The Blood Red Path

Bone Cracked

Charlie

My nose still bleeds - the blood between my thighs has dried.

The forest looks to be bile green with a smell that reminds me of death and decay. I'm cradling myself in my arms, it doesn't stop me from shaking.

"Charlie."

The air thieves itself away from my lungs, something is in the shadows of the forest.

A glitch in what I'm seeing, the darkness shifts inches out in body form.

I shake, it's not something I can cover up. It's not a secret I'm able to hide. The silhouette watches me with burnt blue eyes, a heavy jaw where her canines gleam.

A steady weight presses against my chest, it's hard to breathe. My tongue even shivers.

The Wild reaches out to sound her war for her to stay away.

"Put your teeth away, it's insulting to your Moon." The command curls itself around my neck. She is stealing the ability to pull in air. The Wild holds the Moon's eyes captive, she will not pull her teeth inward. Tingles travel from fingertip to hands, my toes feel numb the sensation creeping up until all I can feel is the vital beat of my heart in my chest cavity. My hands try to pull the feeling away from my neck, all I feel is the skin of my throat. There is a calm coil of her smile.

The Moon's skin has a life of its own, bright and disorientating. It illuminates the eyes of the Wilds, thousand of Wilds ghost around the Moon. The roots of our souls snarl with a lifted lip, flashing fang. I can hear the hum of their combined spirits. The Moon laughs, and I snarl with the root of our souls.

A ripple in the forest.

"Don't bow your teeth to her, she can't kill you like this, isn't that right sister?" The contour of nature gives way to a shapen body. They are the same, identical. Their hatred spills out, I can taste the vileness of the rot in the back of my throat.

The Moon watches her sister.

I watch both of them with a riot pounding inside my chest.

"I could peel Charlie like birch bark sister. Your faith in my destruction is without merit." Her voice rakes at my flesh. I can feel the skin pulling away from my body, looking down there is no blood, only the inked tattoos that mirror Odin's body. Odin, the name holds a gut rot, now.

"If it's without merit, why have you graced Charlie with your presence?" Her voice is crude, there is hollow rattle that percusses within my chest.

The ghost eyes of the Wilds now assemble behind Nature. She stands point against her sister, the Moon. Both females look to be holding themselves back from tearing into each other. The hatred is overwhelming.

I take a step behind Nature, joining the Wilds with their haunting eyes. I'm flung out from her shadow, "don't crouch behind my teeth, you've got your own. My sister isn't exposed enough for you to fear her." The wind stings my cheek red -eyes water.

The Moon laughs out, "her teeth are the flat side of a knife." The light of her shine dims, her jaw shifts, exposing ancient canines, thick, long. Death holds in the arching angle of incisors.

Bone on bone - my skeleton shakes.

The Wild seeks internal control, gather the quake of bones in a firm grip. She lets the air out of her lungs like carnage. The Moon steps back, a tremor shuffles the skin of her exposed face.

"Sister, I have been waiting for this moment." The words are pressed out with happy indulgence.

"All your planning, all your corruption and murder is coming to an end." Wild furor descends from her voice.