Blood Feather

Daisy Garden

"Why is there so much greenery on the school property?" The girl asks after carefully selecting from her quickly-put together list of questions.

That settles it. She really doesn't know anything. Doe thinks as she considers how to answer the question. She stops walking on the rounded scarlet tiles and looks mysteriously at the forest on her left side, farther away from the forestry on her right side. Feather looks at her excitedly, with grandiose expectations and an imagination gone wild, impatiently expecting an answer.

"It's environmentally friendly." Doe says solemnly. Feather's big eyes turns flat with failed expectations at Doe's far too simple answer. Seriously? That's all? The word might as well have been written all over her face as she crosses her arms.

Smiling slightly, Doe starts to walk again, and whispers in Feather's ear as she passes, her voice turning sinister. "Though I wouldn't go near there between sunset and sun rise if I were you. The midnight forest lusts for the blood of young maidens. Last year, three students wandered in during the night, and only two came back." With quiet maniacal giggles, Doe turns around, anticipating fear from her roommate. Instead, she's greeted with an overly excited Feather practically radiating with elation. And was that... drool?

"You're strange." Doe notes while observing Feather.

Feather's face immediately darkens, and she avoids looking at Doe. "Is it that bad?" She mutters under her breath.

"No." Feather peeks up and sees a smile. "It's quite refreshing."

A light fluttery feeling begins to rise up in Feather as she shyly returns the smile. Since Doe is the first person to ever say that to her.

The wind starts to pick up, faster and faster, Whirling the trees into a frantic frenzy of fighting against the pressure, losing multitudes of leaves. It nearly blows the girls away as they struggle against the wind that forces Feather's eyes open, as a small circular piece of plastic falls out, twirling down with the slowing wind.

Feather rapidly blinks her uncomfortable right eye, and accidentally trips over her feet, falling hard on the red stone tiles.

"Feather! What's wrong?" Doe hurries over to her in her strangely graceful dance and kneels down beside her, trying to peer into Feather's right eye, but it is covered with her hand.

"It stings." To be exact, it feels weird. It couldn't exactly be described as painful, but it wasn't comfortable either. It just feels weird. Unaware of what happened to her eye, Feather removes her hand to show Doe but suddenly finds herself staring into the eyes of a stranger. Pupils enlarging until they seem to devour her in their vast emptiness.

No, it's not quite emptiness. There's something else there too. But that's doesn't matter to Feather. All she can feel is stinging rejection as Doe flees the scene, putting distance between them.

In some sort of trance, she looks down at the ground, and spots her icy blue contact. Icy cold. Just like her frozen soul as the cool wind dies, leaving her all alone.

***

She sits there, feeling the heat set in around her and her skin begins to burn. Only then, does she get up and stumble over to the trees for shade, walking near the edge, away from the scene, in the opposite direction of Doe. Oh yeah, this is the supposed forest that kill maidens at night. But they just ran through it less than an hour ago. The 'happy' memory is too bright for her as she walks along the side of the forest, her body on autopilot while her mind blanks out to numb the hurt. To destroy the painfully clear image of Doe's shocked face. The blankness numbs everything- sensations, sights, the passage of time. The girl is barely aware of her surroundings as she continues to walk on. The area around her is nothing but a blurry memory as her feet tread on.