Tessera

🦊LynnPeyo🐲

@lynnpeyo.bsky.social

Prepare for intermittent madness, mysticism, witchery, poetry, urban fantasy and dark romance. I thrive with the Stygian. Peeking through the veils, conversing with those who dwell beyond 🌊 WP: lynnpeyowrites

336 Posts110 Follower 76 Folgt

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 3w ago

#vss365 #depart #patient #poetry #poetsofbluesky With a start I realise I can’t get you out of my heart

I’d been patient before
but now with a start
I realised I can’t get you
out of my heart
it’s twisting and turning
with every breath
with every second
you’re not in my space
I’m livid, I’m Fury
Alecto incarnate
any more of this quiet
I cannot take
you depart and i dissolve
into gravity and mist
I hate myself for it
but my soul it insists
you’re the fire of my existence
incompletion turned whole
the only vessel worthy
of embalming my soul
this is terror, it’s warfare
it’s like I’m obsessed
possessed by spirits
that shan’t give me rest
lest you’re right here
with your breath in my lungs
mouth on my wrists and
blood on your tongue
I don’t want you, I need you,
my soul must be damned
and my existence, it ceases—
you’re all that I am.

Lynn Peyo

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 4w ago

Good evening. I am back from holidays in the south, defiant in the face of exhaustion from travelling 11hrs, bearing flash stories of #defiance and unexpected meetings with a magnificent beast of legend 🐉 #vss365 #amwriting #flashfiction #fantasy #vssfantasy

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 2mo ago

It’s Venus day and #flashfriday, if such a thing exists, I was listening to a podcast on Libra decans and chains, and suddenly I ended up with another little one for the Anthology 🌊 #vss365 #undo #amwriting #fiction

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Not a #novel today but a most important day, say, when you’ve been waiting for not a metaphor but quite a literal and rather critical letter to dictate your fate and it comes late almost two years I’m most certainly in tears but I am also, as of today A citizen of Norway #vss365 🇳🇴

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 2mo ago

What’s a Mars day without a portion of inspired blasphemy? 🌊 #vss365 #fiend #poetry #amwriting

Pull the cross right off my neck
I shall worship you instead
Toss it in the garbage bin
a new religion’s done me in
they call you fiend and wicked
names dropped from lips of bigots
You’re the sickness that I caught
And the salvation that I sought
You’re the darkness to my light
The dreams in my fev’ry nights
You’re the only thing that pulls me in
when my world goes dark and spins
out of control, into your hands
without you there’ll be no amends
not the devil but you’ve seen
the hells people made for me
you pulled me out and tucked me in
so tear it off, I’m yours to sin

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Tonight, a #distant thunder, and the discomfort of sharing such things. #vss365 #poetry #poetsofbluesky

there’s a distant echo in my bones
a soft murmur, muttering moans
a memory not from ancient tombs
but from deep within the womb
like a coming home by coming undone
like a merging of what cannot be one
something fragile, a fluttering sigh
turned into a thundering roar of night
let me go under, let me go down
let none of those lights reach where I drown
I want to be kept I want to be true
I want to be yours I only want you

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I was asked if there was one. Inside of me. #deadfall #vss365 #amwriting #poetsofbluesky

He asked if I had a deadfall in my heart
I looked up at him with a start
I don’t know, I said, you mean a blockage?
He touched one of my locks and
hummed as if to say indeed, that is one
possible interpretation. Like a ton
of trees came down and you cannot pass.
I said, well technically if I could change my mass
become extremely tall or infinitely small
then a bunch of toppled trees wouldn’t do fuck all
He grinned and on his palm, he showed me fire
Oh, I realised, or I could burn them like a pyre
Instead of circumventing the obstacle
why not just make a beautiful spectacle
He laughed, like that was more up his alley,
tracing the curve of my belly like a token of
appreciation, or hunger, something unspoken
But what if, I said slowly, it’s the other meaning?
Then, he said, I would mourn you with a keening,
and he kissed my palm, soothing the sting
of the triggered deadfall deep within.

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 2mo ago

#vss365 #cradle #microfictiom #amwriting #fiction At night, I will crawl out of my own skin and slip into yours.

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Last night, I was #falling falling without end #vss365 #amwriting #poetry #poetsofbluesky

Last night I was falling
falling without end
I begged you, stop it,
calling, calling out for help
please, I cried, have mercy
let me go, I'm done,
you only held me tighter
not a chance, not one
you’ll stay until you’re shattered
shattered on the ground
until from your lips my name
is the only sound
please, said I, how can I
s h a t t e r
if I cannot land
that, you said, is something
you will only understand
if you keep on falling
falling without end

Lynn Peyo

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 2mo ago

It’s been that time of the month again! … no, the other. #SciFanSat released its latest issue “Rescue” 🍃 I’ve been so fortunate to have one of my pieces featured along with my bestie’s! Go check them out! ✨ Thank you team and special thanks to everyone who voted for my story in the last issues 🥹💜

SciFanSat Magazine@scifansat.bsky.social · 2mo ago

AVAILABLE NOW: Grab the lifeline we’re throwing you and enjoy stories of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and More written by the #SFF authors of today and tomorrow! The May issue of #SciFanSat Magazine is out at scifansat.com! Many thanks to all who contributed, and to our readers, just like you!

SciFanSat: The Monthly Magazine for Science Fiction, Fantasy and More!

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 2mo ago

A most #wondrous thing: the flowers of spring, resilient in northern gusts, stand, as if knowing how to trust even the harsher waters of Gemini seasons’ daughters. They don’t bow, they simply bend and with a silent vow our mortal woes they mend. #vss365 #poetry

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 2mo ago

#vss365 #crevasse #microfiction #amwriting #fiction Sometimes the most effective tools of destruction are aimed at doing exactly the opposite. Something is falling, this moon day 🌙

I was clutching at a resolve I thought would never crack. A conviction so firm, shaped by everyone who ever scaled my walls and ran, layered with the deaths of hopes and loves of decades— no sledge hammer could bring down this monument of fated iron.
I was cradling it like a mother swan does its cygnets, when, like a shadow cast by moonlight, you slipped around my hands. With a single glance of silver they opened, and unceremoniously, that resolve fell from my grip, fell a thousand miles down the cliff of your eyes, and crevassed faster than I could convince myself to run.
Now my armour lies stripped and shattered, my heart abandoned by its casket, pulsating a stream of vibrant blood through my veins each time your fingertips ghost over my skin and I cannot bring it to feel. I cannot bring my heart to feel anything but you.

Lynn Peyo

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Some late night poetry written in broad daylight. Sometimes you carry the night wherever you go. #vss365 #poetry #evenfall #amwriting #poetsofbluesky #bravewrite

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Do you ever dream of things frequently that you normally never dream of? Have no business dreaming of? She does. ✨ #vss365 #fleeting #amwriting #flashfiction #fiction

She was picking at a nick in the wooden table with fingernail, when she said: “I don’t dream of anyone as regularly as I do you.”
He looked up, his mind moving from considering concepts of the unknown to locking in entirely on her.
“Not gods,” she continued, “not totems or spirits. Not even fictional characters I obsess with. Not characters in shows I’m binging. Just family… friends…. coworkers… and you.”
His already straight shoulders straightened almost imperceptibly more. “Does it bother you?”
“No.” A hint of an inclination in her voice.
“Sure?”
“No…“
The corner of his mouth twitched into the beginning of a smile. “Which one.”
“I’m not bothered by that I dream of you.” She stopped picking at the wood, and looked him in the eyes.
“But?” He inclined his head. Straight up honestly like this would be rewarded by not getting immediately prodded at and picked apart.
“I’m bothered that I don’t understand why. I don’t understand the pattern behind it.”
Ah. Humans and patterns. “What patterns do you see?”
“My regular visitors are all real people that I spend or have spent a significant amount of my time with, at different stages of my life.” After a short pause in which she reordered her thoughts, she decided to add “And they’re all humans.”
He sat back a little, folding his hands. “What patterns do you seek?”
She blinked. A soft sound. “Significance? I don’t know.”
“Is everyone you dream of significant?”
“No. But I barely ever dream of big things.”

“Big things. You dream of a a lot of big things.” An unwelcome insinuation she was going to deflect. He was looking forward to it.
“Ugh, no.” She deflected, blushing. He enjoyed that. “Gods, I mean. Big… meaningful entities. I can count the times I’ve dreamt of gods in my lifetime, on one hand.” She pursed her lips, reconsidering. “One and a half hands. Very fleeting experiences.”
Her recalibration made him laugh. “Ah yes, gods. They tend to come once, or twice, when they have something significant to say that you just don’t want to hear.” He leaned forward. “Or if they really want to mess with you. Once tends to be enough for someone to learn a lesson.”
She grunted. A sound of agreement as well as frustration. She continued. “I don’t even dream of the people I make up. And I spend a lot of time thinking about them. Yet, I don’t dream of them.”
So honest today. Refreshing. “So?”
“So I only ever dream of real people frequently.”
“Right. So?”
Her eyes searched his. “But you’re not ‘real people’.”
“I’m not?”
“Come on. No. Clearly not.”
“What are dreams?” He changed angle slightly.
“Huh? Uh. Mirror of the subconscious? Prophecies, sometimes?”
“So?” He watched her piece things together. A pleasant sight.
“Sooo my subconscious recognises you as real people?”
“Ah.” He grinned.
“Or you’re just a really fucking bad omen.”
He laughed, warmly. “Ah yes, maybe I am that, too.”
She scowled. He winked. There would be doubts, and follow up questions. For now, she sipped her tea in silence. And he, he went back to contemplating chaos.
Lynn Peyo

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Today, I am overworked and mentally overwhelmed. I found my couch first thing, almost passing out. Then a chain of thought triggered one thing, and the next, so I grappled my laptop, pulled it on my half passed out self, and started typing. #vss365 #dear #affection #amwriting #flashfiction

“But I just don’t understand why you would go out of your way…” she trailed off, exasperated as much as confused.
He shrugged gently. “You’re just dear to me,” he said matter of factly, as if that were to explain the situation. As if that were reason enough to make the impossible possible, to pull the insurmountable down onto eye-level.
She stared at him. ‘Annoying’ she understood. ‘Frustrating’ she got. This, however, was a new term for him to use on her, and it just did not compute.
“Dear…,” she repeated, feeling a rather uncomfortable warmth spread under her skin. Inconceivable. She felt a need to save herself from what it was he had actually expressed, by following a chain of thoughts. Just like chasing butterflies. “Wasn’t ‘dear’ originally just opposite of cheap? Like something is either dear, or it is cheap. Expensive, dear, like ‘oh golly this necklace is rather dear!’ kind of dear—”
“Mmhm. Valuable.” He knew she was only distracting herself from an inner landscape that would come crashing down later, when she was alone, and had little to distract herself with. He also knew to not push her. She was already tumbling down that hill. She would get there at some point.
“—and then somehow it got into the vernacular as calling other people dear, not just objects,” she continued, almost as if in a fever. “I wonder— maybe we should get a new vernacular. Instead of saying something like dear or darling, maybe we should use something else. Expensive… valuable...” She was pacing up and down the room. “Expensive isn’t such a nice word though,” she mused. “Doesn’t roll off the tongue to be a pet name.”

“Valuable,” he said again.
“Hmm?”
“‘You’re valuable.’ You could base it off that. ‘You’re val to me’.”
“You’re val to me…,” she repeated, stopping in her tracks as if trying to taste it, feel it out. “Sounds nice, actually.”
He grinned. “It does. And, you are.”
She grimaced. “Okay whatever. Thanks.”
He kept grinning.
“Stop that.”
“Stop what?”
“Grinning like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you’ve won something.”
“Have I not?”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh my god. Like… what do you even think you’d have won this time?”
“Your attention,” he said flatly. It had snapped right back at him. “And your affection.”
She stared. “You’re unbelievable,” she growled, turning away to ineffectively hide her flushing face. She could still hear him chuckling from the other room, letting her know exactly how ineffective it had been.

Lynn Peyo

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Thank you thank you thank youuu ✨🥰 That line was so ridiculous, it just flowed out but it’s the thing I will remember forever 😂 So pleased it’ll stick with you too *mwahaha* I might write one 😬 Anthologies are on their way for sure 💜

Maria Carvalho@immcarvalho.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Loved "Into the Earth"! Totally lol'd at the can of tuna line. 😆 I would read a book involving these 2!

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Thank you again so very much for featuring my work 🌊✨ This month, with a new poem, as well as a short story, in which our unfortunate heroes from the Entrance issue return to the darkness 🦇 Can’t wait to read the other stories! 💜

SciFanSat Magazine@scifansat.bsky.social · 3mo ago

AVAILABLE NOW: Dig into our stories of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and More written by Earth’s #SFF authors of today and tomorrow! The April issue of #SciFanSat Magazine is out at scifansat.com! Many thanks to all who contributed, and to our readers, just like you!

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 3mo ago

#vss365 #fishing #WritingCommunity #amwriting #fiction We’re putting out bait tonight? 🐠 I snapped it up.

“First it was all about seduction and surrender. Now suddenly you’re talking about love?” She crossed her arms the same way she had crossed her mind. Impenetrably.
“Yes.”
“That—no.” She pulled another layer of incredulity over her thoughts like graveyard dirt.
“One doesn’t exclude the others,” he smiled.
“But—“
“What is it you’re really fishing for?” With his head inclined, he regarded her. A silence wrapped about his gaze. Ghosts walk unhindered through graveyards at night.
“I’m not fishing for anything.”
“No? Because it sounded to me like you were wanting for me to convince me I do.”
“I am convinced that you don’t,” she said, irritated. His knowing smile pulled at what she had been trying to hide from the world. Sweating, she had dug a grave deeper than her desires, tossed it into the murky depths and placed an iron coffin on top.
“You want the truth.” Ghosts do not care about a bit of metal in the dirt.
“Yes! No. Yes. I want the truth.”
“Well the truth is,” he said, grabbing her by the waist, pulling her against him like a drowning man pulls himself to shore, “that I love you.”

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 4mo ago

The oldest #trickery in the book. My little contribution to today’s #vss365 What have you been tricked with lately? #amwriting #fiction #flashfiction

“What— what is this?” Trembling, she stared at her dead body, laying twisted on the asphalt.
“Your body is done.”
Looking at the impossible angle of her neck and limbs, that was not the part that had her shaking. “I know that…,” she said. Her voice failed her for a few moments, before she looked up at the figure next to her, the familiar yet always strange stretch in the darkness, the humanoid shape where darkness was darker than black, and light failed to reach. “I know that,” she repeated, a little confused why she felt a stinging just behind the bridge of her nose, that tickle of an emotional outburst ready to flood her eyes. Confused she could feel anything at all. He inclined his head, waiting patiently for her question. She lifted her hand, the hand clearly belonging to her spiritual body. The hand that had started to slowly disintegrate into void. “What is this?”
“Ah,” he said simply. Ready to explain the same thing over again. “That is your soul, dissolving.”
“Dissolving? Why would it dissolve? Wasn’t there supposed to be some after, up, down, middle, rebirth, something, anything?” Her feet had started to disappear, yet she wriggled her legs, as if a small motion would stop the process. It did not.
He shrugged. “Yes technically. But,” and here he smiled, gesturing with a hand of shadows, “if you remember, you had promised your soul to me a long time ago.”
“I… what? No, this must me some trickery. What?” She stared at him in disbelief. “I was very clear I would fucking never sell you my soul!” she cried out.
“You didn’t.”
“What?” Panic was squeezing her voice, her legs and arms almost completely gone. “I don’t understand.”
He took a step forward. “You never had to sell it,” he smiled, laying his hand just under her chin, lifting her gaze to meet his. Gentle, yet firm. “You gave it willingly. You’re mine, remember?”
A searing fire shot through her heart.
So that’s what that had meant.
His eyes never left hers, until the moment she was completely, thoroughly go…

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 4mo ago

#vss365 #hammer Hammmmmmerrrrrr 🔨 of the gods Here’s my little flash ⚡️ When I sneak write at work I have no proper editing tools. Coming home I’m always like “fu** that dash” haha. Forgiveness shall be mine. #amwriting #fiction #flashfiction

"Hammer of the gods, will drive our ships to new lands—“
"What hammer are you talking about...?" he interrupted her half-mumble, half-humming.
"Huh, what?" She looked up from her stitch craft.
"The hammer you're singing about."
"Oh, oh that," she stammered, "uh I mean... I don't know but I guess they're referring to Thor's hammer? It being all about Iceland and vikings and...rawr" she made a little roaring noise, shaping her hands into claws for effect. It made him laugh.
"Vikings and 'rawr'? Really? Cute."
"Whatever," she waved him off, returning focus to her work."Probably that hammer."
"I found that once, stuck in a tree, you know."
All her focus was lost. "You did what?" Somebody else would probably be asking whether he was joking, but knowing him, he probably was not. Then something behind her eyes switched back on. "Wait a minute though... how can something as heavy and powerful as the Mjølnir be stuck in a tree? I mean... versus crashing through it and maybe getting stopped by a mountain?"
"Ah, you know, that..." he said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, as if his next words were likely to stir something.
She was leaning forward now, handiwork loose in her lap, waiting for a juicy bit.
There was a sound from him, almost like a sigh, releasing information that might be better kept locked up. "Well you know, there's always truth to myths, but there's also always a slight uh, exaggerated part."
"Yes?"
"Well in this case... it was a good hammer. Is," he added quickly when he saw her facial reaction, "it is a good hammer, but it's way less powerful than the myths will want to have you convinced. So yes, it got stuck in a tree. Big tree, powerful, sturdy, old, all that, but yeah it took a little bit of effort to pull it back out."
"Huh."
"I think they even got that wolf to help. I think it was him who got it free in the end."
"You don't say!"
He grinned uncomfortably. "He's also kinder than the myths say."
"Don't tell me you've met him or fetched ball or something ri…

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 4mo ago

#vss365 #loop #water #vssmagic #brand #codex #vssfantasy #glade #burrow Is it Friday yet? No? Ah. *dips a finger into the water* well the.

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 4mo ago

#vss365 #water two syllables flow from my mind to my mouth your name like water spilling into an ocean of an ever unseen love 🌊

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Suddenly Friday comes around, #FlashFriday or not, work was unusually quiet and I snuck in a little short. Don’t tell anyone. They must remain blind to my shenanigans and deceptions. Speaking of which … This one is filled with cold deceit. #vss365 #blind #vssmagic #temperature

The temperature dropped when he entered the room. I could feel the cold wash over my back like a crashing wave from far out at sea, and I had to suppress my instincts to whirl around and press my back against the wall. Instead, I clenched my teeth and took a deep breath, trying to see him blind. As long as he was not walking my way, I had no reason to show him my face, signal that I was here.
"Are you okay?" my friend asked.
"I'm fine," I pressed out between tense lips. Her disbelief was written all across her face, but convincing her was low on my list of priorities.
"You look a little pale," she said, then her eyes flicked to above my head. "Oh. Hi, Eric."
My stomach turned.
"I... I'll leave you two alone," she said and got up, mingling with other guests before I could call out to her for help. But I was drowning, the water gushing into my throat, suffocating my voice. All I could do was try and reach for her back... but she never saw me.
He slid into her seat in front of me, smiling pleasantly.
"You didn't think you could just run away, did you?"
I did not know what to reply. In fact I was quite convinced that I was unable to. My throat muscles had constricted so tightly around my larynx, I was sure all I could produce were wheezing sounds.
"Now," he continued, hands folded on the table, leaning forward. "let's be civilised. After all, it would reflect badly on you if you made a scene here. Too many people here you need to keep up appearances with," he grinned. He was right. I was expected to be one thing. One very orderly, polite and pleasant thing. Somebody calm, and strong. Anything else might have consequences.
I have never hated public affairs as much as I did then.
I took a deep breath, trying to command the hair in my neck to flatten the fuck down. They did not.
"Good. That's a start." He brushed the table with a flat palm. I watched the movement, then remembered it was not his hands that were the most dangerous about him. It was not them I needed to wat…

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 4mo ago

#sensewrds prompt 205 Forlorn Conversations Mingling

I can hear you laugh
just out of earshot
with guests
with strangers
in a room just above
where I used to lay
close and familiar
with you
breath frail
I shut the door and
turn the key
a finite move
against infinity
I sink against the wood
holding back cold tears
lost in the sounds
of what could
and would not be.

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Love Saturday surprises such as these haha! So very humbling and rather wonderful. Thank you everybody! 💜🙏🏼 Better get back to it, the stories call🪶 🌊 #writersofbluesky #amwriting #fiction

SciFanSat Magazine@scifansat.bsky.social · 4mo ago

From the staff of #SciFanSat and the alumni who voted for their favorite #SFF authors in the February poll, we congratulate @lynnpeyo.bsky.social who earned a 2026 Bartleby B. Boar Nomination for their short story, “The Thrum”!

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Ready to spiral? I did not submit this round but something’s cooking for the next 🫢 Let’s spiral for now 💜 I also just got notified that The Thrum from the previous issue got nominated by my peers and I’ve been screeching like a pterodactyl and don’t know whom to thank🥲🤣🙏🏼my gosh #amwriting #fiction

SciFanSat Magazine@scifansat.bsky.social · 4mo ago

AVAILABLE NOW: Take a spin with our stories of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and More whorled up by the #SFF authors of today and tomorrow! The March issue of #SciFanSat Magazine is out at scifansat.com! Many thanks to all who contributed, and to our readers, just like you!

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Storms keep raging In their rage, stillness is found. #tempest #vss365 #extremeshorts 🌊 💨

There’s a silence in your storm, heavy with a sensation of oncoming rain. Like the brittle skeleton of an autumn leaf I am tossed, shattered mid-air by your breath. Every night, you rise, every night, I fall. And yet, with fingers precise as bird song and a will like ocean fire, you catch the dust that was my heart. Wave after crushing wave, I am assembled under your gaze, my limbs trembling, my mind burning, my lips aching, as you lay me to rest within the tides of your tempest. My skin falls into vortexes, pulled under by a gale of you, and I dissolve, with only my soul remaining, unfolding in your palm like an ashen promise kept forever.

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 4mo ago

In your tempest I am whole Ocean depths unfurl my soul Beneath the billows where I’m found Engulfed in silence here, I’m sound #vss365 #tempest #amwriting #poetry #poetsofbluesky 🌊

🦊LynnPeyo🐲@lynnpeyo.bsky.social · 5mo ago

I need another weekend, just a single social exchange reduces my introvert quality of weekend life 🌑 #vss365 #waver Turning back to the ocean and a quiet exchange. 🌊 🩸

Fingers trace the sharp surface of small rocks nestling against skin like the first hatchling in an abandoned nest, shivering between hard eggshells and the cloak of night. Her naked feet dangle over the edge, just where the cliff leans toward the sea with a silent longing. The wind is cool, pleasant, the ocean quiet, waiting. With a shift in pressure, her skin tears. There is curiosity with her pain, as if she had not expected the cut to be so immediate, nor the ache so acute. Lifting her finger to her face, she watches dark blood begin to pool, holding on to the wound like a precious lover. She sighs, gaze shifting to the black waters beneath her. What would she give, for one last embrace? Unwavering, she flicks the first drop into the darkness, imagining the ocean open up, teethed and hungry, wrapping around her sacrifice with a surging desire for more. An eagerness mirrored in her own body, with a rush of heat rolling over her lungs and through her womb. She shudders, and, keeping her hand outstretched, she watches, as the drops let go of their hold, and fall into the depths. She knows he is watching, from below. Her chest constricts with a pang of jealousy and yearning, followed by a thrumming sorrow. They fall so easily, merge so painlessly. She scoots a little closer to the edge, held back only by wind, not will. The gust picking up, as if it were trying to keep her from falling. She laughs, softly, and her finger meets her lips, painting them bright red. “Even if you don’t want me to, I still ache to drown in you,” she whispers, tasting iron.
In the darkness, the waves reply with a resounding crash, foaming below her with a silencing warning. She knows. She knows, and she hates it.
“You won’t keep me from it forever,” her voice braids into the wind like a promise into thread, as she stands, a statue of defiance before the gods. “Not forever,” she whispers, wiping her eyes as she turns to leave, shaking the last drop of blood mixed with fresh salt from her ey…