to push and scream // and then relief {to ah: a love letter}
Apr 11, 2017 15:29:38 GMT -5
Post by shrimp on Apr 11, 2017 15:29:38 GMT -5
anise
My head's held high when we walk down the line, honey
Arm-in-arm through the clear night sky
Arm-in-arm through the clear night sky
The mansion quakes and turns, assaulted by petals that brush against the windows, slip through the cracks and weave through the air. This swarm is white as it rushes past Anise's face, tickling her nose in a taunt as if this is something to laugh about (There's a reason they're white, after all). Gabby's full weight rests on her, lighter than Anise expected - but Gabby has never been anything Anise was able to predict in the first place.
Fingers reach up to a throat caked with liquid life, oozing and dripping as they walk. Step-by-step; the halls are empty and the noises fade away, save for the constant rolling of a muttation. Wasn't it fifteen no ten no five just minutes ago that they had crumpled on the floor as Gabby tumbled out and out and out of the door - had Anise really only prolonged her life for another few minutes?
The house shivers and tilts, and they're thrown forwards into a gravity field that sends them soaring down the hall, whipping around in a whirlwind as white blossoms dripping red whistle past and as hard as Anise can try to focus on the noises, the sensations attacking her skin, the only thing she can sense is Gabby's breath: faint, ragged, clogged with blood.
The wall fades into view and Anise rotates as quickly as she can, slamming into the ground with a ferocity that punches her in the stomach, sucks out her air and causes her muscles to s c r e a m (Breathe-- I can't). Gabby's saliva drips onto Anise's collarbone, mucus turned crimson and water turned black. She looks smaller than usual, with a pallor unbecoming of the girl who swam in the sun, whose fingers laced with her own as their lips intertwined.
Anise grimaces, slowly sitting up as she leans Gabby on her shoulder. "Come on, Gabby," she whispers, "we're almost there." Where that is, she doesn't know.
Eventually Gabby moves, arms trembling and her knees knocking into Anise's knee. Specters of pain dance up Anise's leg, greeting her brain with a smirk and a chuckle. A subtle reminder of who tightly wrapped her leg, who she let run into the abyss. Her face remains the same. Gabby blinks. "Anise, y-your leg."
Even in death, Gabby's priorities are skewed, tilted towards a girl with too many thoughts swirling in her head and not enough emotions to express them. ("I hate to break it to you, but there's a big chance one of us might be dead by the time you figure it out.")
"Not important."
Her hands reach down to her partner's as they make their way back up. This hallway is darker, the shadows stretching out to the holes in the panels, the picture frames filled with empty canvas. Unfinished. For an eternity they stand there, Anise holding on to Gabby's side, onto her arms, nerves burning the texture into memory. She watches and waits, time slipping away grain-by-grain. Gabby spits, the red splattering against the marble and onto Anise's shoe. She speaks, softly, hoarsely.
"I want t-to go to the water."
"Okay," Anise says, her voice soft as the petals given to her a half hour ago. She turns, and they walk towards the smell of chlorine, the sounds of waves lapping against sunburst tile. They fly into a wall but she rotates instead, landing both of them on their feet. Her left hand wraps around Gabby's waist, her right cradling a wrist. They march into the inevitable at a snail's pace.
When Anise pushes open the door, the air becomes heavier. She breathes once, twice, feels the air rush through her lungs and into her bloodstream, absorbing into her cells and her brainwaves. She turns towards Gabby, rids her mouth of the strands of blood.
"We're here."