Page 26 of Hellebore

The thought of that lit a hopeful fire inside me, the twisting emotions muddying my thoughts with daydreams of my own flesh against hers. My lips tasting her mouth, my fingers exploring her hair as she breathes into my throat. An ache bloomed in my pelvis as I considered it, hoped for it, yearned for it.

“I don’t give a single fuck about who is or isn’t welcome to you. You think I’ve held my body only for you? No. I had myself pressed into your little friend only weeks ago, her moans echoing through these very trees as you sat at home waiting for me to be ready for you. While you waited for your turn like a good little girl.”

My heart dropped to my stomach as he said it, a ghastly sickening beginning to course my nerves as I awaited her response. She stayed motionless for a breath, her eyes flickering in thought before she rested her hands on her hips and bent her head.

“Who?” she asked, as if I weren’t the first person who came to her mind.

“That innocent one who wears those long dresses and dirty shoes. Fuck, you should have seen the faces she pulled, the pleasure I brought her, the innocence I tore away bit by bit. She loved it rough, like you. Hands on her throat, nails scraping at her flesh. She couldn’t get enough. You know what they say about Rabbits and how much they like to fuck.”

He edged closer to her, taunting and spiteful, spit tearing from his lips with each weaponised word. The colour drained from Francesca’s face, a sickly green beginning to settle across her cheeks as she swallowed through each sentence he sliced her with.

“You’re rancid, Cole,” she said, voice stern. “And if you ever touch me or Rabbit again, I swear I will tell my father. My father who will ready his bow in a heartbeat and chase you through these very woods until he finds his target in your beating heart.”

A smile crept across his lips as he regarded her, something sinister within his eyes. He gripped her face, thumb pressing into the sharp bone of her jaw as she squeaked beneath his touch.

“I do love it when you threaten me,” he said, pressing his mouth to her cheek, running his tongue across her sweat glistening skin. “Let’s see who’s the bigger threat.”

He pushed her away, her body slamming into the timber clad wall, a groan escaping her. She looked so fragile as he slunk from the cabin, rabbit mask gripped in his shaking fist.

She turned to the window, eyes cast to the midnight sky, chest heaving as she collected her dignity. And for a moment, I forgot myself, leaning into the window to see her more clearly. In a flash, our eyes met, before I ran from the forest with shame festering beneath my skin.

The excitement was like a blister ready to rupture inside me, pulsating beneath my ribs as I collected my sacred belongings. I was ready to move on, to start a new life with my restraints shed and a glistening future laid out ahead of me. With Francesca, hope swelling in my chest about what our new life might mean.

The evening smelled so sharply of fresh rain, the swaying eucalypts filling the air with scents of winter and hope.

I had become the Rabbit again, my courage woven into the fibers of that mask. It bolstered me with determination as I slid through the woods that night. The ribbon itched my neck, rubbing rough edges against my skin as it shifted with each of my rushed footsteps, the belly of the forest dragging me forth as my heart raced and fingertips tingled.

There was an insistent chill in the air, and before I left the safety of my childhood home, I had hesitantly donned the coat I had stolen from Cole that last time in the forest. The fibers still scratched my skin in warning, though tonight, I wasn’t sure of what. So, I pulled the hood up, tucking it behind the rabbit ears as I continued through the dense trees, eyes searching for signs of Francesca.

I was a mere child when I had crafted the first rabbit, and when I attempted to replace it with hasty fingers, I had made the fit of it much too small. It dug rough paper edges into my skin. The eye holes jagged and uneven, the curve of the nose pressing against my airway. A shadow cast across the edges of my vision, making it near impossible to see in the deep night.

As our hideout came into view, my heart hammering with excitement, I stopped. My ears rang as I witnessed something I couldn’t have prepared for, a sight so surprising I had to press my hand to my chest to remind myself to breathe.

Through the small eye holes of the mask, I could see Francesca pressed against a tree, a smile dancing on her lips as she laughed. Not ready to leave this place, with me as we had planned. As she had promised.

Instead, another mouth was against hers, hands trailing her arms, her thighs, her throat. She tilted her head with an open mouth, her breath ragged in pleasure, knee bent as fingers roamed beneath her black skirt.

As I stepped closer, a fallen twig snapped beneath my toes – a sharp sound that scythed through the hush of the bushland. Francesca’s eyes sprung open, dead on me as time suspended.

She pushed her lover away, a smirk ghosting her lips, whispering into the shadowed frame before they slipped into the darkness and Francesca stepped forward. The sight of her straightening her shirt and smoothing her dark hair made my mouth sour, both anger and jealousy making my fingertips throb.

“Cole?” Francesca whispered, her voice carrying through the trees with distilled contempt.

I tipped my head, confused and taken aback as I tried to make the pieces fit together.

I stepped forward, words clinging to the walls of my throat as I tried to calm my racing heart. I steadied, my body shaking within the shelter of the shadowed trees as Francesca studied me with stern brows.

“You shouldn’t be here Cole. Go home,” she said, louder now. Fierce and unyielding.

I stepped forward again, mind spinning in circles, feet slipping in the damp earth. Francesca stepped back, eyes wide as I closed the distance, fear stitched across her face.

“Stop, don’t come near me. We’re done Cole, go home!” There was anger there, as she spoke to me not as Rabbit, but as a lover scorned.

I drew a breath to reply, to remedy her fear with assurances of who I was. But as words reached my tongue, a thread slipped across my throat, dragging me backwards as my breath caught in my chest.

Earth filled my senses, stars bursting across my vision as panic wove through me.

And as my body crumpled to the floor, I bore witness to something that not only altered life as I knew it, but broke my heart as I struggled for breath.