Venomously Yours,

Agony.

Pain.

Anguish.

Grief.

Torment.

Words express the supposed right feeling. Supposed.

They are weapons to destruction and demolition. Caterers to sweet dreams and hopefulness. Desires to manipulate and seduce. Words are the ultimate venom.

Phoenix stared across the ocean.

Wet clothes clung to him like a second skin. His hair dripping with ice cold water, almost freezing the strands into icicles.

Beside him lay a cold lifeless Valora.

She was lying against the sand. Her skin white like ice, her chest still, no breaths came through her sweet supple lips.

His own hands had tried. Everything.

Nothing could bring her back.

Until now, he didn't realize the truth of loss. He didn't get to say the words. How much he loved her.

His own heart metamorphosed into stone. Hard and cold. Granite. The loss was unbearable.

He lost Valora.

Everything seemed to stop. The world didn't make sense. Hatred spewed out almost instantaneously. The light in his eyes were gone, snuff out.

He had lost Valora.

Her sounds, her eyes lit with mischief and alluring, her skin glowed like the sun. The sun would be envious of her gallant like skin, she was that beautiful. That arresting.

He was her and she was him. One coin. Two sides. They belonged together. Forever.

Their love making was fierce and so zealous. The ardent spirited bond they created was nothing like this world has ever seen.

Phoenix was losing his grip on reality. He had just one life line. One soul mate. One person.

And she was taken away from him.

Her murderer didn't go that easy. After his beauty was dropped, he bellowed in pain. In rage, he took hold of the glass table and crashed it onto Adrain.

Adrain went down too. Instantly life cutting off from his eyes as blood strewed out in long strings from his head.

Phoenix raced down, diving into the cold dark sea. He swam to where she had dropped but he didn't have to search for long.

Her body floated with the ebb and flow.

At first, he rejoiced. He found her but when he held her in his arms. Her body was strangely still.

Panicking, he swam back to the shore. Laying her down gently, he gave her mouth to mouth, thumped her heart to get the water out. Nothing worked.

How is that possible?

He pressed so hard, he feared he cracked her ribs. Resting back on his haunches, he looked over her body.

Pale as the white snow dropped the first time from the sky, her eyes closed in surrender. As if, she was happy to leave. Happy to die.

Something gnawed at his chest. The misery not quite settling. He wasn't ready to accept this fate.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" He shouted to the heavens.

"BRING HER BACK!" His eyes tricked the tears down to his cheeks.

"MY VALORA. MY VENOM. Bring Her back to me." It started as a roar, a call made to the sky and slowly it turned to feeble whimper and a helpless whisper.

His head bowed before her, clasping her to him. He kissed the ice skin, her ice lips, her closed ice eyelids. Hair, maroon but a tinge of brown was seen.

She was a brunette.

Her hair was brownish chestnut. Beautiful homey girl. She was warmth to his cold. She was home to him. She was everything opposite to him.

He held her for long. Never letting her go.

He rocked her as if he was putting her to sleep. He whispered sweet nothings. Told her of all the holidays and places he would take her to. France, Italy, Russia, India anywhere.

He told her of his childhood. How he used to receive a berry for a good deed. He told her that his mom would have approved of her. She was like her in subtle ways. Fierce and strong.

His dad wouldn't have liked her but Phoenix assured her that he would keep her even if they didn't receive his father's blessing.

Phoenix then married her. As if in a wedding, he said he would take her as his wife and even death wouldn't part them.

Phoenix had lost his sanity. He was aware of it.

He had finally lost his venom.

Now, as he shook himself out. He let her rest next to him as he gazed at the sea beyond. The sky was dark but this time with the crescent moon, he noticed a small dot.

A shiny dot.

It was a star.

Till now, he had noticed the sky today and he hadn't seen one sparkling dot. It was only the moon and a vast empty sky.

Then where did this little one come?

His head titled back and soon he rested upon the gritty sand. He stared at the dot.

Was it winking at him?

The star above shone brighter and it was as if right on top of Valora. In plain sight.

He looked back at her and back at the star. Was this star his venom?

He picked himself and his hands reached out, trying to hold it. Grab it. Only emptiness was caught in his palm.

He looked down at sleeping Valora and then back up. "I'm coming to you. You can't escape me."

Gathering heavy rocks, he placed them in his pockets, pants every nook and cranny. Sealing them inside. His clothes hung him down. With left over strength, he did the same with Valora.

Determination seeping in, he took hold of Valora and entered the sea. Cold rushing water tossed around him.

His teeth chattered and as he swam with Valora, he yelled up at the sky. "You can't leave me here. I'm coming to you whether you like it or not."

He placed Valora up but he kept sinking. He tried to waddle up and made sure to seal a kiss with her with his last dying breath.

"I love you, my venom forever more. Forever after life. Forever infinite."

With that, they sunk with hands enclosed together into the depths of the ocean. His eyes watched the star in quivering reflection of the sea.

He said out the words that popped before him like bubbles and water sunk into his lungs. "I'm yours, venom."

That was his last sight before everything disappeared.
_*_

It had rained after. Two days straight. Pouring and pouring. The storm rattled everyone into their homes in Portmagee.

Trees flew apart. Winds howling in the night.

"A rough storm." A man said to his wife.

They huddled for warmth as the lights went out in the night.

As the storm came, it went. Clearing the night sky from its heavy dark clouds. The wash over the streets, the left over leaves and trees. A hurricane was close to what happened in the last two days.

As the clouds made way, there was no moon tonight. But in a far distant sky, two stars shone bright.

They were dazzling and beaming but the strange thing about them. They were so close, so close as if there hands were touching.

They sparked like words.

Words that were curly, definitive, sweet and venomous.

THE END