Amidst Crimson Kisses

Chapter Thirteen: A Beastly Rendezvous

Margo's POV

I suppressed the regrets of my heart while the wind plagued the Mountain Ash trees. The forest smuggled me in a den of leaves as I rustled next to a white-tailed deer with dark Bambi eyes and a red fox devouring the remains of a dead bird. I grab a hand full of ruby red cherries that I scavenged from a low hanging vine closest to Goulding Manor. I slowly maneuver closer to the animals, not noticing when I step on a fallen branch, and the deer turns to me, bucking it's hind legs in midair as it gallops off through the twists and turns of the woodlands. I observe the fox as he glances in my direction, analyzing the food in the palm of my hand as he considers devouring the red cherries with precision.

The forest screeches to life under the spangled sky as I throw the berries amongst blades of grass, watching as one by one the fox sniffs the strange fruit. He bites down on one cherry as he gorges on the rest, aloof to my presence while I watch him with curiosity. Foxes are generally shy and reserved animals that avoid human contact. When I was in Vermont, I had this gray fox with a beautiful speckled coat, painted in brushstrokes of grey and black with fragments of apricot in his fur. I miss how Charles would cuddle next to me, his usual way of hunting for his mate and his kits, Tessa and William.

I conjure up a grassland of scattered trees, bathing in a waterfall of my serenity as the little fox exhales a dry heave from the pit of his stomach. The atmosphere animated with the aroma of dewdrops, dripping from fiery leaves and clinging to the grass as the fox collapses on his hind legs. I rush to his side as he convulses, and I succumb to the taunting laughs of the forest. I try to imagine a scenario where I can help him as my hands hover over his body while his movements become quiet, and his pain restless. Tears fall from my eyes uncontrollably as I whisper vain apologies while a hand clutches my shoulder in silence.

"Frank, the little fox died," I say, not even glancing over my shoulder as I cry relentlessly. "I was only trying to feed him like the fox I had back home, and then I poisoned him. How could I be so stupid? First, I don't remember my mom dying, then Juliet haunts me in my dreams, and now Asher's back in the picture. I-I just want the world to stop spinning."

"He's a scavenger," I hear Asher mutter, "he was bound to die sometime. Besides, what did you think, he was just going to eat the berries then prance back into the forest living out his old days in peace. That's not how the world works, Tinkerbell, in fact, grey foxes only live six to ten years in the wilderness."

"I just keep thinking everyone's going to outlive me until I watch them die. I watched my mom take her last breath and not even five minutes later, I forget she even died. I keep crawling out of bed because she would want me to learn to live again, even if she couldn't hug me with her arms of steel. She wouldn't want me to expect a bad thunderstorm without a rainbow afterwards."

"You know I never saw you before," Asher sighs. "It's like you get some kind of kick out of hiding from everyone. First, you're descended from power, and now you watched your mother die. Now Juliet's dead, and you still can't stop thinking about your own pretentious lies. You know in all those tales I never heard you once have remorse for leaving Juliet behind. Why did you even choose me at all? Why did I deserve to live when she only sank to the bottom? She loved you, and you still left her to die."

Asher's words torment me as I blink away the tears threatening to overflow in my eyes. I can't answer him when the ocean only seeps in my dreams while Juliet's muffled screams camouflage in my mind. How can I differentiate between the girl, brimming with jealousy and the darkness, stirring inside my core? Then suddenly, Juliet's vanished without a single trace, and the heights of her comeliness are placed at my feet. Maybe the price of a forbidden infatuation is the loss of clarity like blindness falling upon a young man with an indifferent heart.