emperorofthed4rk:

Jennifer’s Veil

Everything in this town is so beautiful and bright. Everything is fresh and green and alive.

I wish we had moved to the desert; a barren wasteland where I could trudge through the hot sand in any direction and never know for certain which way is home. I could have disappeared…

Our new house has a large tree in the backyard. It sprouts from a silky pool of impenetrable darkness. I am drenched with it.

Lucy lays beside me on the cold grass, pointing out interesting shapes in the leaves. She sees dogs and fish and butterflies. Only she can see them; that’s part of the fun. I try to only see her.

An eternity drifts by, creaking and moaning beneath its own terrible weight. An ugly and bloated forever. It’s gone now, though. I take a deep breath and feel the darkness in my lungs.

“Look.”

My dragonfly floats past, little body broken and destroyed. One wing is bent and torn. The other is still smeared across my pants.

“He came back,” she says, sounding delighted. “He must have followed me.”

I tell her: “I want to follow you, too.”

She says: “Not yet.”

The wind returns from wherever it goes and the leaves shiver and the branches sway. The sound is the dry bone rattle of my nightmares.

“Look.”

The dragonfly is gone.

Lucy is laughing beside me.

A tiny ragged wing is caught in the corner of her smiling mouth.