The Portal
07-28-2017, 08:33 PM
Zahra & Ilham
It was pride that turned angels into devils
It was a consequence of that turbulent cloud of conflicted emotion that she moved to flee the scene (and the… her father), set upon the portal-point’s eerie, fluorescent foreshore. That catastrophic tsunami of feelings, of confusion, hurt, shock - and somewhere, below the all encompassing smog of depression, love - was more destructive, painful, than any physical, tangible wound. Not a load either, able to be spread, thinned, across the shoulders of many.
More than anything else, the golden-bellied girl was exhausted - emotionally and physically spent - and for the first time since her own unexpected arrival on this shadow-licked plane, she felt little inclined to return.
With listless strides she worked to place distance between them, between the shame his reincarnation imposed - the hate for herself, the unconscionable disappointment he must surely suffer - and each sucking footfall seemed to shatter the pounding heart within her a little more.
Zahra, the demon-child, born from the loins of beautiful love.
The collar was gone; the weight of expectation and remembrance was dissolved from her being, she was free! A shadow of built up filth and old, matted grey hair marked the place where it had rested ill-fittingly against her shoulder, for two years and a half. Rain drizzled down to soak and cleanse the warm, odorous skin, and the soft, saturated ball of her nose ghosted across stark, strange nakedness. In all honesty, there was a sense of loss in its absence, an inexplicable sorrow; like a vital piece of herself was gone.
Heavily, she sighed.
Eyes winced tightly as she took those last, clinching steps through the wet, and though subliminally she shuddered with hesitation, she could no more force a turn back, then will this putrid underworld to swallow her whole. There was no mention of chase from behind, no slip or splutter of movement - anything - through the hum of the dreary weather, and for the most part, she was glad, relieved to withdraw into that sanctuary of solitude which had sealed her safety through many seasons in Helovia.
