𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐓 ❅ (𝐠𝐱𝐠)

18| embers

The sweet odour of jasmine filled the room's capacity, and Lily permitted her lungs to swell with the intimate scent in gentle respirations.

Unable to withstand the burden of concealing such a majestic beauty behind its dismal melancholy, the dark clouds that once prevailed in the sky relinquished its imprisonment on the sun and let it beam its aureate shine down upon the earth. Infiltrating the room through the large window, its ichor spilled from the windowsill and streamed its eminence along the floor of a rich mahogany and ascended walls, blessing everything it touched with its hue.

A fleeting shadow of that of a flittering bird hastened across Lily's face, momentarily shielding her lightly squinted vision from the golden brilliance that caressed her skin as it breezed past the window. And as if a spiritual time for prayer had suddenly come upon it, the pale brown feathered wings quickly came fluttering back to which the skylark perched itself on the edge where it could rest its racing youthful heart and bask in the sun's warm affections.

The flourishing adolescent fledgling as it payed reverence to the day became obscured from Lily's vision as a magnificent head of brown tresses, that glimmered in the sunlight, became elevated at her unannounced entry.

She felt her heart flutter at the sight the woman settled at her desk, looking as beautiful as she was and always did. And when her bewitching green stare settled on her and her perfectly groomed eyebrow became lifted in impassive question, Lily chewed on her lip and pushed open the office door further, emerging from its shadows to step into the prosperous light.

"Oh of course," Ms Valentine spoke and briefly rolled her eyes before returning them back to the work she had been so attentively inscribing her flawless handwriting on. "Please do come in," she commented with clear sarcasm laced within her tone.

"Always such a joyous delight," Lily remarked, mirroring the woman's disposition which was followed by a humoured chuckle as she closed the door behind her. "My deepest apologies Miss, was I supposed to knock?" With the same enraptured simper possessing her lips as it had the entirety of that day, Lily began to saunter further into her office.

"I wouldn't mind chiding the Gods on their misdemeanours against little Lily Winters."

Those words had played a ravenous tune in her head all day long. A melody so mellow with nectareous notes that were poured thickly into her ear and continued to seep through the folds and crevasses of her brain. The words stuck to her every thought like a saccharine intoxicative syrup and no matter how many times she tried to wipe her mind clean of it, she could still feel the sweet aftertaste linger in the depths of her conscience and tickle the drums of her ears. It had rendered her completely intoxicated in an entranced reverie where she would often stare absent-mindedly into nothingness, and increasingly, Izara had become irritated by having to pull her out from it and back into reality.

Maybe it was foolish and naive of her to get so caught up and tangled within the words that were only uttered in the playful and satirical context of their conversation, but Lily was powerless to overcome the sugary lyrical elixir that was injected straight into the chambers her heart and gently poisoned her bloodstream. It should not have meant as much as it did to her, and probably only did for her, but she could not help but dwell on it all. It was strange and unusual when she deeply delved into what had happened and what was happening. "Things like that can't be normal, right?". She had pondered on these thoughts often, and it was in fact true—in her perspective anyway—that a teacher saying such things to a student and acting in that way around them was indeed, not normal.