Collywobbles and sweaty hands

Gubbins and trash

Lollygags and whoopee cushions

Bumfuzzles and Einstein

Kerfuffles and equations

Gardyloos and rubbish

Bumbershoots and rain

Ratoons and lilies

Whorls of ink and stars engraved on the back are gold and silver. They glint in the dim lights as Butterfly flips them over mechanically, like she'd done it a million times. Maybe she had.

Jade thought that the room smelled like smoke and dust, but she liked it. Row upon row of shattered vases clung to the sides of the walls, nothing inside of them.

On the other side of the cards, they looked perfectly normal. Spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs. But Butterfly stared at them intently for a while, reading them silently until Jade was squirming in her seat.

"I can't read them." She said blankly.

And the crowd behind her-which had been bubbling with conversations and laughter-

Went completely silent.

Her arms were twined with violets and roses

sewn into patterns of silk and velvet

white fabric billowed down to her calves like a waterfall

She looked over her right shoulder

fiery red hair flaring from her scalp

Green eyes blended with the wildflowers

until she couldn't see the difference between the two

Where the fire ended and the ivy began

draping her with lavender and sliver and scarlett

blossoming in the woods

If anyone didn't know, Tempest means strong storm.

I must be a Tempest,

Forever changing and never the same

leaving the world holding its breath for my next blow

A Tempest that rages quietly and then strikes without warning

It stops suddenly, as if it wasn't ever there at all

But you know it had to have been there

because you can see the wreckage that it made

I don't know

what to say

to think

and believe

It's hard

it sucks

and it hurts

and I just want to stay locked up

But I have to get up again

and again

and live through it all a second time

it doesn't get much better

and I think I might get used to it

but I never do

I might harden up inside, and become as tough as stone

No

I shatter like glass and fall apart

and I feel like I have no one to pick me back up

So I put the pieces back together

into this mess I call myself

and I live through it all a second time

I’m often stuck daydreaming

my nose stuffed inside a book

My expression is mostly glazed over

not in the present at all

I think of myself as a dreamer

because I can’t focus on anything

Except my dreams

my wandering inside my mind

I’ve heard it’s called wanderlust

because I can’t seem to come back to reality

The first one was a star.

A shining, dazzling star that shook the city when it struck the ground.

She landed in the middle of the fountain in the square, her strong back arching as she cracked the pavement. This was not the first strange thing to happen in the city of Lilith, but it was by far the strangest.

The girl that fell from the sky was beautiful. Hair dark and glossy, body lithe with alabaster skin.

The girl was also dead.

A knife was protruded into her chest, right where her heart was. Blood so red it was black spun around her in crimson waves, bubbling under the fountain. Her silver eyes were wide with horror, but unseeing. Her mouth was agape in surprise, her lips a bloodless blue.

It began to rain. Raining big, huge, wet drops that splattered onto the ground. Curious parasols poked out of the townhouses lining the square, tottering to the scarlett fountain. The parasols dropped to the soaked ground when they saw the girl lying lifelessly in the water.

People screamed.

Screamed because the girl was dead. And no one ever died in the city of Lilith.

The girl was gone before the end of the night, thrown out of the gates and burned.

But the sun never rose again.

There’s a girl I know

and I wonder if she knows she’s beautiful.

Not quite in a traditional way

she has braces and a dimple she tries to hide.

She’s just always there.

Always smiling

even when she thinks she can’t.

And her laugh is brilliant,

and sometimes I think

that everyone listens for that laugh

and I wonder if she knows she’s beautiful.

there’s only the sound ahead of me

the weight of others on the cables

I imagine I’m a bird.

A baby bird that had just learned to tottle on its legs,

Its eyes taking in the world around it.

I’m a red bird.

Red like the sun and the dawn and the leaves.

my heart is pounding

because i’m on the edge of the platform

and i’m about to fall

I’m going to fly

because I’m about to open my wings

My heart is pounding.

and i’ll touch the ground

and I’ll get back up again

there’s people ahead, and they don’t know

they don’t know that i’m stuck on the edge of this platform

about to plunge down into the leaves

I can do this

i can’t do this

i’ve never been brave

never been the one to take that unbelievable jump

But I can be

I can see the looks of pride

i can back away now

i can step away from the touch of air beneath my feet

But what was the point then?

You climbed all the way to the top

Only to be a coward and to climb

Down to the safety of gravity

this is how you’ve always been

afraid of danger, of the unknown happening

But there’s no point of living without fear

Without adventure

Prove the world wrong

I take a step

That unbelievable step

And I jump