The girl from the mire

13

| | 13 | |

The rain falls like pouring buckets and the humidity rises past any available measurement. Thousands of green glowing eyes cast the two shadows of Jane and Rist as one. The mire girl's mental armour floods down her body and waterfalls off the stone's glacially worn shape. In this moment, she's euphoric and willing to let herself go.

Rist holds her, kisses her, yearns with every caress of her soft, warm lips and pulsing breath. She embosoms Jane by the small of her back with her right hand and runs her left upon Jane's flush face. Jane can feel Rist's fingers move lower and lower on her back until they're no longer touching her back. Jane moans the moment fingers reach between her legs. She can hear Rist's heart skip along in the excitement and the collapsing mystery of the event. And in that moment, for a single moment, Jane places her hands on the skull mask lady's ribs and abs and kisses Rist back before pushing herself away to jump backward off the slick stone. The green lights dim and fade as Jane holds herself and lets the moment penetrate her mind. It's like she's looking at Rist for the first time and her heart excitedly pounds, somehow pumping like it never does when she's running or even, dying.

Rist sits down on the rock as the rain spits off her drench skin in tiny floods, creating many bigger, earth soak deluges. She lowers her brow. Her long mop soak hair sticks to her face. She watches Jane and then looks at her feet as if she's done something wrong.

Jane witnesses this and walks over and hugs her and whispers with her forehead on Rist's skull cap, "first of all, I love you. And now that...I..."

Jane lifts Rist's face with her own face, their eyes meet.

"I feel it. But I can't go fast like this, Rist. I need...I don't know...time we may not have? I want to. I'm just...I'm confused...I'm not used to the feeling of butterflies in my belly that'er this all encompassing. I wasn't expecting this or to feel the way I do about...about you."

Jane pauses and bites her lip. She needs Rist to see her face clearly so she moves the beautiful soaked hair from in front of Rist's eyes. She runs her fingers through her friends scalp, making sure there's nothing wet clinging upon her face and then Jane lets her arms dangle around Rist's neck. She leans her face into Rist's and maintains eye contact.

"I love how your body feels against mine in that way and what that means and how it...it feels like you've given me a part of you that I haven't noticed before, like something has always been missing before...I don't really know how to fully explain it...but I know how I feel...and...

Jane wonders if Rist can see the tears in her eyes. She can clearly see Rist's tears through the rain. The mire girl places her hand on Rist's cheek and returns Rist's initial, intimate intention. Jane kisses Rist on the lips.

The dawn penetrates its dim light through the dark and ominous storm clouds. Jane dies as Rist begins to passionately kiss her.

                  ****

She opens her malachite windows to the world and witnesses Rist sitting on the ledge of the cavernous van with the side doors open. The skull mask lady's in the black cerement militant attire and dangles one leg out the van while holding her other knee under her pressing face. Her head rests her cheek on her crease torn cloth witnessing the distant climb to the tracks. There's still rain spitting against the aluminum roof of the van. Jane's wearing her Ghost jacket and nothing else. She sits up and tightly wraps the jacket around her torso and crawls to Rist and kneels feet crossed beside.

The mire girl wraps her arms around the skull mask lady

"I'm sorry I died. I'm sorry Rhie died. I'm sorry you were alone today."