Solemnity in Paradise

There was a revenge on the tip of her tongue that leaked into the atmosphere with every angry exhale she gave.

Her chest heaved in the same hazardous manner as the dampened floors of our town's abandoned city hall, as she crawled against the gravel. We followed quietly, unsure.

No attempts at consolation would penetrate her barrier. We were only allowed to trail the active fire at our feet, aware that any words would certainly be the wrong ones. To ignite the flame as she lamented on the ground would be a grand fallacy, and only that.

My throat tightened as the smoke from her hateful inferno danced behind her. It tangled itself in my hair, scribbled against my eyes, and tripped my feet. Our knees scraped against stones as we continued on in a trance, and I was soon enthralled in the most familiarly alarming way.

She'd built a house that more resembled a roofed window than a home. "Everything must stay open," she would say wistfully. Wherever we looked seemed bright. Like Paradise. 

This was a day that was never allowed to end.

 The teacups we drank from made music when they were placed down on their saucers. We drank everything from these small chalices; herbal tea, green tea, Ceylon, ichor. Afterward we would fill the bird feeder, and meet our new friends.

We led them in slowly, and their feet were loud. Our friends never spoke, a strict rule of hers.

"They're very cordial, unlike our last guests." My head nodded up and down as I spoke. She lifted their heavy arms onto the tea table, glancing up at me when she was finished.

"You don't say? Hm...well, I think so too!"

I knew she would agree, as my words had been her own thoughts. Our guests' heads dropped forward slowly until they had each fallen out of consciousness. She used her fingers to blithely trace a horizontal line over the napes of their angled necks.

Slowly, their heads began to sink even lower. 

The lines in my palms glistened a violent crimson, and I realized with hopelessness what had occured. A blissful feeling in the air surpassed my dread, and my eyes shot up to her glowing face in the dark.

"You made me do it again."

My voice shook. My body quivered. My eyes vibrated with rage.

She motioned for the others to help clean up our mess, while the sounds of heavy bodies dragging along the desert engulfed my creaky sobs.

Someone tugged at the corpse beneath me, whose small chest I still had half of a hand speared through. With a realization of terror, I shouted and slid my fingers out of the temperate wound.

But not before I felt the faint thump of a heartbeat.

"Leave it. It's mine," I said as I swatted their greedy hands away.

As they hauled away the cadavers, I briskly carried the body to the oasis in the opposite direction with my ear pressed against its torso. The pulse was steady for such a minute frame. Thank God. I placed my lips against its ear, grateful to hear a rise in its breath.

"Drink water, it's here. You have to go west, you'll find people who will help you."

My eyes closed, as I prayed that she hadn't wiped out the entire desert population. A hushed sob left the body's mouth as it retook its life.

"Tell them," I hesitated, stifling a cry of my own. "Tell them we will be in Calvary. We'll be there soon. Once you're able to walk, you have to go west and tell them that."

My eyes had filled with tears that burned, and I wondered exactly which of our lives I was trying to save. Quickly, I turned back toward the group and began running to her. She would be looking for me. 

And they would be looking for her. For us.

This time I would finally escape her Paradise.