A/N: Not exactly happy with this batch, but I needed to do something to get myself writing again. Written for 1sentence on LJ.


Delilah in a Teacup

01. air

Lungs burning, ribs diverging into an unholy schism, she gasps as he forces oxygen into her throat (resurrects her for another round).

02. apples

The apples of her cheeks are rosy and wind-raw (he imagines how they'll taste as he sinks in).

03. beginning

"Marissa's ending marked your beginning," he stated, plain and simple.

04. bugs

She thinks of the spiders on the ceilings and the centipedes in the cellar as his fingers leech her of blood.

05. coffee

There is always a fresh pot of coffee when she wakes, even though he is nowhere to be seen.

06. dark

In the abyss of what they call heart, he has carved out a tombstone for her: pristine, it will stand until he inters the body.

07. despair

Despair was realizing he had killed Marissa (remorse was knowing she had wanted to as well).

08. doors

Abigail feels the safest in his house because there were no locks because every door led to the same place—where he waits.

09. drink

"Have a drink," he whispers, "she's twenty-years aged."

10. duty

His conducts their lessons with consummate precision—careful, the blade is sharp—for anything else would be derelict.

11. earth

One day she will bury him under a tomb of sand, and that day must come soon (before he gets the chance to burn her instead).

12. end

Bordering the periphery of victory, he thinks this must be how Hannibal had felt centuries ago, and like his predecessor, he'd rather drink poison than let her win.

13. fall

"It's the landing that hurts."

14. fire

She shudders as he strokes her cheek, not daring to meet his eyes (terrified that he'll ignite the pyre).

15. flexible

No matter, she'll get it right the next time.

16. flying

Abigail hated flying and so, like the exemplary replacement father, he laced his fingers with her delicate ones and gently coaxed her calm again.

17. food

She could gorge and gorge herself forever, but nothing would fill this emptiness—this sick, spiteful malignance called abandonment.

18. foot

If she misbehaved, he could always send Will a gift (even better than the one of Jack's little lass).

19. grave

He doesn't tell her about his aunt because beautiful women were better left undisturbed in the grave.

20. green

Dr. Bloom (in her infinite miscalculated grace) gives her an ivy plant as a welcome present and instructs Hannibal on the care.

21. head

Fascinated, she listens to his rambles across history, of severed heads and guillotine promenades.

22. hollow

The first time he enters her, she winces from the pain but momentarily forgets the other ache—the hollow, dull throbbing in her chest.

23. honor

He would never sully her with mutilation; that would be undignified.

24. hope

A thread of silver jolts alive inside him as she turns her head and eagerly, he waits for that far-away look to fade (utter nuisance) before engulfing her whole.

25. light

She would only sleep with him in absolute darkness, only after all the lights have been suffocated.

26. lost

Like a lost lamb, she cries in confusion, and he gladly guides her home and mentally paints roasted shank with rosemary potatoes (wondering if it'd be bad form to use a shank).

27. metal

She calls that abhorrent noise music and audaciously plays it late into the night (defeated, he settles for earplugs and Valium).

28. new

"Don't worry, Abigail, the fun lies in not knowing," (she ignores the flagrant intimation).

29. old

"Tell me again which one evolution favors," (he pretends not to notice her condescension).

30. peace

Distracted, asked him why only the guys were banished to the couch in movies; he half-mused to answer that gentlemen wouldn't transgress at all.

31. poison

On this tonight, this one, fine night, he'll string her up like sweet Justine and trim the chocolate marquise with Spanish fly.

32. pretty

As he glides the brush over an ink stone, pausing to let the fine hairs lick up each obsidian drop, he conjures the fine lines of her shoulders and the smooth ridges of her spine.

33. rain

She is drenched and shivering, and so he drapes a towel over her thin shoulders (all his vehemence evaporating).

34. regret

He doesn't regret sending her away—it's for the best, hers and theirs.

35. roses

She dreams of drowning in flowers, of countless petals swathing her in an impenetrable cocoon, and of him standing above, smiling pale as midnight (and then she soars awake, screaming).

36. secret

He has a secret tucked continents away, one he would never tell, not even to Abigail.

37. snakes

She notices how his tongue is forked, papery-thin and crimson: redivivus with the turning of years.

38. snow

A sparse patch of ice is all it takes and crashing she will be, bruised by the freshly birthed whiteness, and he will patiently sew her up again.

39. solid

Invincible, she thought (formidable, he was not).

40. spring

She is ready for whatever catastrophe recoils this time (he is ready for whatever burgeoning game she has devised yet again).

41. stable

Abigail is certain there's a lesson to be learned somewhere, but any logic—any notion of self-preservation—goes renegade when he crawls up her thigh, unbalancing them both.

42. strange

He looks anachronistic in these clothes (in this world) and then she remembers why he's brought her here.

43. summer

Whereas her friends traipse around the beach, exposed to the harsh sun and storms, she is safely curled beside him, napping like a well-fed cat.

44. taboo

He will never admit what they've done, for that would be an insult upon the lady's memory.

45. ugly

Tracing the contours of her face, he instinctively knew that she had been an ugly child.

46. war

Born in a war-torn country, he detected the same thirst for survival in her, and so her childhood history hardly came as a surprise.

47. water

His words swell like water, a thickened honeyed stream that circles around, forcing its way down her throat and into the void of her starvation.

48. welcome

Devoted, he traces the octave clef: this symphony—this pause—this reverberation of sacred vagaries will bind them both, at long last home.

49. winter

In December, she receives a letter from him (her first since exile) and wistfully wonders if it was cold in Florence.

50. wood

Impassive, impervious, he stands guard as her coffin is nailed.