Grim Omens

REXANNA

we were fire and water.
love laced with sin

If she were being honest, she had expected a great expanse past the trees and woodlands, of depths unknown to any within the Hollowed Grounds left open to explore and fend from creatures here and there. What she hadn’t expected, were trees upon trees upon trees, and while they were beautiful and vibrant, fresh and different from the ones that they had back home, they were still trees; and she was bored of them already. But they had set out on the adventure together, and she followed Bastien closely, eyes scrutinizing everything as they stepped and she shouldered her smaller pack.

He began to speak and she listened to the rumble of his voice as they stepped over a root, her attention to him yet still her surroundings as he shook his head. She snorted in response, a small laugh that wrinkled her nose while she thought about it. “They’re pretty woods, but gods how boring would that be. Would a map even be required at that point? There’s trees everywhere.” She whined to him as they stopped and she thought about his last statement. “I think I saw one at the Festival, she had wings and seemed quite confused?” She mused, thinking of Eliza in that brief moment as she met Phoebe for the flower crown.

But it didn’t last long, as they walked and Bastien turned to her, she shouldered her pack and let her sapphire gaze slip across his body briefly before resting on his face. She heard the water too, and as she looked behind him, her dark brows lifted slightly as she stepped up to Bastien and past him – her gaze lingering on something unique. “There?” She questioned, a pale hand lifting to point as she drew closer toward the edge to spot a tiny trickle of clear water, flowing down to the bottom of a basin of sorts. Her eyes following it until it hit red and a memory flashed before her eyes of a similar place, red waterfalls, destruction and terrible things – and yet life too.

Her head tilted and brows drew together in confusion. “Why is it red though?” She questioned, half to him and half to herself as she squatted along the side to peer down toward it.

and whenever we happened to touch,
smoke rose from our skin.