Scarlet

Her nails and lips were painted scarlet...blood dripping from pointed talons and pearly fangs. She liked to think of it that way. Her calloused fingers, adorned with carved silver rings and scars, embraced the elegant bottle of rotting scarlet grapes. Her matching lips kissed the sweet fire, as her eyelids fluttered shut. The glass hit the card table soundly. Laughter echoed off of the walls. Black painted nails took it up again. Her reasons were innocent enough. It felt good...slow and painless, if not for but a moment. It was not because of others, she told herself. But then again, others have to do with everything don’t they? Is this her or what she wants to be? That question didn’t matter, though she thought that it must be a little of both. A girl is what she believes she is after all. The paint on her lips was coming off, but it would go either way. Beneath that scarlet, they were cold and pale, much too pale she had been told. That is why she painted them. The truth reveals itself in time, but she never cared as much with that bottle around. Her mind was feeling cloudy at last, and a smile came easier. Leaning against the wall in a cloud of smoke across the room, a boy matched her wandering gaze. He had devil eyes, sorrowful and seductive, but he didn’t smile. He walked out into the night. She left through the opposite door. He sat beneath the palm trees across from a broken white fence. She sat beside him. “The fence is broken,” she whispered. “I know, it was me who broke it.” This intrigued her, but she wasn’t there for conversation and the boy came for the same reasons. “Wanna hit?” he muttered. “Yes.” He leaned into her, and his pale fingers traced open her pale lips. She breathed him in...hands gliding through silver hair, searching for a feeling that they had lost long ago. Silver smoke bloomed from sighs and breaths. What was it that brought them there? Fate? The universe? Sadness. No matter. They were beautiful and infinite and terrifying. The people that she came with called her name in the distance. “Is that you?” he said softly. “Yes.” They looked into each other’s eyes and knew that there were no words. She stumbled as she walked away into the night, towards voices that she didn’t really know. She would never see that boy again.