There on the bed, she sings Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds as if the words were written just for her. With her eyes shut tight, she sways her arms and reaches to the ceiling seeing things that aren’t really there. Well, not there to others but there to her. There are animals dancing at the gates to a heavenly garden and teardrops made of honey that leaks from their animal eyes and clothes with no bodies in them holding hands while spinning in circles around all the kids she used to go to school with, and even though those kids are now grown up and dead on the inside, in her mind their smiles beam and radiate a light that brightens the darkest corners of her wobbly, should-know-better head. Kicking her legs, she sees herself as a kid too, and as she runs around the playing field of her old school on some endless summer’s day, she finds freedom in a moment now long gone. It went the way moments so often do, but she keeps its magic, even though she was told not to. With the smell of food growing stronger, she lets the visions go and opens her eyes. Pulling herself up, she looks at the door waiting for him to come as his footsteps grow louder and louder on the wooden stairs. Shaking uncontrollably, when he appears, she lets out a squeal and promptly pretends to faint. Waiting a second, she opens one eye to a slither and finds him standing there with her breakfast. Bolting upright, she beckons him over, and as he sits down on the bed before placing two big plates of hot food between them, she paws his face and kisses his nose before licking her lips at the sight of his culinary wonders. Handing her a knife and fork, he’s about to speak, but she places a finger on his lips and just like that he understands.

A Journal for Damned Lovers UK

A Journal for Damned Lovers US

Anthology UK / Anthology US