SERPENTES

She was on fire. Despite the cold wind smacking against Eve's skin, she felt like her skin was burning. Her throat hurt even worse, sore from screaming, making her wince from pain with every breath. It was a reminder of the past and the ever more complicated moments that were yet to come. Because Eve fucked up.

Tears are streaming down her face. She feels them on the cheeks, leaving watery marks and slowly puts up her hand to touch them and later brush them off. She looks at her wet hand, looking for anything to say, anything to do, but nothing comes to her mind. She's empty. No remorse, no sadness, even no fear. Only empty, meaningless tears.

She got tired quickly. It had never happened before, yet she tripped over and fell on the grass, not having any strength to get up again. Running from God himself can be tiring. She closed her eyes, but only for a few seconds, because the cold kicked in again, sending her into another minute of constant shaking. She needed something, anything to get warmer.

So she started picking up the leaves. Her fingers started hurting just after a few minutes of work, but she didn't want to stop. Otherwise, she would freeze to death. Even the thought of dying made her laugh. It's a foreign concept, one she can neither grasp nor fully understand. However, it's surely not scary. More fascinating.

After finally grabbing several big leaves and putting them together with a string, Eve's fingers were already red. She slowly stood up, trying not to fall again, even though she was swaying and shaking, and walked over to the small pond. The water, despite the heavy rain, was clear. It was still paradise after all. She hated that.

She looked at her own figure in a pond. She was naked. She had always been, she just never realized it, and now, suddenly, the fragile, exposed skin seemed so transparent, so awfully visible. She started covering it, putting the leaves on her skin, not caring about how they scratched so badly and left red marks all over her breasts and hips.

"Why are you covering up?" the voice appeared out of nowhere.

Eve jumped, leaves falling out of her hands. She quickly turned to face a figure, stepping out of the woods.

"Excuse me?" she was surprised with how cold her voice sounded. Despite the cough, it was strong, metallic even.

"What are you doing?" a sudden male voice surprises her. It's been like eternity since she met Adam, yet she still hasn't gotten used to him. Maybe she doesn't want to get used to him. Maybe she doesn't believe it's how things are meant to be.

"Nothing" she catches herself immediately getting defensive, closed off. Like an animal, who has just been spotted by a predator.

"Why are you looking at the Tree?''

The figure slowly approached her, finally stepping out of the shadows and standing in front of Eve. And the first thing Eve noticed was the grace.

The woman standing in front of her resembled a perfect, monumental sculpture, slim, yet powerful. She was tall, towering over Eve, however not in a scary way. The figure didn't look like a danger. She looked like a mystery. One, that Eve wanted to unravel.

She felt immediately drawn to the figure, to her beautiful, sharp features, dark skin, slightly shining in the moonlight and long braids, some of them falling on her shoulders and some pinned up like a diadem. Like a crown.

"You are staring" the figure spoke again and the melodic voice alone made Eve's legs slightly tremble.

''Aren't you the one who asked me about covering up, because you had been staring at my tits?" Eve smiled, suddenly feeling enough confidence to look up and look the figure in the eyes. And she drowned in them immediately.