Persephone

6. Red Petals

The next morning Persephone's mother jabbered on about the night before and how lovely Nysus had been. But no matter how hard Persephone tried, she couldn't get her mind away from the night before.

She couldn't quite remember what she had dreamt about, but she knew it was something about a man.

In an attempt to clear her head, she stepped out of the small cottage, calling to her mother that she would be back later, and beginning down the path.

By now she had mostly rationalized her encounter with the figure in the woods. It was merely an illusion of the light, her eyes were adjusting to the sunlight again from being in the darkness of the woods. The canopy of leaves created by the leaves was so thick in foliage that it created almost complete darkness, intense shade in the best of places.

Although this was strange, local legend explained this along with the lack of industrialization of the forest. It was claimed that the creature that lived in the deep woods had a kind of power, commanding the trees to grow thickly so that he may walked around any time of day, for sunlight burned his skin. Of course this was scoffed upon by others, it was easy to see that with no one disturbing the wood for over two hundred years, the trees had been allowed to grow greatly.

Persephone made her way down the well-worn path, keeping an eye on the underbrush for a peak at another of those crimson flowers. But none seemed to appear, as if the one she had plucked was the only one that existed.

Making it to town, she made her way into the park. It was small, only containing a couple benches and lots of flowers. Sitting down on one of the benches, she closed her eyes.

There was a thought niggling at the back of her head. Something about her dream that she couldn't quite remember. A man. Yes, she knew that, but something was strange about him. Attractive, yes, that was clear. But there was something else, something unnerving.

Teeth.

Persephone sat straight up on the bench, her remembrance unsettling a few birds which had picked around in the dirt near her, taking flight at the sudden movement.

The man in her dream had incredibly sharp incisors, sharp enough to slice through skin.

What has he said? "You tend to have that effect on me."

A shiver ran up her spine, what a creepy statement, and she wasn't quite sure what it meant, as he had referred to her.

"You have that effect on me."

"Hello, Persephone," a deep voice greeted her, and she snapped her head upwards towards it.

Standing before her in a wine colored button up, it's sleeves rolled to his elbows, and a pair of khakis, stood Nysus.

"Hello," her tone was soft, unsure almost. She had not heard him approach.

"It's getting near lunch time, could I escort you to lunch?" Looking up, Persephone found the sun high in the sky. In her wonderings she had missed the time passing.

Finding the question odd, she paused, she had just met this man yesterday, and although he was nice, she wasn't too fond of going off with almost complete strangers.

He seemed to sense her unease so he added, "To the restaurant, I mean. I could get you something to eat if you'd like. On the house, I promise."

Although, she realized, she was quite hungry, Persephone found it odd that he would offer. But then again, he was dating her mom.

Cautiously, she shook her head, quickly thinking of an excuse to leave, "I, uhm, I promised my mom I'd be back for lunch, thank you though," she spoke quietly, rising to her feet, brushing off the back of her shorts.

He nodded, flashing her a grin, "Alright, see you then."

She nodded, turning away, "See you."

He stayed in place as she walked towards the edge of the small park, just as she was about to turn off onto another street, he called after her, "Say hello to your mother for me!"

Turning around, she nodded a quick yes before, hurrying onto the next street.

Teeth. His teeth had been oddly long and sharp, the first thing she had noticed about him.

Maybe, they were normally like that, she tried to assure herself, but with her lingering dream from the night before, she wasn't quite convinced.

By the time she had reached the woods Persephone had at least calmed herself so that her mother wouldn't see her all flustered, and was once again searching for the strange flowers.

Reaching the spot she had first found the crimson blossom, she peered into the opening in the trees.

There.

Just a few feet off the path was a single red flower. Looking around, Persephone wondered how she could possibly have missed it yesterday. Ducking off the path and into the cover of the trees.

Bending down, she gently pulled at the stem. Gazing at the blossom now supported by her fingers, she admired the brilliant coloring of the small flower.

In front of her, some leaves rustled, looking up, her eyes caught another of the flowers. Creeping forward, she picked it, looking up she found a whole flurry of them.

Before long she had gathered herself a small bouquet of the blossoms. Looking down on her work, she smiled at their beauty. She dipped her head to breathe in the scent of the deep red petals.

A strange relaxation came over her entire body, and the world went black.

A/n: longer time to update but longer chapter, woo sorry, still love me