Page 99 of Into the Heartless Wood
My skin cracks and
falls
from
my
flesh.
My bones bend and
bend and
bend
until they snap
in a blaze of agony.
I am enveloped in fire,
in a million stinging wasps,
in the flash of white-hot lightning.
I am falling,
drowning,
broken.
I am devoured
bit by bit,
torn apart
by ravenous teeth.
But through it all
I see
Owen on our hill.
I taste
strawberries and cream.
I feel
his mouth warm and soft on mine.
I slide sideways onto the earth, and suddenly I can breathe again.
The sky wheels wide and blue above me.
The pool laps quietly beside.
