Page 99 of Into the Heartless Wood

My skin cracks and

falls

from

my

flesh.

My bones bend and

bend and

bend

until they snap

in a blaze of agony.

I am enveloped in fire,

in a million stinging wasps,

in the flash of white-hot lightning.

I am falling,

drowning,

broken.

I am devoured

bit by bit,

torn apart

by ravenous teeth.

But through it all

I see

Owen on our hill.

I taste

strawberries and cream.

I feel

his mouth warm and soft on mine.

I slide sideways onto the earth, and suddenly I can breathe again.

The sky wheels wide and blue above me.

The pool laps quietly beside.

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