustion overcoming her. She glanced to her right and saw the bodies of all those she had ever loved running in step with her, the same sight met her to her left and over a shoulder behind her. Their presence gave her strength, they urged her with encouraging words projected into her mind, you can't give up on him, their voices sounding as one formed a unison chant.
Her legs pumping like pistons with new found strength surged forward carrying her toward the flying beast. More bird calls filled the air, overlapping and growing louder. Hundreds began to land, picking up members of her friend family. Her agonizing wails filled the air running to each, trying to ward off the birds that carried them away. The screams of the people she loved formed a choir of pain and suffering. The grass became a sea of human hands, snagging at her ankles, trying to drag her down and prevent her from getting to the ever-increasing amount of bird victims. She kicked at them, but capture was inevitable. The hands grew out of the ground, crawling using their fingers to join their brethren in the advance. They swarmed her, forcing her to the ground, dirty and broken fingernails scraping at her skin. The hands began to drag her into the earth, carving a grave lined with laced fingers for her to lie for eternity. She struggled violently, but every hand she managed to escape from two more would take its place. She quieted. The hands seemed content to only hold her in place. She lay still at last. Only her ragged, labored breathing showed that she was still alive.
She could still hear the screams of her loved ones, but also the birds landing around her grave. The sound of tearing flesh and pain filled screamers saturated the air; her grave began to fill with blood.
Even when their bodies should have died they continued to scream and bleed. She again strained agents the hands, and again they held her firmly to the ground. Her sad cries joining with the dying ones of her loves. The blood fell in as if by a waterfall. Her mouths open in agony she began to drown. Quickly submerging her, panic coursing through her as her body struggled to get oxygen but only blood was to be found. Her body began to go limp, her brain was fuzzy. She gave one last attempt to free herself, and then fell limply in the hands grasp.
Her vision now in cased in a red film, such as the red side of old 3D glasses, caused the shadows to appear darker and everything else had a deathly red tint. Her spirit, now free of its fleshy form couldn't escape from the handmade grave, the ghastly calls of her loved ones forcing her deeper into the ground, descending toward hell, trying to fight her way back to defend those it wasn't too late for.
The hands linking fingers, entombing her in their deathly embrace, drug her down, the light now just a faint red speck above her. The boy suddenly appeared in the space left. His face the bright agents the discolored background. He grasped the hands forcing them apart; they gave no resistance. Relief, she would be rescued, he wouldn't let her die. He spread their fingers revealing her face, he gently stroked her cheek. She looked into his eyes, and one word stood out: sorry… her spirit protested but he was already turning away, gathering more hands to cover the hole he had made. She screamed his name, no, no, NO! Don't do this to me! But her cries fell on deaf ears. The hands he had placed had already linked fingers, forming an impenetrable web of broken, bleeding fingers. Only a small outlook remained, enough for her to watch as he turned into the black birds. His eyes turned red, his arms and torso extending and skin flow apart into large black feathers. She heard him call to the birds, screeching in their deafening tones. She heard the body's plummet to the ground; they flew away in a swarm, leaving her in a dark tomb that she knew she would never escape from.
authors note: sorry for the odd spacing of the paragraphs I personally find it very hard to read on the computer when it's all bulked together, I'm sure i am not the only one with this problem so I hope this helps y'all with the same issue.
anyways, thank you for taking the time to read this intro, yes intro. there will be much more coming in the future hopefully. stay tuned please!
~ Sami