All expectations make her heart feel numb
Mabel didn’t have an explanation for why she was there, settled in amidst and amongst the snowy doldrums of the Bone Bridge. It wasn’t to lean over the edge, pretend she was further into the fog or abyss. There was no need for pretenses when she’d drifted in and out of it for a number of days, contemplating poisonous, venomous vectors and how to best avenge, and honor, a sister felled.
Their fledgling days had been orchestrated here, and by rote, by memory, she meandered across its steps, completely unbothered by the words of tales, of legends into the fathoms below. Maybe she thought she’d catch a glimpse of Evelyn’s ghost within the ethers – or at least the pretense of some billowing mist, conforming to her vision, to her sights, to her tangibility, and give her some proper ending. Neither of them had ever been able to say goodbye to one another.
One to the sea, one to the knife, and the rest buried down into the earth. What a family, the Occidendums; luck and fortune never truly on their side. But one day, one day the resurrected girl would show the world exactly what they’d been meant to do – not too little, not too late. So with her grating heart and the moon barely scraping into the sky, she mustered her way through the curling, coiling plumes and fumes, no breath to intermingle in puffs of air.
Their fledgling days had been orchestrated here, and by rote, by memory, she meandered across its steps, completely unbothered by the words of tales, of legends into the fathoms below. Maybe she thought she’d catch a glimpse of Evelyn’s ghost within the ethers – or at least the pretense of some billowing mist, conforming to her vision, to her sights, to her tangibility, and give her some proper ending. Neither of them had ever been able to say goodbye to one another.
One to the sea, one to the knife, and the rest buried down into the earth. What a family, the Occidendums; luck and fortune never truly on their side. But one day, one day the resurrected girl would show the world exactly what they’d been meant to do – not too little, not too late. So with her grating heart and the moon barely scraping into the sky, she mustered her way through the curling, coiling plumes and fumes, no breath to intermingle in puffs of air.
MABEL
