A/N: Something new. I'm venturing away from the world of Harry Potter momentarily. This is a random story I came up with; The Scarlet Letter is by no means my favorite book (although it is quite good), and I'm not a religious fanatic. But somehow, this plot bunny was born. Hope you like it :)

Disclaimer: I'm not God. Or Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Voices call out, telling her to stop, but she struggles on through the thicket. Strange creatures appear in the mist and vanish just as quickly. The sky seems to bore down upon her, but she can't stop running. Her head pounds with ideas and instincts too confusing to follow, concepts she has never wrestled with before: fear, fleeing, hiding, sin…

Knowledge.

She trips and falls, tumbling across the forest floor, and as she lands on her back, her hands instinctively fly to her stomach, as though to hold her organs in.

But somehow, she knows that she's not trying to hold herself together. She's holding something else inside her as well. Realization washes over her as the heavens open above her and a nameless sound roars from it…

Eve bolted awake, frantically scanning her surroundings. Seeing that she was still in her small shelter, she sighed in relief. A sheen of sweat covered her body, and her breathing continued to be heavy and ragged as she attempted to calm herself down. A nightmare, she thought. It was just a nightmare.

But Eve knew that it wasn't just nightmare, could never be just a nightmare. It was her reality.

She rose, hissing at the pain in her back from lying on the hard-packed dirt. She instinctively reached for something to cover herself, then hesitated. Why was she suddenly ashamed of her body? Had she not before wandered through the forest completely unaware of her nakedness and the temptations her body might afford? Then again, had she also not realized before what she had been created to do? To give in to the man, to lie with him, to feel him above her, to…

"Mate." Eve spit the word out like it was poison. Before she had succumbed to temptation, she had not thought about such things as procreation, not to mention her own creation.

"But was it really my temptation? Or was it his?" With this musing, Eve sighed, covered herself in leaves, and strode out into the sunlight.

The sky is pouring down condemnations. He tries to run, but there is nowhere to hide. The pain, the pain begins. It comes from nowhere, from everywhere, he doesn't know. He cries out for someone to save him, he pleads for forgiveness, for mercy, but no one is there to hear him. He knows. He can sense that the balance has shifted. He has fear, fleeing, hiding, sin…

Knowledge.

Adam gasped and awoke. The images of his hallucination were sucked into the back of his mind like a freight train rushing into a tunnel. Black spotted his vision, and he blinked rapidly. He lay in the grass by the lake. He tried roll over on his stomach and winced at the feeling of his butchered skin stretching across his back. He picked up the thorn-covered branch that had fallen to the ground when he blacked out and hid it among the roots of a nearby tree. He then meticulously rinsed his red-stained body and carefully decorated himself with leaves so as to conceal his nudity and hide his scars.

What had he done? His body had awoken that night, and he had given in to the desires of the flesh. Not only that, but the desires of the mind. They were new sensations. He had an awareness that had not been present before…before they had done that.

Eaten from the forbidden tree.

Four months later,

Eve strode towards the figure splayed across the dirt and gave him a light kick. Adam jerked his head up, wide-eyed with fear and apprehension. His gaze softened when he realized it was only her. She, on the other hand, stiffened when his face came into view: his eyes were bloodshot, lined underneath with dark shadows and containing a haunted look. As he stood, Eve could see that his body had wasted away. His ribs showed through his skin, and she could clearly pick out the spot that had borne her own body.

Adam looked at Eve with unmistakable longing. It had been so long since they had been together, and yet, he could not bring himself to do it again. Somehow, that one night, she had been able to seduce him. Or had he seduced her? He could no longer remember. All he remembered was that everything had changed. He was no longer able to view her, or the world, in the same way. Trees were different, more complex, the branches more numerous, the leaves infinite and everlasting. He was confused. Confused by the terrible but awesome nature of beauty and the world and his own mind.

Eve look at Adam with sympathy. No, empathy. She knew how disorganized his thoughts must be. She had been confused, too. But she had been able to prioritize, for she had found one thing to focus all her thoughts and energies on. That and nothing else would occupy her mind for the next five months.

Only one other matter had she bothered to contemplate, and that was the issue of nakedness. She knew that God had seen them cover themselves and figured it was only a matter of time before he punished them for their disobedience. If not now, then certainly when there would be proof. Now, Eve knew that she and Adam did not hide their bodies to conceal their shame. The leaves were symbols to display their shame, their utter submission to the consequences of their actions.

And Eve would have to pay the highest price.

Adam rose and took Eve's face in his hands, gently caressing her cheek. He wished he knew what she was thinking. He wanted her to know that she wasn't the only one suffering; he too bore the hidden marks of his penance.

Eve had to tell him. She didn't know what to call it, but when she opened her mouth, the words formed themselves.

"I'm pregnant."