Crumbled Caresses

There's an ethereal energy coming from the forest. When she follows the feeling, footsteps appear. They're bigger than her own, and it sends a tingle of excitement and fear down her spine. She wants desperately to have footprints as big as these.

The energy grows stronger, and once she's deep within the thicket she sees him. It's a boy, a young man, fragile and beautiful. There's a light around him and flowers in his hair, worlds of moss on his fingertips and wind in his breath. When he sees her, he doesn't speak. Neither does she.

He stands up and it feels as though she's frozen in time. She doesn't need air, she doesn't need flesh, she just needs her mind to be touched by him. He moves with the elegance and power of a wolf, yet she doesn't feel like the prey. He doesn't seem like a predator. He seems like he's meant to be there, and he's been waiting for her.

His hands are on her shoulders and she shuts her eyes. She has so many questions and apprehensions, but the will to burst overpowers them. Suddenly she has a galaxy in her chest, and she looks within herself and knows she could stare for hours, stay here, be happy. But the boy's grip on her shoulders tighten, and the galaxy grows and grows, getting so big it stop being beautiful, and starts being terrifying. There's too much to explore, too much to see, and too much to feel. She jolts away and looks the boy straight in the eyes. His gaze is mesmerizing and innocent, as if he had no idea what he'd just done. For some reason, she trusts it.

The girl comes back, day after day. They boy is there in the same place each time, welcoming her. He strokes her hair and caresses her neck, and each day paints a new picture of a place beyond her dreams. Sometimes it's an ocean, an island that only she knows, a house tucked away behind a mountain that's all hers. She knows she has all the answers then, that the euphoria will last longer than the last time. But the boy always turns sour, sooner or later. His temper flares and he holds too tight, the hand on her neck chokes her, the other pulls her hair.

Yet, the omniscient look on his content face always brings her back. And he knows that she'll always, always be back.