02-20-2021, 03:42 PM
Basilica
She has lost track of her mother.
And she has learned that healing does nothing for a broken heart.
Nobody had warned her that friends could break your heart, too.
(Had her mother known? Was this something her mother should have thought to teach her?)
She stands at the edge of the river now. She has lost track of the days in the same way she has lost track of her mother. How long has it been now since the darkness descended? How long since Aureus stood before her in the meadow and told her that they’d never been friends?
How long has it been since she’d encountered the monster in the shadows? How long has she been dripping blood into the water? Strange, she thinks, how the healing and her exceptionally strong heart seem to counteract each other. The heartbeat is so urgent that it pushes blood from the wounds faster than the skin can heal itself. She doesn’t think she’ll die, not her. Not like this.
But she is so removed from the idea that all she can do now is stare blankly at the faint lilac glow of her reflection as it ripples gently outward. Would her mother be disappointed to know that she’s stuck here at the edge of the river feeling sorry for herself? It’s just that she’s so tired and she doesn’t know where else to go. The thought of trying to venture back through the darkness in search of her mother fills her with a dread so potent that she can hardly breathe around it.
So she’ll stay here.
She’ll stay here until the sun comes back.
Surely the sun must come back.
And she has learned that healing does nothing for a broken heart.
Nobody had warned her that friends could break your heart, too.
(Had her mother known? Was this something her mother should have thought to teach her?)
She stands at the edge of the river now. She has lost track of the days in the same way she has lost track of her mother. How long has it been now since the darkness descended? How long since Aureus stood before her in the meadow and told her that they’d never been friends?
How long has it been since she’d encountered the monster in the shadows? How long has she been dripping blood into the water? Strange, she thinks, how the healing and her exceptionally strong heart seem to counteract each other. The heartbeat is so urgent that it pushes blood from the wounds faster than the skin can heal itself. She doesn’t think she’ll die, not her. Not like this.
But she is so removed from the idea that all she can do now is stare blankly at the faint lilac glow of her reflection as it ripples gently outward. Would her mother be disappointed to know that she’s stuck here at the edge of the river feeling sorry for herself? It’s just that she’s so tired and she doesn’t know where else to go. The thought of trying to venture back through the darkness in search of her mother fills her with a dread so potent that she can hardly breathe around it.
So she’ll stay here.
She’ll stay here until the sun comes back.
Surely the sun must come back.
HEAVEN’S GATES HAD SUCH ELOQUENT GRAFFITI