She wanders through a forest of tangled hair and twisted vines. Through the rubble, smoke, and mirrors she sees only green. Her long legs navigate the terrain as if they were made for that purpose only. Knots and twigs become ensnared in her medusa hair. She lets out a giggle at nothing at all, a smirk for only the wind to appreciate. Her head spins and falls and twirls with the colors of the sky. Beside her, he stumbles and trips after every footfall. His lanky body is not made for adventure. Pale hair and sunken eyes haunt his movement, inviting question into each blink of his eye. Every step is laborious for him; as every breath is laborious for her. They are falling together as equals in drastically separate ways.
She stops suddenly, casting back her head and releasing a joyous wail. She is once again a child skipping though a field, eternal and everlasting. She spreads her arms out to feel the sun soak into her skin, remembering the heat that lived under her layers. She feels only raindrops. They imprint braille upon her skin in a language she doesn’t know how to read. Her bright red lips meet each other once more, transforming into something that has no memory of a smile.
He grabs her by her thin, frail waist as a boom of thunder echoes in their bones. He holds her as one holds a bomb soon to detonate. That’s what she was; a threat to explode any second now. The fear in his eyes meets the determination in her stare in a crescendo louder than the thunder ricocheting above the clouds. This moment is alive, this moment is the point. The air holds a heavy choice; enter further into a world unknown, or remain fixed in this Eden, this purgatory of desires.
She shakes her head, blue eyes illuminating the space they shared. “I’d love you if I could”.