venom in the thorns

By: Sarah Venom

Dark and pitch black, I still take a step.

Faith carrying my feet up off the ground, with no one around and fog filled this space I once called my town. I heard echoes in the trees of things I once thought I would need. Just like a ghost, a chill runs through my bones. Everything was black and white, but I sure as hell was going to put up a fight. The colors that once shined, were hidden in plain sight.

Left… right…

My feet would soon find a trail.

All of a sudden, I was searching for a tale.

A message in the breeze, which will guide me to what this all means.

The search for a way to awaken the colors sleeping beneath the gray.

The fog began to divide, I guess I have paid my time.

The trail divides in two ways, but a bush is whispering my name. As I get closer, gray is all around.

But one red rose reveals itself.

The rose is traced with a silverline

Shimmering with time

The whispering…the hissing

got LOUDER

an enchantment reclaiming

No hesitating

Illuminating

Intoxicating

Awakening

…and abruptly stopped.

smoke slide along the leaves

A green serpent appears, slithering and coiling around the rose. One would be startled, but it was more hypnotic. The snake injects its venom into the rose, hissing and gliding… darting into the forest…

The rose lit up as venom overtook…dripping to the thorns… enchanting and reborn. I slowly grasp the stem, the thorn pierces the skin, not sin.

A burst of light…BOOM

Slowly,

the colors

that were once mine

began to come alive.