Venomous Vines

Venom of Ivy

Blood and rain washed down her oak limbs. Her leaves rustled under the onslaught of an evening’s cold wind. Her braided vines hung half unraveled.

He’s dead,they whispered.

But didn’t she love him?

Tears made their way down her cheeks, staining them colorless.

I’ve killed him…

Merciless guilt cracked her heart inside out, making her cry out to the empty meadow she stood in. The blood from her cuts and wounds dripped to the ground. Each drop hissed as it touched the rich soil.

I curse you! She bellowed to the dark clouds above her. She loathed the soothing rain that urged her to hold on. It will pass, they whispered. Like all else that passed, erased by the endlessness of time.

Mother? Help me please! What is your daughter to do? You sang me to sleep with hope. It is not a curse but a beautiful gift that I’m born with, you said.

Her venom seeped the life out his lungs. His silent cry frozen in place. His eyes were empty without the stir of mortal life behind them. Trail of a single teardrop, the remnants of his short life, shone on his cheek.

How?! How do I see it as a gift, in the face of his lifeless corpse?

Her wails drowned the pain in her torn petals. She sat basking in her sorrow and loss, the abandoned state of her meadow echoing the loneliness she felt.

If my feelings had been indifferent then…had I hardened my heart at the sight of his young face and the kindness in his word…would it ache less now?

She reached under with shaking hands, lifted him into her arms the way he’d done many times to her before. Ran her twigs of fingers through his hair. Her tears fell to his face.

I forgive you, Ivy. In his last breath, he had uttered her name.

                                  -THE END-