Page 5 of A Love of Wrath and Rapture

There are too many thoughts and ideas swarming in my head and I can’t take it anymore. Even worse, the confusion starts to chip away at the serene environment around me. Pushing those thoughts away, I sit by the water and try to enjoy my created surroundings.

This dreamscape won’t last forever. It can’t last forever. Something will either come to destroy my body or awaken it once more if I don’t lose all sense of myself and fade into this illusion.

Only a powerful force can free me from this realm, and I’ve got to hope it’s possible, but what can it be?

The possibilities seem beyond my understanding.

But I can’t accept defeat. Surely, I haven’t tried everything.

3

EVANGELINE

“Do you think we need any more stones?” I ask, crouching low to the ground and picking up jagged scraps.

Glancing over my shoulder, I see Renee shoving the last of the wood into her bag.

“And have you seen any ores around here?”

“Nope. And nope,” Renee replies easily, swinging her full bag over her shoulder. “Come on. Let’s keep it moving. The quicker we are, the faster we get back home.”

Pushing myself up to my feet, I grab my bag and hurry after Renee.

I admire her stamina. Her bag is nearly overflowing, so much more inside it than I have in mine. As if that isn’t enough, she then flings it over her shoulder as if she’s carrying feathers.

“I think we’re almost done,” I say through my pants, jogging to keep up with her strides. “I don’t know how much more I can put in my bag.”

“Fine. Let’s just check one more spot here and we can make our way back.”

I nod. We walk down the snowy trail into an area swarmed by large, needle-leaved trees. They extend high above our heads, their tops poking into the cloudy skies above.

In my peripheral vision, I see Renee picking some dark blue flowers off a bush. Meanwhile, I’m too transfixed by the surroundings to remember the task at hand.

Despite our earlier argument, Renee has since relaxed around me. Her guard isn’t up, so the tension between us has noticeably dissipated.

In response, I let down my defenses, too.

I hope I’m not making the wrong choice.

“Renee, you remember what the elders used to say lurked in these woods?” I ask, my voice amusingly ominous. “What they used to warn us ate unsuspecting humans like us who invoked their name?”

She shrugs, mindlessly picking flowers off the bush and sticking them into her bag. “Sure I have. Doesn’t mean I believe any of that.”

“Really?” I ask, raising a brow at her. “You’re not scared? Despite all those warnings… despite all the bedtime stories?”

“No, because that’s fiction, Evangeline.”

I hum.

“I know plenty of folks who wouldn’t agree with you. Lily told me about the exact ritual used to summon the monsters…”

Renee scoffs, scowling at me. “Stop it! I told you I don’t believe in that shit.”

“You say you don’t believe in it, but you’re looking awfully scared,” I reply with a teasing glint to my words.

Crossing my arms over my chest, I take a few steps amongst the trees until I’m surrounded by the towering trunks.

“I wonder why they wanted to summon monsters in the first place,” I mumble. “Do you think the monsters promised them power? Do you think they were gatherers like us?”

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